Play that Funky Music
For the next nine months, we are going to be treated to 2008′s greatest hits. Everything from “Yes Man, He’s My Kenyan,” to “Goddamn America, The Jeremiah Wright Song,” to “Black Genocide, Don’t Do It,” to “Secret Muslims, Yes That’s What We Are” to “Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Liberals Who Abort Babies,” to “My Sharia,” to “Half-Black is Too Black, But Not Black Enough,” to “Hawaii Ain’t No State I Ever Heard Of.”
Today on Morning Joe, Franklin Graham, son of television evangeloon Billy Graham, lifted up his voice and sang the Secret Muslim Song.
Apparently, Baby Graham doesn’t believe President Obama is a Christian, but rather some Christian-Muslim hybrid:
Graham, throughout the interview, repeatedly said he didn’t know if President Obama was a Christian.
“I asked him when he was running… how he came to faith in Christ. He said that he was working in the South Side of Chicago in the community and they asked him — the community — asked him what church he went to, and he said ‘I don’t go to church.’ They said, ‘If you’re going to work in the community, you have to join one of our churches.’ And of course, he joined Reverend Jeremiah’s church. So that’s what his answer to my question was.”
“So therefore, by your definition, he’s not a Christian,” Geist said.
“You have to ask him,” Graham said. “I cannot answer that question for anybody.”
Mike Barnicle then asked why Graham couldn’t just say, “Yeah, I believe he’s a Christian,” in light of him saying he is, going to church, and practicing his faith.
“I accept him as what he says. If he says he’s a Christian, I accept that, I’m not going to say he’s not,” Graham said. “All I know is what Jesus Christ has done in my heart and how he’s changed my life.”
Graham also explained how the Muslim world sees President Obama as a Muslim, but he doesn’t believe he’s a Muslim. He did stop short of categorically saying he wasn’t a Muslim. “I can’t say categorically because Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama,” Graham said, pointing out the Christian minorities throughout the entire world coming under attack by Muslims, especially after the Arab Spring.
Graham went on to babble and make exactly no sense at all. His claims boil down to this:
- Rick Santorum is a Christian because Rick Santorum says he is, and besides, you can just tell;
- Newt Gingrich is a Christian because Newt Gingrich says he is and even though he was married a bunch, he was really nice about it and confessed and stuff;
- Mitt Romney isn’t a Christian even though Mitt Romney says he is a Christian because Mormons aren’t Christians no matter how much they claim they are; and
- President Obama is too black to be much of anything.
Some of the most heated moments came when the interview appeared to be over. After asking how his father, the Rev. Billy Graham, was doing, Geist said, “just one more question.” He asked if Graham considered Rick Santorum a Christian, and set off a four-minute exchange between Graham and the panel about the varying degrees of Christianity of the GOP candidates and President Obama.
“His values are so clear on moral issues,” Graham said on Santorum. “No question about it.”
“[That's] an amazing double standard that you just applied,” an incredulous Heilemann said. “Your reaction to the difference — The question about Rick Santorum and President Obama, I think, just exposes an incredible double standard you’re applying to those people. They’re exactly the same situation!”
“No, I asked President Obama how he came to faith in Christ and he said, ‘I don’t go to church,’” Graham replied.
“Have you had that conversation with Rick Santorum?” Heilemann asked.
“I’ve talked to Rick Santorum, yes.”
“And he was just more persuasive to you?”
“I think so,” Graham said. “But you have to look at what a person does with his life. Anyone can say he’s a Christian. But you look at [how] do they live? Where do they go? And act? Listen, Obama is a nice man, I’ve met him on several occasions–”
“But you think he behaves in an un-Christian way,” Heilemann interrupted.
“No, he is a nice man. And his wife is a class act and their kids are class — You can’t help but like them,” Graham said. “So I have no idea what he really believes and I really don’t have any idea other than what Rick Santorum stands for or what he really believes.”
“What about Mitt Romney?” Wagner asked.
“I like him,”
“Is he a Christian?”
“He’s a Mormon.”
“He says he’s part of the Judeo Christian faith, do you take him at his word?”
“Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith.”
“So he is not a Christian…”
“I’m just saying most Christians would not recognize Mormonism. Of course they believe in Jesus Christ, but they have a lot of other things that they believe in, too, that we don’t accept theologically,” Graham explained. He then added that Romney, “would be a good President if he were the nomination, because I think the man has got the ability. He’s got the strength, business-wise, political-wise — he’s a sharp guy, and he’s proven himself. Any one of these candidates–Newt Gingrich, all of them. Now, newt’s been married several times, he’s had those issues, but he could make a good candidate. And I think Newt is a Christian…at least he told me he is.”
“So Newt Gingrich is a Christian,” an exasperated Geist asked, “but you’re not sure that President Obama is!”
Silly Geist. It doesn’t matter if President Obama is Christian or Muslim. He hates America and that’s the real crime here. Plus, his middle name is “Hussein.” What’s up with that?
[via Mediaite]
This is going to dog Obama until the end of time, isn’t it?
100 years from now, wags on whatever has replaced the internet will be trading “facts” that point to the great conspiracy, aren’t they?
My head hurts so bad from this.
Thou shalt not bear false witness
“I asked him when he was running… how he came to faith in Christ. He said that he was working in the South Side of Chicago in the community and they asked him — the community — asked him what church he went to, and he said ‘I don’t go to church.’
Later:
“No, I asked President Obama how he came to faith in Christ and he said, ‘I don’t go to church,’” Graham replied.
Graham’s grandfather, Christianity Today Editor L. Brent Bell, in 1960:
Today, Franklin Graham accepts Catholics like Santorum and Gingrich as Christians. Maybe it’s social progress, or maybe Franklin Graham is a secret Muslim trying to drive the church into error. Hard to say.
(I posted on that Bell quote a little while back).
Franklin Graham is a lying sack of shit. How do I know this? Because given his prominence in the evangelical Christian community he cannot help but be aware of the annual White House prayer breakfasts, inevitably attended by President Obama, at each of which President Obama has spoken movingly and deeply of his faith in Jesus Christ. One doesn’t have to BE a Christian to accept it, but other than call him a liar Franklin Graham should have no choice – by his OWN precepts – but to accept that President Obama IS a Christian. He’s a liar and a hypocrite and a coward because this is about retaining his credibility with the faction of the American people who both consider themselves “real” Christians and President Obama a “secret” Muslim. In the Cat’lic Church we were taught that such omissions are sins, too, and what Graham has done is commit a sin by omission in that he’s failed to acknowledge what he surely knows about President Obama’s statements, and he compounds the sin by bearing false witness and avowing that he’s seen no evidence that President Obama is “really” a Christian. He’s vile AND dishonest.
In 1971, he attended LeTourneau College in Longview, Texas, and was expelled from the school for keeping a female classmate locked in his closet. Also while at LeTourneau, Franklin was the mastermind of an elaborate shower flood. He and other students in the Tyler Hall West dorm took bookcase shelves and blocked off the opening to the community shower on the top floor. They then proceeded to plug the drains and fill the shower with water several feet deep. After a few days however, the shelves broke and flooded the entire building. To this day, the top floor of that dorm is known as “Third Floor Flooders.”[1]
And this is the moral man?
Kidnapping, vandalism……thats Christian values of Franklin Graham?
You forgot that old chestnut “The Hate Whitey Shuffle” with Rick Astley on vocals.
Is this the son that strayed from his father’s church and did drugs? I have to google this and see. Time for some jounalist to dig up old records and do a piece on this so called manof God.
The other stupidity in this is him saying that “Graham also explained how the Muslim world sees President Obama as a Muslim, but he doesn’t believe he’s a Muslim.”
Um. No. Part of being a Muslim is testimony – saying that you’re a Muslim. Without that, just..NO.
Also, Islam has had a “free pass”? WTF does that even mean? Does it mean that Islam is just like any other religion in that it’s not persecuted?? GAH.
These christian celebrities are about as christian as I am pregnant. They don’t care about Jesus’ teachings at all. What they are concerned about is money and power. Their hold on power is not as strong as it once was. So they lash out at all enemies real and imagined. Their new target is President Obama and Rev Wright. If one really looks at it they are more christian than the white wing can ever hope to be.
Found the information. He was a drug addict and went to rehab. Also drank. So his brain is fried. He is looking so old, wonder if he is still dabbling in drugs?
Hey, Franklin, you’re a protestant, right?
Ole Rick Roll excommunicated your simple ass and 40-60 million others for not being true Christians.
Just say Barack Obama is a ni**er and be done with it, be fucking honest.
And get that damn funky ass gerbil off your head while you’re at it
A link to a ‘Slacktivist’ article that quotes an interview with State Senator Obama by the religion reporter for the Chicago sun-Times. In it, he gives the full story of his religious journey.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/02/21/a-personal-testimony-cathleen-falsani-interviews-state-sen-barack-obama-in-2004/
Lying By Omission, thy name is Franklin Graham.
And you know what? All of this shit just begs the question: just who the hell ought to GIVE A SHIT about anyone’s religious faith beyond his (or her) own? Why is this a matter of public discourse? WHOSE BUSINESS IS IT? And who the hell is this guy beyond the drug-addled sack of shit son of someone famous to be giving his drug-addled sack of shit opinion on the POTUS’s faith?
OK, rant mode off. Back to our regularly-scheduled reality here in Amerrikay…