Small church pastor pens open letter to Franklin Graham

[47of74]

A pastor wrote this open letter to Franklin Graham.

https://revolsen.com/2017/05/17/an-open-letter-to-rev-franklin-graham-from-a-small-church-pastor/

Quote

I am struggling, too, with your claim that Donald Trump is a champion (albeit an unlikely one) for religious freedom. What freedoms are we talking about here, Frank? The freedom to lie with impunity? The freedom to grab young girls by the genitals? The freedom to discriminate against people of color in the sale and rental of real estate? The freedom to refer to women as “dogs,” “fat pigs,” and “ugly”? The freedom to call your opponents “idiots,” “losers,” “liars” and “frauds”? The freedom to slander people with accusations of criminal conduct based on absolutely no evidence? By my count, the above violate at least four of the Ten Commandments (you will find those in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy-both in the Bible). If Donald Trump is the champion of American Christianity, God save it from its enemies!

All kidding aside, you might be right about God putting Donald Trump in the White House-though your reasons for so believing are probably different from what I might conjecture. Still, how do you know that? Where did you get this info? I have to hand it to you, Frank, you sure do have the connections. As I am sure you know, God does not consult with us small church pastors on weighty issues of that kind. So it was kind of you to leak this classified intelligence to all of us who are evidently a good deal further away from the divine pipeline. So let me see if I have this figured out correctly: God doesn’t give a flying fruitcake if we deprive twenty-million people, most of them poor, of access to health care. Nor is God particularly concerned about how men treat women in the workplace, how people of color are treated in the real estate market, how the hungry and homeless are cared for (or not), but God flips out if we bake a cake for a same sex couple to celebrate their wedding? I have to be honest with you, Frank. I’m just not seeing it. Not in the Bible, not in the realm of rational common sense.

Here’s the thing, Frank. At the last judgment, Jesus doesn’t ask anyone about who they voted for, how many times they have been divorced, what their sexual history or orientation is or for whom they did or did not bake wedding cakes. His sole concern is for how we treated the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, those deemed “least” among us. No, I didn’t get that from any private chat with God. We small church pastors have to rely on the Bible for our intel. I got this stuff from the Gospel of Matthew, 25th Chapter to be precise. As I said, that, too, is in the Bible. (It’s a great book, Frank. You should read it sometime.)

Not only hit it out of the park, but placed it in low orbit.

[Loveday]

This is the best thing I've read in a long time. I just shared it on Facebook. Can't wait to see the reaction from some of my more fundamental-leaning southern Baptist extended family. I know one aunt will be offended; she loves the Grahams. 

[Howl]

Excellent letter and the writer nails it in so many different ways.  I also like the way he brings Franklin Graham off his pedestal by addressing him as Frank. 

Perfect epistle to those who follow the Gospel according to St. Trump. 

[sawasdee]

It also made me remember the irony of the fact that of the two candidates, it's Hillary who is the committed Christian - a practising  Methodist from her youth. And that the extreme 'christians' went with tRump says it all really....

[47of74]

2 minutes ago, sawasdee said:

It also made me remember the irony of the fact that of the two candidates, it's Hillary who is the committed Christian - a practising  Methodist from her youth. And that the extreme 'christians' went with tRump says it all really....

Yeah, it's the reich wing so called  "Christians" that sometimes make me wanna give up on the idea of organized religion altogether.  These people wouldn't know Jesus Christ if he walked up and tried to shake their  hands.  (And they'd probably run away shrieking about the sceeeery teewwwwwwowists before he could do that owing to his being a brown skinned non-American middle eastern male).

[LadyCrow1313]

As I'm reading this thread, there's an ad for Mr. Franklin on the page:

"Stand with Franklin Graham and declare, I have hope for America because of Jesus Christ"

Ironic ad placing, isn't it?

ps: Yes, I agree; the above letter is well-written and thought out.

 

[PennySycamore]

@47of74, there was a Southern Baptist preacher from Texas, IIRC, who said during the election that if Jesus were a candidate running on the platform of the Sermon on the Mount, he'd vote against him.  WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?  The hypocrisy of so many "Christians" is what caused me to question the faith.  I started asking questions and no longer count myself as Christian.  I'm an atheist with Buddhist leanings.

[December]

What a great letter. It's always nice to hear about pastors/priests backing up the lessons in the Bible (specifically, the parts with Jesus in them!). This sentence could be the tagline for most discussions here: 

Quote

Not in the Bible, not in the realm of rational common sense.

 

1 hour ago, LadyCrow1313 said:

As I'm reading this thread, there's an ad for Mr. Franklin on the page

Talk about barking up the wrong tree... what an excellent use of their advertising dollars. 

[CyborgKin]

17 hours ago, 47of74 said:

"If Donald Trump is the champion of American Christianity, God save it from its enemies!"

If Donald Trump is the champion of American Christianity, God save us from American Christianity!

[Tangy Bee]

I still can't believe "evangelical" Christians even voted for him. People like the Duggars and Bates voted for a dude like Trump?!? I've been shocked since day 1. Wait...if Trump gets impeached will Pence be our president?? Maybe that's why they did it. Fundies might not be as crazy as we think. Either way we're screwed.

[47of74]

On 5/19/2017 at 3:52 PM, December said:

What a great letter. It's always nice to hear about pastors/priests backing up the lessons in the Bible (specifically, the parts with Jesus in them!). This sentence could be the tagline for most discussions here:

I think there's a GOP specific translation of the bible, with most of those pesky words in red redacted right out of the New T.  Or otherwise changed (added, modified, deleted, etc).

There's over 900 English versions of either part or all of the bible (source) so there must be one where the GOP Jeeeeezus says to hate on the gays, women, racial minorities, and to attack those who believe in health care being a basic human right and support reproductive rights.

[December]

3 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

There's over 900 English versions of either part or all of the bible

I remember a lolcat version of the Bible came out a few years ago, so I believe there truly are translations for any conceivable slant someone would want. 

[RosyDaisy]

My feline headship worships the Great Ceiling cat...LOL![emoji75]

[Evangeline]

21 hours ago, Tangy Bee said:

I still can't believe "evangelical" Christians even voted for him. People like the Duggars and Bates voted for a dude like Trump?!? I've been shocked since day 1. Wait...if Trump gets impeached will Pence be our president?? Maybe that's why they did it. Fundies might not be as crazy as we think. Either way we're screwed.

Yes, this was their main defense. Either that Pence would be able to rein Trump in, or that Pence would end up president anyway. They didn't count on Pence being implicated in illegal acts himself. 

[smittykins]

6 hours ago, 47of74 said:

There's over 900 English versions of either part or all of the bible (source) so there must be one where the GOP Jeeeeezus says to hate on the gays, women, racial minorities, and to attack those who believe in health care being a basic human right and support reproductive rights.

And tells all those poor people to get off their asses and get jobs.

[47of74]

And tells all those poor people to get off their asses and get jobs.

And they have their favorite go to there too, namely Thessalonians 3:10. That's the one about who doesn't get to eat. There's been lots and lots of douche-nozzlery involving that verse.

[Bad Wolf]

@47of74 Thanks for that It was just what I needed to read.

[BobTheWalrus]

I read an article recently which opined that a lot of Western Christians still live with an Old Testament mindset. Without wanting to get into the nuances of application, the basic idea was that the nation of Israel had tons of laws which they had to keep absolutely rigorously otherwise God would be angry. They had to keep themselves separate and act in a perfectly holy way. So they added more and more extra rules to make sure they didn't even get close to breaking God's law. For example, "Do not commit adultery" becomes "we can't even look at let alone touch a woman we're not related to because otherwise we might be tempted or someone might think we're having an affair". It might be well-intentioned but it ends up being a burden that no-one can possibly bear.

The New Testament/ post-Jesus view is that grace reigns. God wants us to be free, He wants us to relate to Him voluntarily. He has the best for us, and we're free from the crushing burden of the law because we are saved by faith, not by keeping hundreds of rules (again, there's a lot of nuance here, but that's a different discussion). Yet so many Christians live as if they still have to earn God's love and forgiveness. We live as if God is up there in heaven with a clipboard tutting at us, just waiting for us to mess up so He can say "I told you so."

People act as if their white skin and 25 year marriage and volunteering for everything at church is what saves them, and they don't realise that they are as undeserving of God's love as anyone else. But the point is we get that love anyway, whether we deserve it or not. It's not that grace minimises sin, it's that God has the power to deal with it when we are honest and bring it to him. But they don't seem to get that. They say God is all-powerful but they don't seem to believe that if He is, those people they see as horrible and messed up can be helped by Him. They still act as if we have to pull ourselves up by obeying all these endless rules, when actually their Christian faith says that "where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

[Jasmar]

22 hours ago, Evangeline said:

Yes, this was their main defense. Either that Pence would be able to rein Trump in, or that Pence would end up president anyway. They didn't count on Pence being implicated in illegal acts himself. 

They don't believe that, though. They believe it's been create by the liberal media in a desperate, immoral attempt to implicate the first truly godly man to rise to the level of VP. My best friend is very evangelical, very loving and kind, and very intelligent...except that all those things are trumped by what Leadership claims.

[Evangeline]

On May 24, 2017 at 1:48 PM, Jasmar said:

They don't believe that, though. They believe it's been create by the liberal media in a desperate, immoral attempt to implicate the first truly godly man to rise to the level of VP. My best friend is very evangelical, very loving and kind, and very intelligent...except that all those things are trumped by what Leadership claims.

No, they don't believe it, I agree. But, they don't have to. Pence is either going down with Trump or is going to be utterly ineffective as president. He's not charming or charismatic, and will have no ability to unite a sharply divided Congress, especially after the mid-terms. He'll be continuously dogged by accusations due to his association with Trump. Fundies believe you can't lie down with dogs without getting up with fleas. They've forgotten that in their worship of Pence, but the rest of us haven't. 

[Seahorse Wrangler]

2 hours ago, Evangeline said:

 Fundies believe you can't lie down with dogs without getting up with fleas. They've forgotten that in their worship of Pence, but the rest of us haven't. 

They've managed to totally ignore or dismiss T's fleas so far.