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The Rev. Franklin Graham disinvited

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by lori4dogs, Apr 22, 2010.

  1. lori4dogs

    lori4dogs New Member

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    Makes the heart sad to read the following:
    (Bolding mine)

    WASHINGTON — Evangelist Franklin Graham's invitation to speak at a Pentagon prayer service has been rescinded because his comments about Islam were inappropriate, the Army said Thursday.

    Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, in 2001 described Islam as evil. More recently, he has said he finds Islam offensive and wants Muslims to know that Jesus Christ died for their sins.

    Army spokesman Col. Tom Collins said Graham's remarks were "not appropriate."

    "We're an all-inclusive military," Collins said. "We honor all faiths. ... Our message to our service and civilian work force is about the need for diversity and appreciation of all faiths."

    The Military Religious Freedom Foundation had raised the objection to Graham's appearance, citing his past remarks about Islam.

    Collins said earlier this week that the invitation to attend the National Day of Prayer event at the Pentagon wasn't from the military but from the Colorado-based National Day of Prayer Task Force, which works with the Pentagon chaplain's office on the prayer event.

    As co-honorary chair of the task force, Graham was expected to be the lead speaker at the May 6 Pentagon service. Country singer Ricky Skaggs was expected to perform.

    Since Graham's invitation was rescinded, the task force has decided not to participate in the military prayer service, Collins said.

    The decision suggests a growing sensitivity in recent years among senior Pentagon officials to the divide between the U.S. military and Muslims. Graham attended a Pentagon prayer service in 2003, despite objections by Muslim groups.

    Graham said he regrets that the Army felt its decision was necessary. In a statement, Graham said he would continue to pray for the troops to "give them guidance, wisdom and protection as they serve this great country."

    Nihad Awad, national executive director of Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Graham's invitation would have sent "entirely the wrong message" at a time when troops are stationed in Muslim nations.

    "Promoting one's own religious beliefs is something to be defended and encouraged, but other faiths should not be attacked or misrepresented in the process," Awad said.

    Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the prayer task force, said Wednesday that U.S. leaders have called for a day of prayer during times of crisis since 1775 but the tradition is under attack.

    "Enough is enough," said Dobson, wife of conservative Christian leader James Dobson. "We at the National Day of Prayer Task Force ask the American people to defend the right to pray in the Pentagon."

    She called on President Barack Obama to appeal a ruling by a federal judge in Wisconsin last week that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional because it amounts to a call for religious action. The judge did not bar any observances until all appeals are exhausted.

    The Obama administration said Thursday it would appeal.

    Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said Graham shouldn't have been invited in the first place.

    "I want to say this is a victory, but in a way it's a Pyrrhic victory because it shows how far this got," Weinstein said. "We're not exactly doing cartwheels."

    Weinstein said he hopes someone more "inclusive" will be invited to replace Graham.

    Collins said there was no word yet on who would lead the event.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Dan Elliott in Denver contributed to this report.
     
  2. matt wade

    matt wade Well-Known Member

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    Kudos to Graham for not compromising on this. All other religions are products of Satan and hence are evil. To preach otherwise would be a compromise of the faith.
     
  3. Jedi Knight

    Jedi Knight Well-Known Member
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    Amen and Amen! Christ is God and EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW!!! :jesus:
     
  4. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Amen - Praise God for standing on the Truth.
     
  5. jaigner

    jaigner Active Member

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    I am pretty much in agreement with Graham's evaluation, but I wonder if he always picks the best way to express his view. For someone brought up and fully indoctrinated in the tradition of Islam, this would likely be insulting and abrasive and would likely turn anyone away before any inroad could be made into their lives and hearts.

    Real and lasting change can come when people forge positive interfaith relationships based on the fact that they are created in God's image and that Jesus' death ascribes to them great, unsurpassable worth. I believe Christians have no choice but to follow Christ's example.

    I do not agree with Billy Graham in all things nor do I support everything his ministry stood for, I believe he had this right. He never would have spoken out in this manner.
     
  6. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    There is no sidestepping the truth. Jesus Christ Himself said that He was the only way. So we need to follow Christ's example and Franklin did exactly that.
     
  7. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    Here is an inconvenient example of Christ to liberals:



    Joh 8:39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
    Joh 8:40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
    Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

    Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
    Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
    Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
     
  8. jaigner

    jaigner Active Member

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    I'm not saying that Christ isn't the only way. I firmly and completely believe it and would not deny it to anyone. It's just that there is a right way and a not so good way to say it.
     
  9. billwald

    billwald New Member

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    > All other religions are products of Satan and hence are evil.

    No Jews? They a product of Satan?
     
  10. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    Jews (people) religion (not people) any questions?
     
  11. Whowillgo

    Whowillgo Member
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    No that's not insensitive the below would be culturally insensitive.

    Ac 17:22 ¶ Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. {Mars' hill: or, the court of the Areopagites}
    23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. {devotions: or, gods that ye worship}
    24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
    25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
     
  12. jaigner

    jaigner Active Member

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    Um...okay.
     
  13. rbell

    rbell Active Member

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    of course, when you think about it...why would the current crowd in power bother inviting anyone who reminded them of God in any way? Isn't that Who they've been trying to forget for years?
     
  14. windcatcher

    windcatcher New Member

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    This is sad.... but, maybe it will reveal to Christians more of the truth about what the military is becoming in our nation and in the world. In our area.... with or without the Proclamation.... we will have our 'day of prayer' meeting. If this is an important example to bring to people's remembrance and to bring the remembrance of our nation and its needs before our God in a public way... then these annual assemblies will continue with or without the proclamation.
     
  15. Magnetic Poles

    Magnetic Poles New Member

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    As a part of the government of all Americans, the military has no business endorsing any sectarian views over another.
     
  16. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    I disagree with the decision, but it shows what happens when church and state are mixed.

    I thought we as true Baptists believed that the state should keep their noses out of our business and we should keep our noses out of theirs? Have we not historically believed that?
     
  17. Bob Alkire

    Bob Alkire New Member

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    I know what you are saying and have been taught the same. But my father and a local Baptist pastor when I was a kid had a different look on it. In theory I agree. I have seen when asking folks if they believe that, ones who didn't serve in the service have less trouble with it and agree with it a little easier that most folks who did serve.

    This pastor and others like him in the late 40's and early 50's as well as my dad said all that went out the window when he ( as well as other Christians) got a draft notice and send him to place where folks were trying to kill him and he was trying to kill them. If he was forced to work for the government his Christian world view and teaching came with him. I have to say the same was true with me when I was in the service, my views and actions came with me.
     
  18. jaigner

    jaigner Active Member

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    Very true, but this historical Baptist belief has largely fallen by the wayside, excepting a few here and there. This is what happens now that Christianity has lost its stronghold as the ceremonial religion of the country.
     
  19. Bob Alkire

    Bob Alkire New Member

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    I have understood this to mean no church was to receive any direct government support ( money) as the church of England and many churches in this country for a while. I believe the term "separation of church and state" puts no limits on religion in the state, but merely refers to the state's responsibility to refrain from exerting authority over ecclesial bodies.

    Much of this came from the Danbury Baptist they were concerned that a religious majority from another group cause the establishing of a state religion which would lead to a lost of liberties of religious minorities. They were upset over the lack in their state constitution of explicit protection of religious liberty, and against a government establishment of religion and so on.

    Jefferson wrote them saying, " I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

    To read this as it was written.http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpost.html

    I guess all don't agree;
    Some Supreme Court justices did not like what their colleagues had done. In 1962, Justice Potter Stewart complained that jurisprudence was not "aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the 'wall of separation,' a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution." Addressing the issue in 1985, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist lamented that "unfortunately the Establishment Clause has been expressly freighted with Jefferson's misleading metaphor for nearly 40 years." Defenders of the metaphor responded immediately: "despite its detractors and despite its leaks, cracks and its archways, the wall ranks as one of the mightiest monuments of constitutional government in this nation."
     
  20. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    Excellent perspective. We have been misled into thinking that the ceremonial status actually meant something.
     
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