Prominent evangelist Franklin Graham has criticized French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after it published cartoons mocking the Egypt air disaster, which saw the deaths of 224 people.
As reported by the Gospel Herald, the French magazine first made headlines in February when Islamist gunmen killed 11 people at its Paris headquarters in January after the publication released photos mocking the prophet Muhammad.
Recently, the magazine once again created a buzz, this time for featuring two cartoons relating to the Metrojet plane, going from Sharm El Sheikh to St Petersburg, which crashed in Sinai on October 31, killing everyone on board . . .
On Monday, Rev. Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, took to Facebook to share his thoughts on the issue . . .
“The magazine’s editor said they were a secular, atheist newspaper and that ‘the term blasphemy has no meaning for us,'” Graham noted. “I have news for them-it means something to the rest of the world, and it means something to all those whose lives have been forever changed by that tragic crash. Charlie Hebdo was wrong in mocking Islam, and they’re wrong now.” (Read more from “Franklin Graham Slams Charlie Hebdo for Russian Plane Crash Cartoons” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-11-23 01:34:322016-04-11 10:55:52Franklin Graham Slams Charlie Hebdo for Russian Plane Crash Cartoons
Those Republicans and Democrats running hard for president won’t be the only ones headlining rallies next year in Iowa, New Hampshire and scores of other states . . .
In January, the North Carolina evangelist will embark on what he’s dubbed the “Decision America Tour” – election-year prayer rallies in the capital cities of all 50 states. Covering four or more states a month, he should be on the road until at least Election Day.
Graham, who heads the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, explained it this way in a news release: “I do not believe Republicans or Democrats or any other party can turn this nation around – only God can. God hears the prayers of his people, so we’ll be calling on Christians in every state to pray fervently and faithfully for America.”
He’ll also call on them to vote – or, in the words of the news release, “to live and promote biblical principles at home, in public and at the ballot box” . . .
Graham will kick off his 2016 campaign in Iowa, just like those White House wannabes vying in that state’s caucuses. Graham will be in Des Moines on Jan. 5, less than a month before the vote there. On Jan. 19, he’ll speak in Concord in New Hampshire – the state with the first presidential primary, on Feb. 9. (Read more from “Franklin Graham Will Headline Election-Year Prayer Rallies in All 50 States” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-10 00:50:102016-04-11 10:57:32Franklin Graham Will Headline Election-Year Prayer Rallies in All 50 States
By David Edwards. Rev. Franklin Graham this week suggested that President Barack Obama was to blame for the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East because his policies were “against Christ.”
Newsmax host Steve Malzberg argued during an interview with Graham that the president “claims to be a devout Christian who can’t bring himself to feel anything” about the death of Christians in the Middle East.
“The president, when he was growing up, his influences were Islam,” Graham opined. “His paternal father is Muslim, his step father was a Muslim, he went to Muslim schools. So, his formative years were all guided by influences of Islam.”
“And so, his Christian position, I don’t know,” the pastor continued. “All I know is that the policies that he has stood behind as president have been against Christ and against his teaching. Abortion is a sin, and if you look at same-sex marriage, this is a sin against God.”
“And the president has stood defiantly against God. And against his teaching. And the teachings of the scriptures.” (Read more from “Franklin Graham: Obama Supports Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion Because He’s ‘Guided by’ Islam” HERE)
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Obama Authorizes Airstrikes in Iraq to Protect U.S. Officials and Refugees Trapped by ISIS Rebels
By David Martosko. President Obama, who ran for office on a platform of ending U.S. military hostilities in Iraq, said Thursday night that he had authorized ‘targeted airstrikes if necessary’ in an effort to protect the delivery of humanitarian aid to threatened Iraqis, and to ensure the safety of US personnel delivering the assistance.
‘We do whatever is necessary to protect our people. We support our allies when they’re in danger,’ Obama said in an eight-minute speech delivered from the White House’s State Dining Room.
But American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq, he insisted, and the U.S. won’t be ‘dragged into fighting another war in Iraq,’ despite the possibility that militant Islamists in ISIS – a terror group purporting to have created a Muslim caliphate in the Middle East – may be perpetrating a ‘genocide.’
The White House began airlifting humanitarian aid on Thursday night to thousands of displaced religious minorities in northern Iraq, a U.S. official told MailOnline.
Among them are about 40,000 refugees who hid on a mountain after being threatened with what Obama has called a ‘potential act of genocide.’ (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-08 00:46:412016-04-11 10:57:38Franklin Graham: Obama Supports Same-Sex Marriage and Abortion Because He’s ‘Guided by’ Islam
Rev. Franklin Graham has condemned what he calls an “ludicrous” new policy put into effect in Oregon which permits teenagers to get a state-subsidized sex change without their parents knowledge or permission.
“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,” Graham, who is the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. “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! And to top it off, the state will even pay for it through its Medicaid program. What kind of ludicrousness is this? It’s wrong from every angle. The state should not be superseding God-given parental authority. This is another example of why Christians should get involved in politics and policy at all levels to bring about change for the better in our society.”
While 15 is the medical age of consent in the state, according to Oregon Health Authority spokeswoman Susan Wickstrom, the decision to cover sex-change operations specifically was made by the Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC) after “little debate,” Fox News reports.
“HERC changed its policy to include cross-sex hormone therapy, puberty-suppressing drugs and gender-reassignment surgery as covered treatments for people with gender dysphoria, formally known as gender identity disorder,” the report reads.
The new policy also does not require parental consent for cross-sex hormone therapy, puberty-suppressing drugs and sex reassignment surgeries, as doing so “would lead to more suffering and teen suicide attempts.” (Read more from “Franklin Graham ‘Outraged’ by Oregon’s New Policy That Allows Teens to Undergo Gov’t-Subsidized Sex Change Operation Without Parental Consent” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-14 02:28:362016-04-11 10:58:55Franklin Graham ‘Outraged’ by Oregon’s New Policy That Allows Teens to Undergo Gov’t-Subsidized Sex Change Operation Without Parental Consent
Mr. President, American pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for 2 ½ years, and last week he suffered another severe beating at the hands of inmates. His life is continuously threatened not only because he’s an American, but also because he’s a Christian. This was why he was arrested—and he has been told his only way out is to deny Jesus Christ. New reports stated that the White House worked extensively to have Egyptian-American Mohamed Soltan released from an Egyptian prison last month where he had been sentenced to life for accusations of affiliation with the radical Islamic terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Soltan worked on your campaign and his father was a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. President, I hope you’ll do the same to help Saeed Abedini—who is guilty of nothing, was sentenced to 8-years in prison, and whose only affiliation is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians, pray with me for Saeed’s protection and for his release.
And from the Christian Post story that Franklin Graham cited:
American pastor Saeed Abedini has reportedly been “viciously beaten” by fellow prisoners in an unprovoked attack in the Iranian prison where he’s being held. The pastor was punched in the face, leaving his eyes beaten black and blue, but prison guards intervened and prevented further injury.
The American Center for Law and Justice, the law group which represents his wife, Naghmeh Abedini, and the couple’s two children in the U.S., said that the prisoners also demolished a small table that the pastor had used to study and read during the beating that he endured last week.
Abedini was allowed to see a prison doctor, who determined that he does not have any broken bones. On Wednesday, he was able to see a family member who came to visit him and see his injuries first hand.
“It is heartbreaking to me and my family that Saeed was again beaten in prison. Saeed’s life is continuously threatened not only because he is an American, but also because he is a convert from Islam to Christianity. It’s time to get Saeed home before it is too late,” Naghmeh Abedini said in response to the news.
Back in May, Abedini marked his 35th birthday in prison, where he has spent over two and a half years for his Christian faith. He was arrested in Iran in 2012 while working on an orphanage for children, and later sentenced to eight years in prison.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-16 03:52:102016-04-11 10:59:57Franklin Graham: Obama Freed Radical Muslim Brotherhood Prisoner in Egypt, Why Not Innocent Christian Pastor Saeed in Iran?
The Supreme Court is on the verge of making a decision that will change the way gay couples are perceived in the United States. It is poised to make a decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, a same-sex marriage case against a florist who refused her services to a couple wanting a floral arrangement for their wedding. The decision could come any day now.
This case has liberals and conservatives alike on the edge of their seats in anticipation. One person who has expressed concern over which way the court will lean is evangelist Franklin Graham.
As a popular Christian leader, Graham is using social media to voice his concerns over this landmark court case. On Friday, Graham posted a comment on Facebook, attacking the idea of doing business with establishments that promote or associate themselves with homosexual couples. He urged his followers to take up the cause and not frequent companies that “promote sin.”
The statement from Graham is causing a stir in the internet world. It has 92,936 likes, 9,611 comments, and has been shared 41,358 times. The reactions to Graham’s call to boycott businesses that promote gays are split. While some are applauding his effort to support businesses that are keeping their standards more in line with Christian values, others are accusing him of being a bigot and a false prophet. (Read more from “Franklin Graham Facing MAJOR Backlash After Urging Boycott for Businesses Promoting Homosexual Sin” HERE)
By Leah Marieann Klett. Rev. Franklin Graham has responded to the FBI’s revelation that there are “hundreds, maybe thousands” of people across the country who are receiving recruitment overtures from the Islamic State to attack the U.S., emphasizing that the terror group must “remember that in America, we shoot back.”
On Thursday, FBI Director James Comey revealed that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is leveraging social media in unprecedented ways through Twitter and other social media platforms, sending messages to the smartphones of “disturbed people” who could potentially launch assaults on U.S. targets.
“It’s like the devil sitting on their shoulders, saying ‘kill, kill, kill,”’ Comey said in a meeting with reporters, ABC News reports.
He explained that ISIS recruiters operating from Syria are making contact with U.S. recruits, and then “steering” them into encrypted venues where their subsequent communications are “lost to us.”
“The haystack is the entire country,” Comey said. “We are looking for the needles, but increasingly the needles are unavailable to us. … This is the ‘going dark’ problem in living color. There are [ISIS sympathizers] out there that I have not found and I cannot see.” (Read more from “Franklin Graham Warns ISIS Sympathizers in United States: ‘Remember, in America, We Shoot Back'” HERE)
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Franklin Graham Facebook Post Warning ISIS that Americans “Shoot Back” Has Gone Viral
By News Editor. Franklin Graham posted this on his Facebook page on Friday:
The FBI warned yesterday that there could be hundreds or maybe even thousands of ISIS sympathizers in America, and they are being instructed to carry out deadly attacks on U.S. targets. FBI Director James Comey said, “It’s like the devil sitting on their shoulders, saying ‘kill, kill, kill’ all day long.” I pray this never happens. May God protect our country. I don’t advocate violence, but I do believe in self-defense. ISIS needs to remember that in America, we shoot back.
As of publishing of this article, Franklin Graham’s Facebook post has over 163,000 likes and almost 80,000 shares.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-11 01:35:412015-05-11 01:35:41Franklin Graham Warns ISIS Sympathizers in United States: ‘Remember, in America, We Shoot Back’
Influential evangelical leader Franklin Graham has issued a powerful warning of growing bias against Christians. He argued that it will lead to discrimination and loss of religious freedom, and praised the courage of those who hold fast to the faith, even at risk of persecution and death.
In an Easter message on his Facebook page, Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of the relief agency Samaritan’s Purse, said that millions of Christians around the world were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
Many of them risk their freedom and their lives to worship Christ, he added.
“Even under the threat of imprisonment, they faithfully follow, like Pastor Saeed Abidini [sic] and scores of others.”
Pastor Abedini is an Iranian-American Christian pastor who has been in prison in Iran since 2012. In 2013, he was sentenced to eight years for planting house churches and “attempting to sway Iranian youth away from Islam.” (Read more from “America Has an ‘Ugly, Anti-Christian Bias’ Says Franklin Graham” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-04-13 01:27:412015-04-13 01:27:41America Has an ‘Ugly, Anti-Christian Bias’ Says Franklin Graham
After Franklin Graham spoke boldly against the shooting of police officers, a group of pastors, theologians and professors are raising red flags . . .
In his Facebook post, Graham said it all boils down to respect for authority—something younger generations tend to be lacking.
“If a police officer tells you to lay down face first with your hands behind your back, you lay down face first with your hands behind your back. It’s as simple as that. Even if you think the police officer is wrong—YOU OBEY,” Graham writes.
But the group who penned the open letter—including Rachel Held Evans; Gail Song Bantum, whose church bought the old Mars Hill Church building; and Efrem Smith, among others—say Graham has sinned against the Christian community at large.
“You have sinned against us, fellow members of the body of Christ. … Your words hurt and influenced thousands. Therefore, we must respond publicly so that those you hurt might know you have received a reply and the hundreds of thousands you influenced might know that following your lead on this issue will break the body of Christ further,” they write [their open letter appears below]. (Read more from “Pastors Rebuke Franklin Graham for ‘Sins’ Against Christian Community” HERE)
We write to you in the spirit of Matthew 18: we aim to reconcile with you. You have sinned against us, fellow members of the body of Christ. While your comments on March 12 were just a Facebook post, your post was shared by more than 83,000 people and liked by nearly 200,000 as of Monday morning, March 14, 2015. Your words hurt and influenced thousands. Therefore, we must respond publicly so that those you hurt might know you have received a reply and the hundreds of thousands you influenced might know that following your lead on this issue will break the body of Christ further.
Frankly, Rev. Graham, your insistence that “Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and everybody else” “Listen up,” was crude, insensitive, and paternalistic. Your comments betrayed the confidence that your brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those of color, have afforded your father’s ministry for decades. Your instructions oversimplified a complex and critical problem facing the nation and minimized the testimonies and wisdom of people of color and experts of every hue, including six police commissioners that served on the president’s task force on policing reform.
In the nadir of your commentary, you tell everyone to “OBEY” any instruction from authorities and suggest that the recent shootings of unarmed citizens “might have been avoided” if the victims had submitted to authority.
And you bluntly insist, “It’s as simple as that.”
It is not that simple. As a leader in the church, you are called to be an ambassador of reconciliation. The fact that you identify a widely acknowledged social injustice as “simple” reveals your lack of empathy and understanding of the depth of sin that some in the body have suffered under the weight of our broken justice system. It also reveals a cavalier disregard for the enduring impacts and outcomes of the legal regimes that enslaved and oppressed people of color, made in the image of God — from Native American genocide and containment, to colonial and antebellum slavery, through Jim Crow and peonage, to our current system of mass incarceration and criminalization.
As your brothers and sisters in Christ, who are also called to lead the body, we are disappointed and grieved by your abuse of the Holy Scriptures. You lifted Hebrews 13:17 out of its biblical context and misappropriated it in a way that encourages believers to acquiesce to an injustice that God hates. That text refers to church leadership, not the secular leadership of Caesar.
Are you also aware that your commentary resonates with the types of misinterpretations and rhetoric echoed by many in the antebellum church? Are you aware that the southern slavocracy validated the systematic subjugation of human beings made in the image of God by instructing these enslaved human beings to “obey their masters because the Bible instructed them to do so?”
Your blanket insistence on obedience in every situation exposes an ignorance of church history. God called Moses to resist and disobey unjust authority. Joseph and Mary were led by the Spirit to seek asylum in Egypt, disobeying the unjust decrees passed down by authority figures in order to ensure the safety of Jesus. And Paul himself resisted authority and ultimately wrote Romans 13 from jail.
In modern times, Christian brothers and sisters abided by Paul’s command to the persecuted Roman church. They presented their bodies as living sacrifices. They refused to conform to the oppressive patterns of this world. Rather, they were transformed by the renewing of their minds. (Romans 12:1-2) Throughout the Jim Crow South, in El Salvador, and in the townships and cities of South Africa Jesus followers disobeyed civil authority as an act of obedience to God — the ultimate authority, the Lord, who loves and demands justice (Psalm 146:5-9, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 61, Micah 4:1-5, all the prophets, Luke 4:16-21, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:31-46, Galatians 3:27-28). Likewise, Christians who marched in Ferguson, Mo., New York City, and Madison, Wis., follow in the holy footsteps of their faithful predecessors.
As one who understands human depravity, your statement demonstrates a profound disregard for the impact of sinful individuals when given power to craft systems and structures that govern millions. The outcome is oppression and impoverishment — in a word, injustice.
Finally, if you insist on blind obedience, then you must also insist that officers of the justice system obey the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right of all to equal protection under the law. Yet, reports confirm unconscious racial biases in policing, booking, sentencing, and in return produce racially disparate outcomes within our broken justice system.
Likewise, you must also call on officers to honor their sworn duty to protect and serve without partiality. The Federal Bureau of Investigations director, James B. Comey, acknowledges that law enforcement has fallen short of this mandate : “First, all of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty. At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.”
Let us be clear: We love, support, and pray for our police officers. We understand that many are doing an excellent job under extremely trying circumstances. We also understand that many officers are burdened by systems that routinely mete out inequitable racialized outcomes.
For the past nine months, many of your fellow Christian clergy have been engaged in sorrowful lament, prayerful protest, spirit-led conversations, and careful scriptural study to discern a Godly response to these inequitable racialized outcomes within America’s justice system. We have wrestled with God like Jacob, begging God to bless us with peace in our streets and justice in our courts.
Rev. Graham, as our brother in Christ and as a leader in the church, we forgive you and we pray that one day you will recognize and understand the enduring legacy of the institution of race in our nation.
Now is the time for you to humbly listen to the cries of lamentation rising nationwide. We do not expect you to be an expert in racial issues, police brutality, or even the many factors that go in to our complicated and unjust criminal system. We do, however, expect you to follow the example of leaders and followers of Jesus throughout the scriptures and modern history. We expect you to seek wise counsel and guidance first from those who bear the weight of the injustice and second from other experts in the field.
Ultimately, we invite you to join us in the ongoing work of the ministry of reconciliation.
In Jesus,
Onleilove Alston
Executive Director
Faith in New York
Dr. Brian Bantum
Associate Professor of Theology
Seattle Pacific University
Rev. Leroy Barber
Global Executive Director, Word Made Flesh
Chair of the Board, Christian Community Development Association
Rev. Phil Bowling Dyer
National Director, Black Campus Ministries
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Austin Channing Brown
Resident Director and Multicultural Liaison
Calvin College
Dr. Mae Elise Cannon
Author, Social Justice Handbook and Just Spirituality
Co-author, Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith
Dr. Christena Cleveland
Associate Professor of Reconciliation Studies
Bethel University
Rev. Dr. Orlando Crespo
Latino Leadership Circle
Board Member, National Latino Evangelical Coalition
Rev. Léonce B. Crump Jr.
Lead Pastor
Renovation Church
Dr. Curtiss Paul DeYoung
Executive Director
Community Renewal Society
Rachel Held Evans
Author, Blogger, Advocate
Rev. Dominique Gilliard
Executive Pastor
New Hope Covenant Church in Oakland, CA
Josh Harper
National Director for Urban Programs
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
Lisa Sharon Harper
Chief Church Engagement Officer
Sojourners
Dr. Troy Jackson
Director, The AMOS Project
Co-author, Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith
Micky ScottBey Jones
Director of Training and Program Development
Transform Network
Kathy Khang
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
Steve Knight
Co-founder
Transform Network
Rev. Michael McBride
Pastor
The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, CA
Jimmy McGee
CEO and President
The Impact Movement
Rev. Soong-Chan Rah
Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism
North Park Theological Seminary
Rev. Alexia Salvatierra
Coordinator of Welcoming Congregations Network
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Dr. Andrea Smith
Board Member
North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies
Rev. Efrem Smith
President and CEO
World Impact
Rev. Gail Song Bantum
Executive Pastor
Quest Church
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-24 03:58:042015-03-24 03:58:04Leftist Pastors Rebuke Franklin Graham for ‘Sins’ Against Christian Community [+video]
Photo Credit: WNDGlobally known evangelist Franklin Graham says President Obama is so sympathetic to those of the Muslim faith, he’s actually endangering Jews and Christians, opening the doors for them to be persecuted in the United States.
“We’re going to see persecution in this country because our president is very sympathetic to Islam, and the reason I say that … is because his father was a Muslim, gave him a Muslim name, Barack Hussein Obama,” Graham said in an interview on “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
“His mother married another Muslim man. They moved to Indonesia. He went to Indonesian schools. So, growing up, his frame of reference and his influence as a young man was Islam. It wasn’t Christianity; it was Islam.”
Graham’s remarks aren’t much of a surprise to those who listen to him frequently. He’s been an outspoken critic of Obama’s presidential policies and has decried what he’s characterized as a curious White House reach-out to Muslim groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. (Read more about Obama bringing persecution to Christians HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-03 03:30:542016-04-11 11:01:47Franklin Graham: Muslim-Named Obama is Bringing Persecution to Christians, Jews in US
