Franklin Graham is Coming to Town
(please don’t expect me to help roll out the welcome mat)
So, I hear Franklin Graham is coming to town as the headliner of a Chicago to LA Route 66 evangelistic campaign entitled “God Loves You”. I’ve got to be honest here about feeling extremely conflicted about this campaign and this event. I am all for proclaiming the Gospel via nearly every available means and mechanism (at least one exception being those who love to stand on a soapbox or street corner raining down condemnation on all hearers). All people need to know that Jesus, the one true living God Himself, entered into this world and took on human flesh to demonstrate God’s incredible love for all humanity by living a life of pain and difficulty like ours, suffering and dying in our place, and rising again to save us from our sins, reconcile us to God, and open the way again to life as He intended when He first created us. That’s some seriously good news!!
So why the mixed feelings? The problem here is not the message but the messenger, at least as long as Franklin sticks to the script of the Gospel message. Unfortunately, I fear that Franklin may be prone to deviate from that script to do a little oratorical wandering into the territory of culture wars or Christian power politics as he has been so inclined to do in recent times. But even if he does not deviate from a strict presentation of the Gospel, Franklin’s own words and actions in the past several years completely undermine his ability to serve as a reliable and credible messenger for the Gospel message.
Franklin Graham has been one of the strongest supporters and most ardent apologists for Donald Trump and Trumpism of anyone in the church. Trump’s words and policies have not promoted God’s love. To the contrary, they have promoted a spirit of fear, of division, of malice, and of hatred the like of which has never been openly seen in the person of any U.S. president, ever. Trump and his allies and enablers have promoted hatred and enmity and injustice toward immigrants, toward refugees, toward people of color, toward women, toward the LGBTQ community, and toward “others” of many other stripes, all the while cozying up and pandering to a wide variety of hate groups, domestic terrorists, white nationalists, white supremacists, etc. And of course, Trump’s absolute lack of moral character, truthfulness, integrity, or pretty much any other redeeming characteristic as judged via the lens of Christ and His Word have been clear all along for anyone with eyes to see or ears to hear. In spite of all these and other factual realities, Graham has had the audacity to publicly compare the few Republicans who stood up for truth and freedom and the rule of law by voting to impeach Trump for purposefully inciting the January 6th insurrection to Judas Iscariot, effectively equating Trump with Christ and essentially portraying the good guys in the story as having acted on behalf of Satan (https://baptistnews.com/article/the-blasphemy-of-franklin-graham/#.YTO6W51KiUk ). Seriously Franklin? You have lost your mind and your way, and you should therefore lose your platform of leadership and influence — at least if we are being Biblical rather than playing church politics.
As a highly prominent and influential Christian leader who openly and actively and unreservedly supported and promoted Trump and Trumpism (and largely continues to do so), Franklin Graham is deeply complicit and clearly unrepentant in the spread of the associated hateful, divisive, fearmongering, mean-spirited, anti-truth sentiments and behavior. Trump and his words, policies, and actions are nearly as un-Christlike (even anti-Christlike) as those of anyone I have observed in my lifetime. Franklin’s support of such words, policies, and actions is rather mind-boggling given his role as the long-time figurehead and leader of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian charitable organization whose mission is “to follow the example of Christ by helping those in need and proclaiming the hope of the Gospel”. From my perspective (and I am not alone by any means; see for example https://www.newsweek.com/over-16000-christians-want-franklin-graham-fired-helping-incite-capitol-riot-1562632), Franklin has clearly and openly betrayed that mission and has betrayed the Gospel and is no longer qualified to lead any ministry or speak from any pulpit, let alone to conduct a national “crusade”-like campaign of the type for which his father Billy was so well known.
I can only hope that Franklin’s motives for this “crusade” are pure, but his own words and actions in recent history cast a great deal of doubt upon that. Is he trying to see if he can don the high-profile global evangelist mantle of his late father? Does he see himself as a possible “king-maker” within the evangelical world for Trump (or his successor) and the highly corrupt Republican party? Does he want to adopt the unhealthy (for the country and for the church) position of spiritual “supreme leader” and powerful political advisor that was previously occupied in a much more nuanced and quieter (but still deeply unhealthy) manner by his father (a man of much greater quality, character, integrity, and reputation than Franklin)? Is he trying to enhance his national visibility and influence in the conservative Christian world in order to secure and strengthen his high-profile role in national politics? Is this “crusade” simply a cover to continue to promote an intolerant and unloving culture wars mentality and/or a lying, corrupt GOP political party as the savior of the nation? Given the context, an honest observer can’t help but entertain these types of questions. I for one am not interested in seeing Christ and his Gospel co-opted and corrupted by association with a man who has so degraded his own reputation along with that of Christ and His church in the eyes of both the sacred and secular worlds.
Under the circumstances, there is no way I could invite an interested, unbelieving friend or acquaintance to this upcoming event in good conscience. The fact is that the only way I would personally show up at this event would be as a protestor, not to be divisive, but rather to stand in opposition to a man and movement that has been more of a force for division within the church than almost anything in recent memory. But no, I have no intention of showing up for that purpose either, knowing that despite my good intent for Christ and His church, a protest stance would still be perceived by many as divisive and would only serve to fuel and fan the fires of division that I did not ignite or enable. In the spirit of fostering true unity, rather than a false unity of ignoring bad actors and bad behavior among powerful and influential people in the church, I consider it to be absolutely necessary and proper to call out Franklin Graham as one of those who has in recent years enabled and fomented the current deep-seated spirit of division present in the church and in the country.
I would be remiss at this point if I did not recognize that I have authentic brothers and sisters in Christ who will likely be assisting and participating in this upcoming event, not necessarily because of Franklin Graham, but because of Jesus and His Gospel purposes. Some may be ambivalent about the messenger, but are willing to look past the messenger to aid in presenting and promoting the message. In the present context and for the reasons stated, I cannot personally get on board with that, but I can honor and respect the heart. Others may be all in for both the messenger and the message, and although we may therefore disagree strongly and sharply on the things I have written about here (a disagreement I suggest is not with me but with Jesus), at the end of the day I acknowledge that we remain brothers and sisters within Christ’s covenant community. I love my brothers and sisters and desire nothing but God’s best for them and for the church and for my local community. So, in the spirit of the apostle Paul, I pray that God somehow uses this campaign for good, knowing that “the important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached”. But I also pray that “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” will be the only thing that is preached.
Yes, God indeed loves you my fellow sojourner — so much so that He gave his only begotten Son that all who believe in Him might have eternal life. But regrettably, I can’t necessarily say the same for Franklin Graham or his ilk.
Additional links of interest (there are many more out there of a similar nature):
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article247126671.html