Franklin Graham in 1998 condemned President Bill Clinton’s sins. In 2018, he’s defending President Donald Trump’s.
Franklin Graham, the heir to the Rev. Billy Graham empire and legacy, is nothing like his father. Billy Graham preached to millions, and advised eleven presidents, Democrats and Republicans, including President Barack Obama. Graham, by comparison, preaches on Facebook, and has politicized his ministry to the point where it no longer bears any relationship to the Christian Bible.
Graham is one of President Donald Trump’s top defenders – especially on matters of sin: President Trump’s sins.
In January, as the news that President Trump paid porn star Stormy Daniels hush money was shaping, Graham urged the American people to believe Trump’s denials that there was no affair – and to do so for the good of the nation.
“He said he didn’t do it. So okay, let’s say he didn’t do it. But we just have to think of our country,” Graham told MSNBC.
“I found the president to be truthful with me,” Graham said, adding, “we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt.”
“Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue. But I believe at 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago or whatever.”
So, Trump, a proven serial liar, a man who has bragged on tape about sexual assault and about having affairs, deserves “the benefit of the doubt,” because Franklin Graham found him to be “truthful.”
This week, Graham continued his defense of Trump’s sex life.
“I think this thing with Stormy Daniels and so forth is nobody’s business. And we’ve got other business at hand that we need to deal with,” Graham told The Associated Press, as the American Family Association published (via Joe.My.God., video below.)
Graham actually said Trump’s sex life is “nobody’s business.” His paying off a porn star is “nobody’s business.” His affair just months after his youngest son was born is “nobody’s business.”
“I don’t have concern, in a sense, because these things happened many years ago – and there’s such bigger problems in front of us as a nation that we need to be dealing with than other things in his life a long time ago. I think some of these things – that’s for him and his wife to deal with,” Graham insisted.
“I don’t defend those kinds of relationships he had. But the country knew the kind of person he was back then, and they still made the decision to make him the president of the United States,” Graham said, forgetting that 3 million more chose not to make his President.
“I think when the country went after President Clinton, the Republicans, that was a great mistake that should never have happened.”
Really?
Because the Franklin Graham of 2018 sounds very different from the Franklin Graham of 1998.
“Private conduct does have public consequences,” Graham wrote in a 1998 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled, “Clinton’s Sins Aren’t Private.”
“Just look at how many have already been pulled under by the wake of the president’s sin: Mr. Clinton’s wife and daughter, Ms. Lewinsky, her parents, White House staff members, friends and supporters, public officials and an unwitting American public,” Graham wrote.
Does this seem familiar?
He continued, saying, “the God of the Bible says that what one does in private does matter. Mr. Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now concerns him and the rest of the world, not just his immediate family. If he will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?”
What will prevent him from doing the same to the American public? We already know the answer: nothing.
“A repentant spirit that says, ‘I’m sorry. I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I ask for your forgiveness,’ would go a long way toward personal and national healing,” Graham advises.
Americans should not hold their breath.
Graham even looks to the story of King David of the Bible, ironically saying that Nathan in that story “perhaps” was “God’s special prosecutor.”
It’s doubtful Graham would look upon Robert Mueller in that same light.