The Reverend Franklin Graham urged his fellow Christians to vote in November, even if they have to choose between two “heathen” candidates. Son of the Reverend Billy Graham and president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Graham has taken on much of his father’s mantle in the evangelical community.
In an interview with CBN in Denver this week, Graham stressed the importance of voting for all Christians.
I don’t care who wins and who’s out there, you have to vote. And I’m not going to tell people who to vote for, I’m not going to do that — let God tell you who to vote for. You may have to hold your nose, you may have to decide which is the least heathen of the two heathen.”
Graham did not specify which candidates he considered to be “heathens,” but it seems likely he was referring to the current frontrunners in the Republican and Democratic parties. Republican Donald Trump claims to be a Christian, but he is well-known for boasting of sleeping with many women, for attempting to take an aged widow’s house to build a limousine parking lot, and for repeating on television that he does not remember asking God for forgiveness.
Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton is not much better. After Hillary attempted to silence a woman who claimed to be sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton, she later declared that every survivor of sexual assault has “a right to be heard.” A former Obama intelligence chief even called for Hillary to bow out of the presidential race due to her email scandal, which Hillary claims is a “routine checkup” by the FBI. No wonder Americans don’t trust her.
Following the violence and protest at Trump rallies earlier this month, the Reverend Franklin Graham declared America spiritually and morally broken. “This past week we saw violent protests at political rallies,” he wrote. “One candidate is under investigation by the FBI. Another candidate says we need a political revolution. What America needs is a godly revolution.” These partially veiled references to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders left two notable gaps. In his lament, Graham did not mention Ted Cruz or John Kasich.
Cruz has attended many of evangelical organizer David Lane’s Issachar trainings, which aim to equip pastors to run for political office this year. Lane has said his organization, the American Renewal Project, has trained over 500 pastors so far.
In an email statement to PJ Media, Lane declared that “Ted Cruz knows Christ,” while “Donald Trump, like us, you and me, needs Christ.” In a scathing rebuke of the other party, he declared, “I don’t see how a democrat who presses for abortion and same-sex intercourse and marriage would line up with ‘biblical principles.'”
Next Page: Franklin Graham’s Change in Tone — Calling Christians to Support the Most Godly candidate, now the Least Heathen.
The Reverend Franklin Graham noted that “there is a left movement within the evangellical community that are telling people, ‘If so-and-so wins or this person wins don’t vote.’ I’m just saying, I don’t care who wins and who’s out there, you have to vote.” Graham is on his Decision America Tour, which launched in January and aims to convince Americans to vote for biblical principles.
“I want to encourage Christians to get out and vote, and to cast their ballots for candidates who uphold biblical principles,” Graham declared last April. Now his call to action has changed.
After one year, the pastor has stopped calling for Christians to vote for godly candidates, but encourages them to back “the least heathen.” What a comment on 2016.
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