Quote from Wallet:
Lol, there are a lot of evangelists that one can find fault, but the Grahams are not on that list.
Understanding Franklin Graham's Hate of the "Other"
Frank SchaefferNew York Times best-selling author
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.
Why does Franklin Graham follow his dad Billy (who was a fairly moderate Evangelical) with such hatred for gays, Muslims and now President Obama? He was quoted in the Huffington Post as saying:
In an interview with Newsmax Television, Graham was asked if he though there was a "pattern of hostility to traditional Christianity by the Obama administration."
"I don't know if it's exactly from President Obama," Graham responded, "but I'm certain that some of the men around him are very much opposed to what we stand for and what we believe."
Graham continued, "It seems as though Muslims are getting a pass."
As I show in my book Crazy For God (a memoir about why and how I left a key leadership position and family in the Religious Right), the Evangelical ghetto is a series of personality cults operating (as far as leadership succession goes) something like North Korea.
Franklin Graham followed Billy, Oral Roberts' son Richard followed Oral (until Richard was kicked out of the ministry for alleged financial impropriety), many members of James Dobson's family work "with" (read for) him, and so forth.
God seems to call many a child and/or sibling to inherit the fundraising mailing list if not the spirit of the original ministry. And since the evangelical children of professional Christians are raised in what amounts to cocoons and echo chambers they are -- literally -- unequipped to do anything else in life except carry on the family business.
I know. I stumbled into the sidekick role and barely dodged the bullet of wasting my whole life instead of only wasting about ten years of it.
Whatever the correct theological answers to these weighty questions, the Bible is very clear about who God hates! Christian Right Wing Fundamentalists, be they of Protestant, Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox kind (just like their Jewish and Muslim fundamentalist counterparts) must hate gays, Muslims (and other "sinners") no matter what they say about "hating the sin but loving the sinner."
The reason they have to hate every "deviation" is simple: At some point in their lives most fundamentalists ask questions. At some point they have a choice; listen to their doubts and follow their questions and therefore grow and change their minds by admitting the fact of paradox or deny the reasonable voice of doubt and redouble their efforts to "keep faith."
I think that is why sometimes the sons (or daughters) of some religious leaders are (counter intuitively) harsher and even more extreme in their views than their parents. Take Franklin Graham. I knew him while we both grew up as the sons of famous Evangelical leaders.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/understanding-franklin-gr_b_563296.html
