Thank God for Franklin Graham

Thank God for Rev. Franklin Graham. In an interview with USA TODAY (May 5, 2010), Rev. Graham reminded us that “Muslims do not worship the same ‘God the Father’ I worship,” and he poked fun at Hinduism saying, “No elephant with a hundred arms can do anything for me. None of their 9,000 gods is going to lead me to salvation.”

Brother Graham is right. Allah doesn’t have kids. Neither does YHVH. And Ganesha, the elephant headed God of Hinduism, has nothing to do with Original Sin, a sin original to Christians alone. Different gods for different bods, so to speak.

“We are fooling ourselves, “ Rev. Graham said, “if we think we can have some big kumbaya service and all hold hands and its all going to get better in this world. It’s not going to get better.”

I like this guy. He tells it like it is. Peoples of different faiths can come together and build houses with Habitat for Humanity, but when push comes to shove, shove comes to genocide, jihad, and crusade.

Religions get along as long as they never come into contact with one another. When they do things always go badly. Those of us who imagine a kumbaya moment don’t know much history, and don’t take competing religious claims all that seriously. I understand why Southern Baptist ministers were told by their leadership not to participate in interfaith services after 9/11—it seems to lend credibility to the false gods of the other religions. God forbid.

The Rev. Graham is in the news, however, not because of his soothsaying, but because the Pentagon invited and then disinvited him to lead a prayer service there. It seems that the Kumbaya League complained because he called Islam an “evil religion.”

I agree with both Pentagon decisions. Given our addiction to oil, and love of empire, the Pentagon was probably right to disinvite Rev. Graham and thereby avoid upsetting our Muslim citizens and allies. But this is a tactical move, not a strategic one. As war becomes perpetual, war profiteering becomes a greater and greater driver of our economy, and building larger armies the only way to employ growing legions of unemployed young men and women, it may be necessary for the Pentagon to turn its soldiers into Christian Crusaders, and a new invitation to Rev. Graham will be warranted.

Think about it: a war fought for profit is difficult to staff. But a war fought for God can go on forever. And a forever war is where we seem to be headed. Its good for business, both God’s and banker’s.