An open letter to Rev. Franklin Graham

Dear Rev. Graham,

I have a few thoughts I’d like to share with you, based on comments made by you in this article in today’s USA Today.  I realize you’re highly unlikely to read this, but I feel better addressing it directly to you, rather than talk about you with others.

WASHINGTON — If President Obama fails to intervene to allow controversial evangelist Franklin Graham to lead a National Day of Prayer event Thursday inside the Pentagon, “it will be a slap in the face of all Christians,” Graham said Tuesday.

I am a Christian.  I don’t consider consider it a slap in my face.  Instead, I consider it a sign that the President takes very clearly the responsibility of the government to stay out of sectarian religion.  It also means the Pentagon won’t be inviting in an imam who argues that Christians are pigs, or a Hindu priest who publicly preaches  the Abrahamic religions are a danger to the world, or anything like that.

Rather than a slap, I applaud his effort.  You should, too.

(Even if it were a slap in the face, turning the other cheek seems to be how Christians are supposed to react, not with bluster and offense.)

And invited or not, he’ll stand in front of the Pentagon and pray, Graham said in an interview.

That’s certainly your prerogative, as a free American.  We have freedom of speech and of religion to do so as individuals (not, I believe, as government sponsored state religionists).

I don’t think God will hear your prayers any more clearly there than in your own house, of course, and Jesus didn’t seem real fond of folks pointedly standing on street corners and making a big deal of their public prayer, but to each his own.  You pray your way, I’ll pray mine.

The Pentagon had invited a private national evangelical group, the National Day of Prayer Task Force, of which Graham is 2010 honorary chairman, to lead an official prayer service there. The prayers are for the U.S. military; Graham’s son is on his fourth tour in Afghanistan.

But the invitation was rescinded after mainline Protestants, Muslims and Jews complained that Graham offends and excludes many believers because of his strict views on Christianity and his comments that Islam is “evil.”

Which, by inviting you and your group in to pray puts the DoD in the position of seeming to support such a belief.  Not only would that be unconstitutional, but unwise given where so so many of our military are currently fighting — and, honestly, a “slap in the face” to Muslim service members.

The Task Force requires organizers and prayer leaders to sign a statement of beliefs agreeing that salvation is only through Christ and that the Bible is inerrant — views not shared by all Christians, including Catholics and many mainline Protestants.

Which would make inviting you, Rev. Graham, to be the official pray-er a “slap in the face” to those groups as well.  Now, it may be that you don’t consider them Catholics and other non-signatories to the Task Force creed to be true Christians (you probably wouldn’t consider me one, either), but it’s hardly the job of the Pentagon to take sides in such a debate.

Or do you think it is?  Do you really want the military to be the arbiter of who’s a true Christian?

In an interview Tuesday with USA TODAY, Graham reiterated his belief that “Muslims do not worship the same ‘God the Father’ I worship.”

I suspect the Ayatollah Khomeini and Osama bin Ladin would both agree with you on that, Rev. Graham.  I’m not sure that makes it true, however.

It also seems beside the point.  Nobody is asking you go bow to Mecca and pray to Allah.  I don’t see why you think it’s okay to require (through their tax dollars) Muslims to contribute to you praying to Jesus Christ.

He laughed at Hinduism’s many manifestations of God: “No elephant with 100 arms can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation.

Maybe, maybe not. What’s your point, though?

“We are fooling ourselves if we think we can have some big kumbaya service and all hold hands and it’s all going to get better in this world. It’s not going to get better,” Graham said.

I see.  There’s no point in Christians (of various stripes), Jews (likewise), Muslims (ditto), Hindus, Buddhists, etc., having any sort of discussion, or in trying to be at peace, or in attempting to help one another or the people around them?  Is the only answer that the religions of the world (leaving aside the non-religious) can only fight each other, can only win by the others losing, can only conquer or be conquered?

Is that why you want to the the prayer-leader at the Pentagon, Rev. Graham?

The current law for the National Day of Prayer — originally inspired, as I understand it, by your father — says, simply: The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.

It’s non-denominational and non-sectarian.  It doesn’t call for folks to turn to Jesus. It doesn’t spell out Christians as the only ones who get to pray.  It doesn’t speak to the efficacy of prayer, or even encourage governmental agencies to host prayer breakfasts.  It only suggests a day when people may turn to God in prayer.

Even Ronald Reagan, in his 1983 proclamation for the National Day of Prayer made it clear that it wasn’t a Christians-only event:  I call upon every citizen of this great Nation to gather together on that day in homes and places of worship to pray, each after his or her own manner, for unity of the hearts of all mankind. Reagan certainly seemed to think “some big kumbaya service” amongst all citizens (and mankind) might be of some value.

I realize, Rev. Graham, that you believe that only your object of worship is theReal God, but you might be surprised to discover that folks of other faiths believe differently.  Our Constitution seems to indicate that the government doesn’t get to make that official decision.

Given the nature of interdenominational conflict in this country prior to the Revolutionary War, Rev. Graham, I hope you’d agree that the government deciding whose God — and whose interpretation of God — is the true one is not a good idea.  Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, all were persecuted, beaten, jailed, even executed for their beliefs, let alone places that banned Jews, or Catholics.

I’m  honest in not understanding, theologically, why we need or should place such importance on a governmental National Day of Prayer.  As Christians, we are called upon by the Bible to pray at all times anyway.  Surely exhortations to prayer are more fitting coming from the Lord than from Caesar, from the local pastor than the local federal offices.

He also said Obama pays attention only to black charismatic and Pentecostal pastors, such as his spiritual adviser, Joshua Dubois. Dubois heads the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which has dozens of advisers from a wide spectrum of denominations.

Sorry, are they “true Christians”?

Obama invited scores of pastors to an Easter breakfast, attended the National Prayer Breakfast, and signed the annual proclamation for the National Day of Prayer. The administration is appealing a federal court ruling that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.

That doesn’t sound particularly anti-Christian to me, Rev. Graham.

“The president is a committed Christian who is proud of his engagement with people of faith,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye said Tuesday.

Still, Graham said, he “warned” Dubois that Obama is losing millions of “mainstream evangelicals” because he appears to be “soft on Islam” …

I didn’t realize it was the job of the President to be “hard” on Islam — or, more properly, on Muslims, since it’s not the President’s job to comment on theology.  What specific policies do you suggest President Obama pursue, Rev. Graham?  How should American policy change toward predominantly Muslim countries?  How should the federal government treat differently Muslim citizens of the US?  Do you support the call by the AFA’s Bryan Fischer to deport all Muslims?  Or should we simply bar them from military service and the vote and other civil rights, unless they convert to (your flavor of) Christianity?

And while I’m sure the President and his advisors welcome it, I’m not quite sure why a preacher should be giving political advice to a governmental leader.  Spiritual counselling, perhaps, but “warning” about how actions are losing votes?  Of what concern is that to the “Kingdom of Heaven”?

… and he doesn’t stand up for the “rights of the historic Christian majority.” (Dubois declined to respond about a private conversation.)

Which rights are those, Rev. Graham?  The “rights” of the majority to dominate and dictate to the minority?  The “rights” to have Caesar do the Lord’s work?  Is that what Christians should be striving for?

Graham told USA TODAY that when Obama visited his father, 91-year-old evangelist Billy Graham, last month, the younger Graham asked the president to intercede with the Pentagon to restore his invitation. He said Obama replied that he would “look into it.”

Evidently private conversations aren’t respected by all parties.  That said, if the President hasn’t gotten back to you about it, then presumably he’s looked into it and is satisfied with the decision by the DoD.

On what basis then, precisely, do you think he should change the decision, aside from as a personal favor to you (or to avoid losing votes, which would seem like a very cynical policy action, not a very Christian one)?

On Tuesday, Task Force spokesman Michael Calhoun said there had been no word from the White House on the matter.

Sounds like that is your answer.  That may feel like a slap in your face (I understand if it does), but unless you’re acting on behalf of all Christians (whether or not you include me in that number), it’s not clear why it would be a slap in their faces, too.

The Task Force holds its main services Thursday morning at a House of Representatives office building. Graham says after he prays at the Pentagon, he’ll join the group on Capitol Hill. Everyone, of any faith, is welcome to join their Christian prayers.

Wow, that’s darned white of you, Franklin.  Presumably, based on your previous statements, you’d consider it an insult to be invited to Muslim prayers, or Hindu prayers, but you don’t see any irony or insult in inviting folks “of any faith” to join your Christian prayers.  That’s right neighborly.

Well, Rev. Graham, I’ll be keeping you in my prayers, especially (I guess) tomorrow.  Maybe a meditation on “who is my neighbor” from Luke 10:25-37 might be what we both need.

Regards,

***Dave