I was chatting with a friend the other day about the surreal aspects of the Trump era. We began to muse whether the planet had passed through some kind of a cosmic cloud, a sort of political Mutara Nebula, an aberrant location where nothing functions normally, and good luck trying to survive the thing in one piece.
Well, things have gotten even weirder still. Here’s what is going on tomorrow, June 2, as Franklin Graham puts out a call to his flock on FoxNewsRadio, asking them to beseech the almighty to deliver Donald Trump from evil — or something.
Do you know the definition of the word "sophistry" Sir? It means making fallacious arguments with the intent to deceive. It is a form of lying and that is all that you do when you speak. You have no business calling yourself a Christian. You are a sell out to all Jesus taught.
— Ursula Faw (@ursulafaw56) June 1, 2019
Thank you so much, Franklin! https://t.co/LK7sHUGrZ7
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2019
His arguments are pure fallacy. “No president has been attacked more than Donald Trump,” says Graham. If the word “attack” is now defined to mean, “has disgraceful, disqualifying facts about himself and his behavior revealed,” why then yes, under that definition, Trump is the most “attacked.”
“If his enemies are allowed to destroy him and pull down his presidency, it will hurt our entire nation.” Man, they must be freaking out big time in GOP-land over this past week’s conga line of negative Trump stories, to put this horse and pony show on the road! WOOOOT! This reeks of desperation, to me. Unindicted Donald as Victim, nay Christian Martyr and thousands of churches, we are told, and we may infer legions of Christians, are going to rally to Trump’s side to fight those evil godless Democrats with thots and prairs. Take that Democrats! Except guess what? It’s already blowing up in Graham’s face.
While Franklin Graham once more misrepresents himself as a Christian and as a man of faith, a real Christian pastor, John Pavlovitz, published an article entitled “Selling The Soul Of Franklin Graham” in January, and he re-tweeted it today. It’s a long article. Here’s the part I find interesting, where Pastor Pavlovitz points out the similarities between Donald Trump and Franklin Graham. Hang onto your chair, because this is an epic take down of them both.
These men end up spending their entire lives breathing solely in the intoxicating air of sycophant’s praises; never protected from their own hubris, never cautioned against their recklessness, never alerted to the ways they’ve lost the plot or begun leasing off large sections of their credibility for temporary rewards.
Surrounded on all sides by genuflecting yes-men and women lacking the intestinal fortitude to push back against the toxic sludge pouring from their lips, they begin to feel more and more comfortable and even emboldened in it. As they do, the teachings and the words of Jesus become less and less useful, because those things begin to testify loudly against them, they start to clearly voice their opposition—and so they begin to silence them too.
They learn instead, to bask in the applause of the salivating multitude, who gladly amen their every bitter word, no matter how reckless or incendiary—when they should be teaching them how to love more expansively. As the hateful choir cheers their ramblings, they grow more and more delusional, more and more comfortable bowing before the golden idols of their ego and ambition. With each day they slide further down the slope that leads to Hell, distracted by the buzzing noise of the crowds and unaware of the flames licking their heels.
And then one day, these professed men of God, find themselves campaigning for a predator in Alabama, disputing the value of black lives, celebrating the expulsion of refugees, vilifying an entire religious tradition, justifying the separation of families, going to battle for the NRA, passionately defending an endless parade of lies from a President—and all the while still imagining themselves fully righteous.
These are such days for men like Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr, and for those who emulate them. This is how far they have drifted, and it’s going to be almost impossible for them to make their way back, because to do that, they would have to do something they have proven unwilling or unable to do: own their mistakes, admit their failings, cop to their poor alliances, and confess their present sins in the ascension of this President.
These men need Jesus.
They need repentance.
They need to have the scales fall from their eyes, and to see accurately the horrors they’ve manufactured against so many people made in the image of God.
They need to own and confess the ways they’ve denied Jesus, the millions of millstones they’ve tied around the necks of their followers.
They need to lament becoming beholden to Donald Trump and the Republican Party and Fox News, and to the supremacists and bigots who now compromise the lion’s share of their ever-shrinking but increasingly militant white base.
Now Pavlovitz is the most eloquent about what’s really going on, but he is far from being the only one to call out this propaganda ploy of Graham’s exactly for what it is. He’s trying to spin the news cycle to something positive because of what a devastatingly bad week it’s been for Trump. In effect Graham is weaponizing religion to serve his own selfish temporal needs and he’s being called out on it.
According to CNN, the day seems to be designed to give President Trump positive media coverage.
Graham plans to post on Facebook and have a television appearance on Fox News on Sunday.
According to CNN, some have accused Graham of “weaponizing” prayer and turning it into propaganda for President Trump.
“He’s doing so much to discredit the Christian witness,” said Peter Wehner, an evangelical who also helped two Republican presidents in the White House.
A final thought I wanted to share with Graham — yes, an act in futility, but maybe somebody will read it and think.
I hope you meet Jesus one day, Mr. Graham, I truly do. Because what he will say to you is, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’Matthew 7:21-23. Look it up, then look in the mirror.
— Ursula Faw (@ursulafaw56) June 2, 2019
Nothing is more evil than a wicked man who has somehow deluded himself that he is a servant of the Lord.
I’ve said this many times: it’s men like Graham and Falwell that are the reason why I’m no longer a Christian, if indeed I ever was one.
They’re not Christians either. It’s a label they wear, but they are not preaching the same gospel that the other pastor, John Pavlovich, is. Now, him I like — obviously. I can listen to that interpretation of Christianity explaining social ailments than I can listen to the wingnut bullshit. Those people are crazy and I’m serious as a heart attack. Let me clarify – the ones who are in the congregations and giving these bastards money are insane. The wingnut pastors gobbling up people’s assets and dedicated first and foremost to their own greed, are just pure evil. That’s how I see it.
Yeah, I agree with all that. It’s just, in my experience, the bad variety way outnumbers the good. I think the designation “cultural Christian” is the best way to describe the former. They love the here and now for what it can give them than their supposed faith.
One interesting wrinkle I’ve noticed is how those types tend to hate the mystics and seekers of their own faith, despite the fact that the latter are often far more true to the faith’s tenets. Sufis are a good example from Islam, whom many cultural Muslims consider heretics. The same could probably be said of social reformers like John Pavolich and Reverend Barbour, neither of whom I have any quarrel with. But such types are more rare than they should be.
I love Pavlovich and Barber. They’re preaching a sane interpretation of Christianity, getting the true spirit of the thing. What Graham is doing is getting dollars in the collection plate. It’s better than working for a living. I utterly disdain that man.
My late paternal grandfather thought the world of Graham’s father Billy for reasons I still don’t get. But I think even he’d say the son is a disgrace.
WOW, the juices are flowing over there in earthquake land …. my hero Ursula is once again blasting the ass holes that seem to be vibrating with fear, and as you definitely know, when cornered they are likely to become the worst version of what ever gross wastes of oxygen they have been making …
I’m convinced Trump is unaware of just how close to collapse he AND the GOP are, even our Grassley got off his hands to describe the miss-deeds of the Dotard in the WH … when the worst GOP Senators, in airtight lockstep with McConnell … are beginning to actually make negative statements of former actions made by Trump and his swamp … it means they have begun to read the report, even with the gross redacting Barr has done, it is crystal clear, Russia interfered with our election process, Trump as well as his campaign welcomed the Russians into their attack mode … THEN as soon as the government began their detailed investigation of those two factoids, Trump personally attempted obstruction in many …. nefarious and to his credit public ways, recorded a historic total hours away from his desk at the WH, more, biggly time spent golfing … of ANY former President, costing us, the tax payers MILLIONS of dollars each trip …
The GOP is seeing their way to the exits as a possibility …
Now is a good time for the GOP to do something because now everybody has plausible deniability. They can all plausibly claim that they didn’t know anything until the Mueller report came out and of course they’ll take action.
We’ll see. Justin Amash is something interesting. That whole situation has been heartwarming, his town hall, all that. That is far more reminiscent of the America I know. I found great hope in that.
I am so hoping that some bi-partisan effort can take place with respect to Trump. I always said that McConnell would dump Trump the minute he became too much of a liability. I don’t think we’re there. My belief is that as long as McConnell can stack the court, his job is done. He doesn’t care. And he may have nothing to lose. If he doesn’t run for reelection, then that will be very worrisome. That will make him even more formidable than normal.
I can’t predict where this is going right now. This isn’t like with Clinton. This is a complete circus.
Wow, imagine how the history books of the future will take care of this. “In the late 20th, early 21st century, two presidents got impeached. One got a blow job from one of his interns and one was a foul-mouthed moron, who only ran for president to get attention.”
What a commentary on our political system.
Even if McConnell isn’t up for reelection, Ursula, he still has a caucus to keep happy and in line. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed back first before he decided to throw in the towel, judges or no judges. The only ending I see is Trump leaving office in utter disgrace, regardless of when it happens. The rest of the details are very much up in the air, as you say.
I see that as the ultimate result as well. God, I hope we can prevent his reelection so the day of disgraced departure comes sooner rather than later. That’s all I’m thinking about these days.
And I’m pretty sure that will only get worse, Darrel. I’ve gotten to saying that every last one of those Republicans made the same critical miscalculation: they thought Trump was just another Reagan or W, somebody they could control. Now it’s becoming obvious that not only can he not be controlled by them but someone else got there first.
Another thing: you may recall there was a few times when both House and Senate were briefed on Mueller’s investigation and the folks who came out of those briefings looked quite pale and shaken. Put that together with the final report, redactions included, and they may well know more than we do.
I suspect those briefings got into the Russia stuff, more than anything else. And they realized that Russia owns Tr*mp, in more ways than one.
I feel so grateful that my dad was an atheist. We never really talked about religion in my family. I just realized that I don’t even know if my mom believed in God or not. That’s how little religion was discussed in my family.
Sounds like you grew up somewhere other than the South, Cmae. When I was coming up, there was no real getting away from it. You had freaking Bible studies on Wednesdays in my grade school classes (I think it was 2nd or 3rd grade). And this was the regular school system we’re talking about.
My old man was a mean, abusive prick but he never made me attend any church growing up. On the downside, when things REALLY went bad for my folks’ marriage starting when I was 13, all those good Christian people looked the other way when we reached out for help. I never forgot that.
I grew up in Napa California, I lived there for over thirty years.? If that tells you anything.
Call me weird (or psycho) but I rather doubt the prayers Franklin or his ilk will offer will include jack shit about Trump actually taking to heart & actually practicing any of Christ’s (their supposed savior) teachings.
You wouldn’t be offended if I called observant or sane?
I think I shall save that lead picture, because it is the first picture I have ever seen of the Antichrist in persons. Yes, the Antichrist described in Revelation actually comprises two people: the beast (who rules everything) and the false prophet (who leads people to the beast.) And there you have it
That is drop dead wonderful. Thank you. The Beast and the False Prophet. Wow. That’s going to be in some piece of mine. I think I’ll send this to Graham on Twitter.
By the way, I tweeted the picture and this thought to Franklin Graham. I told him he should have a portrait of himself and Trump done, called “The Beast and the False Prophet” with appropriate citations to Revelations. Crickets from the Twitter feed.
“Antichrist” isn’t a title, it’s a *description*. There can be a thousand antichrists, or one, or none.
Well, he qualifies. And if there can be a thousand of them, then the whole effing GOP is a bunch of anti-Christs. I’m going to have to read the Bible again, this is new on me that there can be more than one anti-Christ.
I pray every day that Trump and his spawn/cabal get exactly what they have coming to them.
…….and as to Mr.Graham…..personally I can think of no more offensive a sin as perverting your “Prince of Peace’s”words for the purpose of hate and division.
There is a very special place in Hell for you pal.
One of his boyhood pals, a former evangelical named Frank Schaeffer was on Morning Joy. He said Graham was a flake and in it for the money. Damn, he was funny and he wasn’t trying to be, he was just telling the truth.
Fred, “Slacktivist”, calls him “Franklin Phineas Hophni Graham”. It isn’t a compliment. (You can look up Phineas and Hophni – they’re in the bible that Graham doesn’t read.)
Thanks again, Ursula. this is truly the tale of a slippery slope, well greased with sheep sh*t. To borrow from Bob Dylan, regarding Falwell and tRump, “Even Jesus wouldn’t forgive what they do!”
I hope Graham isn’t so deluded that he really thinks he’s somehow Chosen by God. He goes against every single tenet of being a pastor that I know of, and I can’t wait until he falls flat on his ass. I hope that the evangelicals circle the drain along with Trump.
Hey, Franklin, remember when your father (Reverend Billy Graham) called you “a stain on his soul”NO? well all Southern Baptists do!!!!