A LITTLE TOO EASY TO IMPRESS…. Putting aside, for now, whether the Rev. Franklin Graham should be held up by major media outlets as a credible American religious leader, this is just odd.
The Rev. Franklin Graham, whose family has served as spiritual advisers to numerous prominent political figures, told “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour that businessman Donald Trump might be his candidate of choice in 2012….
“Donald Trump, when I first saw that he was getting in, I thought, well, this has got to be a joke,” said Graham. “But the more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, you know, maybe this guy’s right.”
“So, he might be your candidate of choice?” Amanpour asked.
“Sure, yes,” Graham responded.
Generally, Christian conservatives are a little harder to please. Keep in mind, Trump was asked on MSNBC this week whether he considers there to be a right to privacy in the Constitution. After saying, “I guess there is,” he asked why the question matters. MSNBC’s Savannah Guthrie noted the legal significance of the privacy debate in the context of the debate over abortion rights.
“Well, that’s a pretty strange way of getting to pro-life,” Trump replied. “I mean, it’s a very unique way of asking about pro-life. What does that have to do with privacy? How are you equating pro-life with privacy?”
For anyone with even a passing familiarity with the abortion debate, Trump’s indignation was bizarre. It was as if he’d never considered the controversy in any depth at all, and opponents of abortion rights were not at all pleased.
What’s more, Trump talked to radical TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network last week and struggled to speak coherently on matters related to faith.
“I believe in God. I am Christian. I think The Bible is certainly, it is THE book. It is the thing,” Trump told Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. […]
As for church attendance, the host of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” indicated that he makes an effort.
“Well, I go as much as I can. Always on Christmas. Always on Easter. Always when there’s a major occasion. And during the Sundays. I’m a Sunday church person. I’ll go when I can.”
“During the Sundays”?
And then there’s Franklin Graham, who said of Trump, “[T]he more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, ‘You know, maybe this guy’s right.’”
It’s almost as if some religious leaders are more concerned with politics than with matters of faith.
