Franklin Graham called for the presidential candidates to make nice in a Facebook post yesterday:
“If civility and honesty are not brought back into the picture, I think we will eventually destroy not only each other, but our nation. Leadership is not demonstrated by attacking each other. The election process should be about putting forth your ideas for a better America and for the future of all Americans.
“Many in the media will invite you for interviews and they will ask what you think of something another candidate has said. As you know, some intend to stir up conflict—and if they can get you to fight, it helps their ratings more than it helps you. Ripping into each other, mocking each other, telling lies about each other and to the American people isn’t a display of leadership. You have put yourself forth as a candidate for the highest office in the land. Take the high road. All of us want to hear your ideas for the future. No one wants to hear the backbiting, petty squabbling, and negative attack ads that make a mockery out of our elections.”
It’s a striking- and positive- coming from a man who, since February, has grown increasingly combative in his Facebook posts. Looking at his posts over the last year, they were- before February- uniformly positive. Since then, Graham has indulged the very sort of snark and backbiting, the mocking of others, the stirring of conflict, he now calls on candidates to avoid. In these recent posts, he cited Donald Trump approvingly and touted his friendship with Mike (Open the Oven Doors) Huckabee; curiously, for one seemingly committed to using negativity to make his points, his June 5 Facebook post calling for a boycott of Wells Fargo Bank and Tiffany & Co.- which backfired so spectacularly on him- has disappeared from his timeline.
Here’s a sample of Graham’s Facebook posts this year, indicating, apparently, what Graham thinks is OK for presidential candidates to say:
-More disappointing news about the Boy Scouts of America yesterday as they voted to allow gay adult leaders. 79% of their Board voted in favor of this unfathomable change—I still find it hard to believe that BSA doesn’t see the dangers in this. Why would anyone want to entrust their son to an organization that has gone this direction?
July 28 2015
-More disappointing news about the Boy Scouts of America yesterday as they voted to allow gay adult leaders. 79% of their Board voted in favor of this unfathomable change—I still find it hard to believe that BSA doesn’t see the dangers in this. Why would anyone want to entrust their son to an organization that has gone this direction?
July 28 2015
-While visiting Kenya Barack Obama publicly lectured Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta about gay rights yesterday. I didn’t know that we were sending our president halfway around the world to promote the gay & lesbian agenda! Samaritan's Purse has an office in Kenya and has worked...there many years, and I can tell you that the churches in Kenya know what the Bible says about homosexuality—it is a sin. Sin should not be embraced, but recognized truthfully for what it is and for its serious consequences. God’s Word says, “the wages of sin is death.”
July 26 2015
-Today banks in #Greece have finally reopened following the country’s financial disaster. Greece had gotten into tremendous financial debt that they had no way of repaying. A last-minute deal was finally reached with their creditors, but it wasn’t the “complete debt forgiveness” they had wanted. In life, we all owe a debt we can’t pay and need forgiveness. The Bible says, “the wages of sin is death.”
July 20 2015
-President Barack Obama is heralding his nuclear deal with Iran as “another chapter in the pursuit of a more helpful and more hopeful world." I don’t think so. Iran has a history of funding terrorism around the world, and they are Israel's worst enemy. We are alienating our decades-long allies and cozying up to their enemies and ours. And Donald J. Trump was exactly right when he said…
July 16 2015
-[T]o recognize the very confused Caitlyn Jenner as a hero before the entire world? Give me a break.
July 11 2015
-In Oregon 15-year-olds are NOT legally allowed to do a lot of things: drive, smoke, get a tattoo, go to a tanning bed, or even donate blood. But unbelievably, now they ARE allowed to get a sex-change operation—and (get this) without parental notification. You’ve got to be kidding me! As a parent and grandparent I’m outraged, and I don’t even live in Oregon!
July 10 2015
-[R]ight after the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage, he had the gall to disgrace the White House by lighting it up with the gay pride rainbow colors to celebrate. This is arrogantly flaunting sinful behavior in the face of Almighty God. My advice? He might want to have some extra lightning rods installed on the roof of the White House.
July 7 2015
-Have you ever asked yourself–how can we fight the tide of moral decay that is being crammed down our throats by big business, the media, and the gay & lesbian community? Every day it is something else! Tiffany’s started advertising wedding rings for gay couples. Wells Fargo bank is using a same-sex couple in their advertising. And there are more. But it has dawned on me that we don’t have to do business with them. At the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, we are moving our accounts from Wells Fargo to another bank. And guess what—we don’t have to shop at Tiffany & Co., there are plenty of other jewelry stores. This is one way we as Christians can speak out—we have the power of choice. Let’s just stop doing business with those who promote sin and stand against Almighty God’s laws and His standards. Maybe if enough of us do this, it will get their attention. Share this if you agree.
June 5 2015. This post has been taken down since then.
-In Vanity Fair’s cover story about Bruce Jenner’s gender change, the author talks as if Bruce and his newly chosen identity of “Caitlyn” are two separate people. Bruce’s son Burt said, “I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce.” The article also says Jenner openly acknowledges mistakes made with his children as Bruce, “and expresses genuine regret.” I have news for them—changing the outside doesn’t change the inside. No man-made modification can fix what’s wrong with the heart.
June 2 2015
-It's hard to believe that the once staunchly religious country of Ireland has become the first country in the world to legalize same sex marriage by popular vote. According to an Irish gay Cabinet minister, "[The vote] makes us a beacon, a light to the rest of the world, of liberty and equality." They must not realize that this is a light shining in the wrong direction!
May 28 2015
-Can you believe these idiots? Gender fluidity? Here's an example of some of the wicked things misguided educators today want to expose our children to--look at this Fox News story. It should make your blood boil that they want to brainwash our children!
May 16 2015
-As a Christian I’m offended when people mock my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Muslims are offended when people mock their faith. I disagree with Islam. But just because I disagree, I’m not going to mock them or resort to violence. We need to show respect to people of other races and beliefs. What happened to civility and respect? See what Donald J. Trump and Greta Van Susteren have to say about antagonizing in this way and putting our police at risk.
May 6 2015
-My good friend and fellow preacher, Governor Mike Huckabee will be at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte this Thursday, April 23 from 6:30-8:00 p.m. to sign copies of his new book "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy."
April 21 2015
-There’s a new book out that claims that Hillary Clinton accepted cash for favors while serving as Secretary of State. I don’t know. But I do know that many candidates and politicians—of all parties—accept cash for political favors. Corruption is everywhere.
April 21 2015
-Now Who’s the Moral Majority? This headline was plastered across CNN’s website yesterday. Claiming victory in the attempt to bully the American people into fully embracing the homosexual lifestyle, the op-ed says Bible-believing Christians and traditional Americans “had better adjust to a new reality.” Last year the Centers for Disease Control determined that less than 2% of the U.S. population identifies as homosexual. Where is the majority in that? But they are intent on trying to force the true majority into silence—they want us to just sit down and be quiet. Even if the majority of Americans did support gay marriage, God’s Word doesn’t need a majority vote. God’s Word is true regardless of the winds of moral change, and we must stand up for biblical truth in the midst of a depraved society.
April 7 2015
-Today the Charlotte, NC, City Council will vote on a proposed ordinance which, if approved, would unbelievably allow transgenders to use the public restrooms of the opposite biological sex.
March 2 2015
-Why is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being shunned by the liberal media, congress, and President Barack Obama? I believe it’s because this administration has been heavily influenced by Muslims speaking into and giving advice in various areas of the White House. They are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic—and they are influencing the president who as we all know was raised with a strong Muslim influence in his life. His father and his stepfather were Muslims and he attended Islamic schools.
February 28 2015
-Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has taken a lot of heat from the media for his remark that he's not sure if President Obama really loves America. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that the president defends Islam and chastises Christians, rebukes our allies and befriends our enemies, and fully supports gay marriages and abortion but denies the religious freedoms of those who don't agree. Our nation is ridiculed abroad and morally crumbling within. We are in trouble. We have turned our back on God.
February 24 2015
-I am outraged that today an Oregon judge ruled against Christian bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein of Sweet Cakes, who refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding. Aaron and Melissa were simply living up to their convictions—they did not want to participate in the wedding ceremony based on their belief in the biblical definition of marriage. They have been forced to move their business to their home due to harassment from gay activists, and now the fines may completely bankrupt them.
February 4 2015: Since then, Graham set up a fund, run through one of his charities, to raise money for the Kleins. Neither he nor they will say how much has been raised. But two online fundraisers have won the Kleins over $500,000. They still maintain they cannot afford to pay their $135,000 judgment for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
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