Commentary by James L. Lambert
Several weeks ago, Dr. William Barber, the President of the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP gave the Billy Graham Evangelical Association a letter attacking the famous evangelist and his son for ads they ran in various newspapers across the country prior to the recent election held last November 6th.
I saw the newspaper ad myself. It showed a large picture of the famous evangelist with the quote: “On November 6, the day before my 94th birthday, our nation will hold one of the most critical elections in my lifetime. We are at a crossroads, and there are profound moral issues at stake. I strongly urge you to vote for candi-dates who support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman, protect the sanctity of life and defend our religious freedoms. The Bible speaks clearly on these crucial issues. Please join me in praying for America, that we will turn our hearts back toward God.”
By issuing this simple paragraph during the recently passed election cycle, Billy Graham and his son Franklin came under verbal attack from a group of 12 ministers representing the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP. During their late October press conference, Rev. Gregory Moss (the Chapter’s President) said that Graham’s decision to remove Mormonism from his list of religious cults was politically expedient and ultimately “hypocritical and morally bankrupt.” Barber was also annoyed with Graham’s ad by saying the senior Graham and his son were “being seduced by the sirens of money and power.”
In an October 29th (2012) letter (see attached) to the BGEA, the NAACP chapter spokesman asked Franklin Graham “to cease arousing unwarranted suspicion about the President’s faith.” In his letter Barber quoted passages from the bible that emphasized helping the poor, providing social justice, and fighting militarism. In the letter Barber criticized Franklin Graham by telling him that “the narrow nature of your ‘values’ critique when held in the light of our deepest traditions and weighed in the balance seem deeply suspect of a true concern for values and more like a partisan push for political purpose.”
In May of this year, mega-church minister TD Jakes also criticized Franklin Graham for questioning Obama’s pronouncement of faith in Christ. Jakes labeled Graham’s statement as “insulting,” insisting that he apologize to Obama. Still many are unaware of the President’s radical views on a number of moral issues that are rooted in the bible. For more detail on a variety of these issues go to: http://www.christianadc.org/resourses/seven.reasons.campaign .
Author and radio talk show host Jesse Lee Peterson knows what it’s like to receive criticism from “progressives” like Reverend Barber. As a young African-American, Peterson often blamed ‘white’ America for his own personal struggles. However later Jesse began to take responsibility for his life through his own deepening relationship with the God of the bible and his discovery of the biblical act of forgiveness.
Peterson believes that “the attack on Rev. Franklin Graham by the NAACP is an attempt to keep black Americans on the Democrat plantation.” According to the founder of B.O.N.D. (www.Bondinfo.org) the NCCA is “nothing more than a partisan tool of the left-wing arm of the Democratic Party. They don’t care about the destruction of the black family as a result of dependency on welfare and government handouts. They don’t care about the 1,500 black babies aborted every day. They are silent on the escalating crime and murder rate in the inner cities. The soul of black America is dying and the NAACP doesn’t want anyone telling the truth about it. Nor do they want the masses of black Americans to listen to Graham and others remind them of morality and encourage them to vote their values… It’s our responsibility as Christians to speak the truth to one another.”
Peterson hosts a radio talk show that can be heard live each weekday in New Orleans, Memphis, Tampa, Lakeland (Fl.). It can also be heard on the internet through www.bondaction.org .
James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to ChristianMirror.net and author of Porn in America, is a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website
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