The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and head of the international aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, is slamming President Obama for remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. The president equated the evils that ISIS is carrying out with Christian violence of ages past.
“[S]ome of our leaders, including President Obama, gathered to pray at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.,” Graham remarked in a tweet. “I urge you to set aside time today to pray for our country also. May we repent and call on the Name of the Lord,” he said.
What really set Rev. Graham off was Obama’s suggestion that religions are pretty much the same and equally capable of promoting violence toward the innocent.
The President’s actual words were: “Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.” Graham considers this position untenable, since the starting points of Islam and Christianity are radically different. Christians who use violence in the name of God to destroy their enemies can claim no justification for their actions from Jesus Christ, his life or his teachings. Graham went on to tweet:
Graham suggested that Islam has an internal justification for committing violence against the innocent, while Christianity does not. If Muslims commit atrocities, they can justify it with quotes from the Qur’an and from the life of Mohammed. If a Christian harms the innocent, the Bible condemns his actions and tells him to repent. His final tweet read:
Rev. Graham has been openly critical of Islamic practices, particularly its claim to be a religion of peace and its unjust treatment of women.
In 2010, Graham himself was disinvited from the National Day of Prayer event at the Pentagon because of his critical remarks about Islam, including criticism of its treatment of women. “When you look at what the religion [Islam] does to women and women alone, it is just horrid,” he said.
In an Oct. 18, 2014 Facebook post, Graham asked, “Is Islam really a religion of peace? Islamic State justified kidnapping women as sex slaves in the new issue of their online magazine. They said that it is a ‘firmly established aspect of Shariah’ and anyone who denies this is denying the Koran.”
Jim Gilmore, the former governor of Virginia, said Obama’s comments were “the most offensive I’ve ever heard a President make in my lifetime.”
Catholic League President Bill Donohue has called on President Obama to apologize for “an attempt to deflect guilt from Muslim madmen.” He said that Obama’s comparisons of modern-day terrorism to the Crusades and the Inquisition were “insulting” to Christians.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter @tdwilliamsrome