I may not be a Christian, but I was raised Lutheran, and I was force-fed Christianity via Sunday School for a few years. I think this gives me a reasonably good idea of what leading a Christ-like life looks like…and I gotta tell ya, Franklin Graham is every bit as much of a Christian as Timothy McVeigh was. Yes, I understand that some good, God-fearing Christian White Folk will think me blasphemous and unfair for making that statement, but if Jesus was truly about love and compassion, Franklin Graham couldn’t hold His jock.
A graduate of the “If You Ain’t Got Jesus, You Ain’t S—t” School of Theology, Graham’s brand of Christianity simply can’t tolerate the idea that his belief system isn’t The Real and Only Truth. To his way of thinking, Islam is blasphemy, and if you can’t see that, then you’re an anti-Christian heathen in league with those Islamofascists who would destroy us. What makes his “Christianity” even more objectionable is that he compounds the arrogance and self-righteousness with the conviction that he and his fellow travelers are the targets of “secular oppression”. Right; Christians are the majority…and yet they’re being oppressed? Or is it just that the minority of us who reject modern Christianity aren’t about to acquiesce to allowing Christians free reign to rule as they see fit?
Rev. Graham was then asked by the host about mounting “secular oppression” in the United States.
“No question, it’s coming,” Graham says. “I think when you preach that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the light, I think we’re going to see, one day, people will say this is hate speech.”
The reverend described his removal from the Pentagon prayer service program as “a slap at all Evangelical Christian.”
Hmm…that’s odd. And here I was thinking that it was a victory for reason and compassion over bigotry and arrogant self-righteousness. What Graham fails to realize, much less admit, is that his brand of arrogant, dismissive, egocentric Christianity IS hate speech.
Even worse, to my way of thinking, anyway, is Franklin’s arrogant dismissal of Islam, as if he somehow magically is in possession of the only key to Paradise. Of course, being in possession of this magical, priceless key gives him the self-ascribed right to dismiss and disrespect a religion with hundreds of millions of adherents around the world.
Yes, kids…THIS is a man of God. Remember, when a Christian says it, it’s sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the heathen unwashed masses. When a non-Christian says it, it’s hate speech.
“I don’t believe Muhammad can lead anybody to God,” Graham said. “I love Muslim people and I care for them very much and I want Muslims everywhere to know what I know — that Jesus Christ died for their sins.”
Funny; I could probably find a half-dozen Iranian clerics who would be willing to throw down with him in a heartbeat over that theological debating point.
Call me silly, but I remember that the Christianity I was force-fed as a child was about charity, compassion, and loving others as you would wish to be loved yourself. It was about trying to live a more Christ-like life and tolerating those whose beliefs may differ from your own. I don’t even recognize Franklin Graham’s “Christianity”, which appears to be solidly rooted in arrogance, self-righteousness, intolerance, and a complete inability to grant a whit of validity to any belief system but his own. Yes, if you ain’t got Jesus, you ain’t s—t.
Graham may think he’s on the right (and only) path, but from where I sit he represents everything that’s wrong with modern Christianity…and there’s a LOT wrong with it. Frankly, I’m glad that I won’t be sharing Franklin Graham’s version of heaven. It’s not a place I’d care to spend eternity, and Graham and his ilk aren’t they type of people I’d care to share it with.
To paraphrase Gandhi, it’s not Christianity I’m afraid of. It’s Christians like Franklin Graham who scare me. Their intolerance and arrogance render them an embarrassment to the religion they profess to believe in. So much for leading a Christ-like life….
Somewhere warm and breezy, Jesus is weeping in his Corona….
