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And, in what can only be considered chutzpah-to-the-max, the Reverend Franklin Graham recently said that his organization, Samaritan's Purse, will contribute "aid" to a post-war Iraq. You may remember, the Reverend Graham from the time shortly after September 11, when the son of the Reverend Billy Graham lashed out at Muslims. At the time the Reverend Graham, called Islam "wicked." The Reverend Graham, along with several other fundamentalist Christian groups based in the US and Canada, is putting together Christian welcome wagons stiffed with aid and Bibles. The Reverend Franklin Graham was only one of several fundamentalist Christian leaders who had engaged in an orgy of hate aimed at Islam. As Beliefnet's Deborah Caldwell pointed out in "How Islam-Bashing Got Cool," several months after 9/11, Muslim-bashing went beyond "commentators criticizing Muslim extremists." They included "remarks that attack[ed] Islam, Muslims, the Qur'an, and the Prophet Muhammad as pervasively and inherently bad." Here comes the Reverend Graham Evangelist Franklin Graham, who has just about taken over his father's group, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, runs his own relief agency as well. Called Samaritan's Purse, it is one of the world's largest Christian relief agencies, and it "is mobilized and poised to assist those affected by the war to liberate Iraq," reports AgapePress, a Christian News Service.
"Franklin Graham obviously thinks it is a war against Islam," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This is a guy who gave the invocation at President Bush's inauguration and believes Islam is a wicked faith. And he's going to go into Iraq in the wake of an invading army and convert people to Christianity? Nothing good is coming of that." Southern Baptist Convention & the Reverend Wildmon Pile On The Reverend Graham isn't alone in pursuing a twenty-first century crusade. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination and the kingpin of proselytizers, is also planning a large relief effort in Iraq once the war ends. According to Beliefnet, five years ago, the SBC "reorganized its International Missions Board to focus on the part of the world where Muslims live. That year, the Convention published a prayer guide for use when praying for the conversion of Muslims." The Reverend Donald Wildmon's American Family Association (AFA) also has a plan for a relief effort incursion. Despite a banner headline at the AFA Web site that reads "Is Islam a Peaceful Religion?" (the answer is no) the pastor-with-a-plan hopes "to help raise money to help the displaced people of Iraq rebuild their lives and let them know that Christians in America care for them and want to help them through their struggle against tyranny." That's a thought. While Christians (and Jews) in the Bush Administration mastermind the wholesale destruction of the country and the slaughter of thousands, Reverend Wildmon wants the people of Iraq to know that "compassionate" Christianity doesn't stop at the water's edge. Then, there is Jeff Christopherson, pastor of the Sanctuary of Oakville, a Southern Baptist-affiliated church just outside Toronto, who reports AgapePress, "hopes to plan churches in Baghdad once the regime of Saddam Hussein is deposed." Christopherson claims that his church "has made substantial contacts with Iraqi Christians living in Toronto" and they "say their homeland is ready for the gospel. He says there are some 500 believers in Baghdad who are ready for the liberation." When the "pipeline" opens, Christopherson says, his church will be ready. "With this apparent window of opportunity coming, we want to jam that window open with a pipeline and go in there so we can see churches established in Baghdad. "We're wanting to at least establish some sort of a network," he says, "and God has given us favor in some pretty high-level circles to give us an entrance into [Iraq]." Finally, the anti-abortion American Life League (ALL) is warning that if Planned Parenthood has its way, all the women in Iraq will be having abortions in the near future. In a press release headlined "PPFA [Planned Parenthood Federation of America] President Gloria Feldt Wants Abortion Forced on Iraqi Refugees In Spite of Muslim Beliefs," ALL claims that when the shooting war ends, the war over abortion rights will commence. "Planned Parenthood's lack of integrity truly knows no bounds!" said Jim Sedlak, Executive Director of American Life League's STOPP International. "The Iraqi people are embracing the prospect of real freedom from oppression, yet Planned Parenthood wants to wage its own war on Iraq's pre-born children through its dictatorial regime of abortion and contraception." |
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The Rev. Billy Graham 
Billy Graham's heir and son, Franklin, got into some trouble by bashing Islam, calling it 'wicked'