Great to be in Alabama to pray for #PEOTUS @realDonaldTrump, @Mike_Pence, and the future of our nation today. Prayer makes a difference. pic.twitter.com/E4J0TKXsd9
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) December 17, 2016
As if this were not a bad enough time for America, the son of an evangelist I’ve always respected seems to believe the Almighty is out to get us:
Franklin Graham: It wasn’t Russians who intervened in election, ‘it was God’
Evangelist Franklin Graham doesn’t believe it was the Russians who intervened in this year’s controversial presidential election.
It was God, he declared Saturday in Mobile, Ala., during President-elect Donald Trump’s final public rally before the Electoral College vote Monday.
“Since the election there’s been a lot of discussion as to how Donald Trump won the election,” AL.com reported Graham as saying. “I believe it was God. God showed up. He answered the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people across this land that have been praying for this country.”…
Really? REALLY?
I don’t care what your politics might be: What sort of prayer could Donald Trump be the answer to? He wasn’t even what most Republicans wanted (he received about 13.3 million votes in the primaries, while more than 16 million cast votes for someone else), much less an answer to their prayers. Settling for a deeply flawed candidate isn’t exactly an occasion for hallelujahs.
Let’s unpack this a bit. A large number of evangelicals were prepared to vote for whoever opposed Hillary Clinton because like me, they oppose abortion. And I can almost, but not quite, understand their holding their noses and choosing Trump as the one person in position to stop a woman they regarded for whatever reasons as the Devil herself. (Just as I was willing to vote for her as the only person in position to stop Trump.)
But note that I said “almost, but not quite.” That’s because the only possible justification would be that they were single-issue voters, which I find it hard to imagine being. And even if I were, on the life-and-death issue of abortion, I would find it very difficult to see Donald Trump as an ally, since his commitment to the pro-life position is so transparently a stance of convenience. He obviously has practically no understanding of the issue, and could drop the position as conveniently as he dropped his previous one — something we’ve seen him do time and time again. If you don’t like a position taken by this guy, wait a few minutes.
So what is there that a man of God, or one who sees himself as a man of God, would see as worth celebrating here?
It just floors me.
But let’s look at what unites us. I can join him in this prayer at least:
I encourage everyone—whether you voted for President-elect @realDonaldTrump or not—to come together & pray for him. https://t.co/qbbZuH6k1S
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) December 18, 2016
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Shameful. As if “God” would have nothing better to do. Reminds me of the Chris Rock movie “Head of State” where the opponents slogan was “God bless the U.S., and no one else”.
Franklin Graham is a pathetic slug.
Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to call him a SLUG — but I will say he doesn’t seem to be the man his father was at that age…
By the way, to elaborate on that parenthetical above about primary voting.
Donald Trump is very proud that he received more GOP primary votes than any previous candidate. And that’s true. He also received more votes AGAINST him than any previous winner of the GOP primaries.
I suppose in a way that foreshadowed his winning the electoral vote while losing the popular vote in November. In each case, he did what he had to to win, but most people voted against him…
Lies, damn lies, and statistics. The numbers reflect the number of candidates in the early races. How did your boy Lindsey do when compared to the aggregate Republican primary votes? If there ever was a candidate who was soundly rejected by his party, it was Graham. Same with your friend Kasich. He couldn’t even make a dent when it was a three man race.
Trump likes having his feet licked by his supporters, and many Republicans are by nature footlickers. They growl when they aren’t able to grovel.
Franklin Graham may have some good attributes. I don’t know much about them, but I think he has traded on his father’s name and makes many questionable pronouncements in God’s name. He heads a charitable foundation (Samaritan’s Purse) that does a lot of good work around the world and seems to be efficiently run. He also heads the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. The biggest knock, charity watchers have against Samaritan’s Purse has been the compensation level of their officers and their family members paid by the group. A few years ago, he graciously gave up the pay from the BGEA, when it was revealed he was getting over a million per year from the two groups (He’s back on the payroll now). He now makes about $800K from the two full-time jobs. The average CEO pay for the largest charities in the US is about $350K. I suspect he’s got some book or speaking or other deals on the side, but have no real information.
His financial arrangements aside, it’s his claim of some sort of prophetic mantle on a large stage he didn’t build that bothers me most. Attributing events to God’s intervention or declaring what God will do should be done with humility and with fear. It approaches using God’s name in vain if it happens to align with or advance one’s own agenda. Graham’s and Trump’s views may line-up on any number of things, but if he thinks God moved the needle to shoe-in a huckster who shows no depth of religious conviction beyond worshiping power and money, uses tax and bankruptcy law to further his interests, spawns faux charities, proposes military-backed hegemony, and has a narcissistic personality, I think he needs to have his “vision” seriously corrected. I believe he will.
Hillary Clinton’s inept campaigning, overconfidence, Russian and other hacking, a circular firing squad among Republican “evangelical” candidates, easily-misled angry voters, a smaller-than-thought bucket of deplorables, Fox News, and the FBI director may each have been instruments of God’s plan. But I doubt it. I think God weeps over our nation and His church as Jesus did over Jerusalem, but doesn’t use our preferred means of redemption.
Trump beat Hillary in one of New York Citys 5 boroughs. The one with the heaviest percentage of Catholics.
The Bishop had communicated the sinful nature of voting for Hillary, while the Pope no doubt prefered her socialist bent.
At least the Bishop had a right to cast his own vote, and for whatever it was worth, an appointment to guide his parishioners.
On the other hand, Obama had publicly urged immigrants to vote with legal protection constitutional unavailable in the majority (at least 38) of the 50 states.
Let’s agree that Satan’s side lost whether some of you credit God with Trump’s victory or not. Over half of U.S. citizens (popular majority) now agree with Trump’s direction for restoring the U.S., according to recent polls.
And, in today’s Electoral College vote, the UK Dail Mail headline says. “Donald Trump wins Electoral College – as attempts to cause rebellion turn to farce with DEMOCRATS deserting Hillary”.
Desperate posturing and fake news have becoming the Achilles Heel of the left’s credibility. Were the MSM to shield the right the way it has the left, Obama would be suspected of the Russian ambassador’s assassination based upon this recent statement:
WASHINGTON — President Obama promised to retaliate against Russia for its attempts to undermine the U.S. elections process, saying that the United States would take action “at a time and place of our own choosing.”
But no, the Left continues to squander what little credibility it may still command because its agenda was supposed to be unstoppable. Obviously, reality now changes the landscape much too quickly for
Leftists to digest comfortably.
“Satan’s side lost” will get little agreement from Christians who, like the present Pope, base their lifestyle and hope on Jesus rather than popular religion or pharisaic self-righteousness. Asserting that a US majority opinion has anything to do with right or wrong religiously or morally is simply a contrived argument. Attributing false news to “the Left” just defies experience and clear judgement – unless one assumes news is false if it supports those “Leftists.”
“Asserting that a US majority opinion has anything to do with right or wrong religiously or morally is simply a contrived argument.” Harry Harris
Agreed, Harry, and any assertion that Hillary’s tentative lead in the popular vote denies the Trump mandate is wishful thinking by desparate Leftists. Mandate or not, the presidential power of Trump will be more effective than Obama’s overreaches because Trump is a proven leader.
Comey exposed Hillary’s lies and grossly incompetent mismanagement of Sensitive Compartmented Information. Wiki exposed her develish arrangements with the DNC to hobble Sanders’ campaign and her State Dept preferences accorded Clinton Foundation donors.
So, as Hillary would say, whether Satan’s side lost or not, “What difference at this point does it make?”
You’ll see, and so will I.
Franklin Graham’s career seems to be pretty much about promoting Franklin Graham.