http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147493668At President Obama's request, Billy Graham met yesterday with the president at Graham's home in North Carolina. Rev. Graham's son, Franklin, whom the president had just banned from a Pentagon prayer service (in the name of inclusivity!), was also there.
Franklin Graham was banned from praying at the Pentagon because he has truthfully called Islam an "evil and wicked religion," and has refused to back away from the plain truth about this dark and vicious faith. Islamic fundamentalists, like those at CAIR, have celebrated this violation of Rev. Graham's First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion on the grounds that, if he had been allowed to pray, Muslim nations would have been offended.
We have sunk to the point now where we are allowing Muslim nations halfway around the world to determine who gets to pray in America. We are more concerned about offending the one billion people who want us dead than the 80% of Americans who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. God help us.
And we witnessed Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council get bounced from a prayer luncheon at Andrews Air Force base in February because he had the temerity to defend the existing law that says homosexuality is incompatible with military service. Three-star general Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, was recently urged by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to "vote with his feet" - that is, to resign from the military - for expressing his view that the current law should be retained.
The signal being sent here is that if you are a Christian who defends natural marriage and tells the truth about counterfeit religions, the U.S. military has no use for you.
I've written before about my conviction that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in the military (military service is a privilege, not a right) for the simple reason that their god requires them to kill their fellow infidel soldiers. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was simply being a good Muslim when he murdered 13 fellow-soldiers and an unborn baby in cold blood at Fort Hood.
The Pentagon, in a spasm of political correctness, so sanitized its report on the Fort Hood massacre that in all its 86 pages there is not a single mention of the words "Islam" or "Muslim," and bizarrely, not even a mention of the shooter's name.
So devout Muslims can serve freely in the U.S. military. The question now is whether devout Christians will be allowed the same privilege. The new effective motto of the U.S. military is, "Christians need not apply."
I understand the elder Graham's willingness to meet with the current resident of the Oval Office, and to pray with him. It obviously was his decision to make and his alone, and I'm not going to fault him for his decision. He obviously had many factors to consider that ordinary Americans do not.
But what we see here is an example of how secular fundamentalists take advantage of the inherent decency of Christian leaders and use them shamelessly to advance their own agendas while playing them for chumps.
The agenda of those who are out to shred everything that remains of American ideals - and I count our current president among them - know that Christians can be pushed around, taken advantage and dumped on because somewhere along the way Christian leaders have lost their spine, their prophetic voice, their willingness to speak truth to power, their willingness to take a public stand for truth against oppressors and let the chips fall. They've lost the Christ-like masculinity that drove Jesus to clear the temple with a whip.
Here's what I wish Rev. Graham had done yesterday instead. Again, I do not say this as a criticism of Rev. Graham. He doesn't answer to me or any earthly power for his decision. So take this not as a criticism of Rev. Graham, but as an expression of what I would do if the president had done to my son what he did to Billy Graham's son.
Here's what I would have said. "I'll meet you on one condition: that you, as the Commander in Chief, instruct the Pentagon to re-invite my son to the National Day of Prayer service in the Pentagon. Your administration is dumping on Christians who tell the truth about Islam and homosexuality, and as a representative of Jesus Christ, I'm not going to let you do it on my watch without making my voice heard. What you have done to my son is shameful, and what you are doing to the U.S. military is shameful.
"If I were to meet with you three days after you hosed off my son, the signal I'd be sending is that you can beat on the members of my family and I won't say a word of protest. I'd be sending you the signal that Christians are saps who can be pushed around, and who will let their own children be publicly harassed and humiliated without any complaint from their fathers.
"I'd be sending the signal that I agree with you that my son was wrong to tell the unvarnished truth about Islam. I'd be sending a signal that I agree with you about the systematic oppression of Christianity in the military under your watch.
"Either do the right thing with regard to my son and the U.S. military, or find somebody else for your photo op. I'm not going to let you play me for a sucker and take advantage of my kindness for your own PR purposes."
It's hard to find more chilling examples of the totalitarian impulses of this president than the banning of two Christian leaders from prayer events at military facilities, particularly when we reflect on the conduct of our first commander in chief. Gen. Washington appointed Christian chaplains, ordered his men to "attend Divine service," and urged them to add to the "distinguished character of Patriot" what he called "the more distinguished Character of Christian."
Things have changed, and not for the better. As I wrote Friday, this is not your father's military. It's not even your father's country anymore.
Topic: What I wish Billy Graham would have done (Read 545 times)