Add Franklin Graham to the growing list of Vladimir Putin’s American Religious Right cheerleaders. Religion News Service reports today that Graham defended the Russian leader in Decision Magazine, writing that his law on “homosexual propaganda” is “simply to protect children.”…. Graham says that Russia is a better model of godliness and morality than America because of the Obama administration’s “gay-lesbian agenda” that “is contrary to God’s teaching.”…. He also defended Russia’s support for Syria’s brutal Assad regime.
There are times when religion as it’s practiced today seems inimical to its intended purpose. At their core, most modern religions are about finding ways to coexist and making the world a better place. It’s pretty basic: live and let live, clothe the poor, health the sick, feed the hungry. Except that this too often isn’t the case these days. It’s not an exclusively Christian phenomenon- not by a long shot- but since we live in a country where 80% self-identify as Christian, that’s my focus here.
It’s sad but very true- the politics of the Radical Christian Right have nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. It’s not about love, tolerance, charity, or any other Christian value. It’s about controlling the private sexual behavior of consenting adults in the guise of “protecting children.” It’s about working to denigrate and oppress a minority class on the basis of whom and how they love. It’s about manipulating Christians using fear, propaganda, and disinformation in order to convince Christians that hating the sinner is every bit as valid and righteous as hating the sin.
How Franklin Graham can come down squarely on the side of a tyrant who invaded the sovereign territory of a neighboring country with an eye towards annexing it is something I can’t begin to understand. Perhaps to Graham’s way of thinking, Putin’s strong anti-gay stance trumps whatever other tyrannical, immoral and/or unethical behavior he may be engaged in.
Or perhaps Graham is so thoroughly fixated on his fear and hatred of homosexuality that he’s beyond willing to ignore anything that doesn’t feed into his narrow agenda. After all, Christianity is ALL about love and tolerance- as long as you’re white, Conservative, and heterosexual.
It’s What Jesus Would Do, don’tchaknow??
I have never heard Putin quote the Bible, but during his 2012 election campaign, he met with church leaders in Moscow and vowed to protect persecuted Christians around the world. That is one justification for his support of the Assad regime in Syria.
Syria, for all its problems, at least has a constitution that guarantees equal protection of citizens. Around the world, we have seen that this is essential where Christians are a minority and are not protected. The radicals in Syria want an Islamic constitution based on sharia law.
It seems that, to Graham’s way of thinking, “protecting Christians” is paramount. Anyone who promises to “protect Christians” is given a free pass, including absolving that leader of brutally murdering hundreds of thousands of his own people (by use of chemical weapons if necessary) in order to maintain his grip on power.
Certainly there are those in Syria who wish to create an Islamic republic based on Sharia law. That’s a matter best left to the people of Syria. How Graham can believe that he has the right to ignore mass murder and tyranny in the name of “protecting Christians” is something that simply has no (None. Zero. Zip. Nada.) rational theological justification. Muslim lives aren’t inherently less valuable than Christian lives. Calling oneself a Christian doesn’t make one a superior life form. The indiscriminate massacre of Muslims is every bit the tragedy massacring Christians would be…unless you’re Franklin Graham, who evidently elevates Christianity to the point of discounting and devaluing Islam and Muslims.
To seriously claim that Syria “has a constitution that guarantees equal protection of citizens” is the apotheosis of hypocrisy and moral equivocation. The actions of Bashar Assad’s government is proof that the Syrian constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Assad is a tyrant and a war criminal, and Graham’s endorsement of him should embarrass and outrage those who actually endeavor to lead a Christ-like life. A Christian doesn’t believe the value of a life differs depending on the flavor of God that life happens to worship. Being “pro-life” doesn’t come with a qualification; it’s not “as long as that life is a Conservative Authoritarian Christian.”
Franklin Graham’s self-righteous homophobia and embracing of a genocidal tyrant camouflaged as “Christianity” is not about the teachings of Jesus Christ. Unless you believe Jesus was a murderous, intolerant, homophobic tyrant who brooked no dissent. It’s about Graham’s bastardized brand of aggressive, muscular, and authoritarian Christianity, where power by divine right accrues to Conservative white males. And it assumes America should be the moral ruler by which the rest of the world is measured against.
The world used to look to America for moral leadership. But those days are long gone.
Today, we’ve abdicated our moral leadership. We defeated communism, only to relax and see secularism and progressives take over our country. Secularism is as godless as communism. Secularists and progressives have taken over our schools, media, and local and federal government. And it has all happened in the twinkling of an eye.
Despite Graham’s feeble attempt to tarnish those who hold secular and progressive values as “less than,” we aren’t the problem. Those of us who happen not to share Franklin Graham’s intolerant view of Christian superiority and American Exceptionalism are not less worthy or less valuable human beings. We simply choose to reject Graham’s delusional and bastardized Christianity as representative of the teachings of Jesus Christ. We don’t acknowledge America as the world’s moral beacon, nor Christianity as the vehicle that justifies such self-righteousness. And we certainly don’t recognize the moral authority of a man who supports Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” law as both godly and appropriate.
Graham’s dismissive assertions aside, secularism and progressivism are neither godless nor evil. They’re merely different, more tolerant ways of looking at the world. Secularists and progressives don’t define American Exceptionalism as granting us the right to hold the world to our standards. We recognize that Christianity is not about hatred, genocide, oppression, or homophobia. It’s not about hating people solely on the basis of who or how they love. It’s about live and let live, treating others as we would hope to be treated, and allowing people to love whom they choose in the way they choose…because it’s no one else’s damned business.
Franklin Graham is as much a Christian as I am the Queen of England. He’s a hypocrite, a hater, and dismissive of those who don’t share his narrow fear- and hatred-based beliefs. Even worse, he’s proof the politics of the Radical Christian Right have nothing at all to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And people wonder why I don’t believe in God….
