Franklin Graham apologizes for questioning Obama's faith commitment

[SunSeeker]

The Rev. Franklin Graham on Tuesday apologized for publicly raising questions about President Barack Obama’s Christian faith, saying “I regret any comments I have ever made which may have cast any doubt on the personal faith of our president, Mr. Obama.”

The statement from Graham came in response to a letter from faith leaders associated with the NAACP that said Graham’s statements “have enormous negative effects for America and are especially harmful to the Christian witness.”

In a television interview last week that provoked huge media attention, Graham appeared to question the sincerity of Obama’s Christian commitment.

"You have to ask him,” Graham said, pondering whether Obama is Christian. “I cannot ask that question for anybody."

In the February 21 interview on MSNBC, Graham repeated earlier statements about Obama’s ties to Islam, while denying that the president is a Muslim.

"Under Islamic law – Sharia law – Islam sees him as a son of Islam," Graham said. “Because his father was a Muslim, his grandfather was a Muslim. ... That's just the way it works."

In his statement on Tuesday, Graham said, “The president has said he is a Christian and I accept that (and have said so publicly on many occasions).”

“I apologize to him and to any I have offended for not better articulating my reason for not supporting him in this election—for his faith has nothing to do with my consideration of him as a candidate,” Graham’s statement continued.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/28/franklin-graham-apologizes-for-questioning-obamas-faith-commitment/

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. I heard Mike Papantonio do a perfect smackdown of F. Graham on the Ed show last week -

called him for the gutless piece of faux-religious, corporate sucking shit that he is.

[roguevalley]

8. donations must be down.

[K8-EEE]

2. Hey Franklin you should start running this stuff by GOD before you run your mouth off

You're an idiot and your faith is NOT superior to mine, Obama's or anybody else's.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Actually, it was quite clear what Franklin meant in the MSNBC interview

IIRC, about 3 minutes into the interview, he made a slip and said something to the effect, "I look at the man's politics and then his faith". So, really, what's most important to Frank and the rest of the RW Sanctimonious Christian hypocrites is the politics. Obama's a Democrat, therefore he can't be a Christian, like them.

[rsmith6621]

4. I Guess His Daddy Put Him Over His Knee.....

...and paddled his ass BLUE....


Yes I agree maybe he should run what he is saying past God first...

[AllyCat]

5. I give the interviewers credit for chasing his slimy self around the podium on this one

He was a complete weasel when he said that and his whole bias was just sitting there on the stump. The more he talked, the faster he shoveled.

[agent46]

6. Back peddle all you want

He said what he said.

[calimary]

9. Indeed. First impressions are lasting, franklin.

We all heard what you said and we absolutely got what you meant. More transparent than a piece of Saran Wrap.

[yellowcanine]

12. I take him at his word.

[Jamastiene]

14. And it is disingenuous of him to pretend he meant anything other than what he actually said too.

Well said.

[HubertHeaver]

7. Franklin needs to brush up on Islamic law while he's at it.

If he's going to talk about it he should, at the very least, become informed.

[noel711]

10. Apologize? That's a sign of weakness!

As the current smog of candidates and their unrelenting
bashing of Obama for apologizing for the burning of Qurans.

Apologizing is for wimps...
any Christian knows that (sarcasm alert)-

[yellowcanine]

11. Franklin Graham needs to apologize for the lack of accountability of his charities.

http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/religious/samaritans-purse-in-boone-nc-281

Better Business Bureau was only able to confirm that Samaritan's Purse meets 6 out of 20 possible standards of accountability for rating charities.

BBB found that SP did not meet 3 of 20 standards and could not make a determination for 11 more because of the failure of SP to provide the requested information. So basically SP gave BBB the proverbial middle finger salute.

Perhaps most egregious is that Graham serves as both a paid CEO (483,000 in 2009) and chair of the board of directors. This is a gigantic no-no for any organization for obvious reasons. I thought it was not even allowed by the IRS for a charitable organization but apparently it is or at least they are choosing not to do anything about it. Maybe he does not vote but it still is very suspect. Note, Graham also pulls down an even larger salary as the CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (which notably declined to be reviewed by the BBB, perhaps because of the crappy review of SP. So basically, BGEA gave the BBB not one but two middle finger salutes).


Evaluation Conclusions

Samaritan's Purse (SP) does not meet the following 3 Standards for Charity Accountability.

Standard 4: Compensated Board Members - Not more than one or 10% (whichever is greater) directly or indirectly compensated person(s) serving as voting member(s) of the board. Compensated members shall not serve as the board's chair or treasurer.
SP does not meet this Standard because:
The paid chief executive officer also serves as the chair of the board of directors.
3 out of 22 (14%) board members are compensated directly.

Standard 12: Detailed Functional Breakdown of Expenses - Include in the financial statements a breakdown of expenses (e.g., salaries, travel, postage, etc.) that shows what portion of these expenses was allocated to program, fund raising, and administrative activities. If the charity has more than one major program category, the schedule should provide a breakdown for each category.
SP does not meet this Standard because:
The organization's functional breakdown of expenses did not include all of its major program categories.
In response to this finding, the charity stated, in part: ". . . we follow all generally accepted accounting principles in our financial statements."

Standard 16: Annual Report - Have an annual report available to all, on request, that includes: (a) the organization's mission statement, (b) a summary of the past year's program service accomplishments, (c) a roster of the officers and members of the board of directors, (d) financial information that includes (i) total income in the past fiscal year, (ii) expenses in the same program, fund raising and administrative categories as in the financial statements, and (iii) ending net assets.
SP does not meet this standard because the most recent annual report did not include:
Total income.
Total expenses for each program in the same categories that appear in the organization’s financial statements.
Total fund raising expenses.
Total administrative expenses.
Total end of year net assets.
In addition, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance requested but did not receive complete information on the organization’s governance and oversight, effectiveness measures, finances, solicitation materials, donor privacy, and fundraising disclosures and is unable to verify the organization's compliance with the following 11 Standards for Charity Accountability: 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 18, and 19.
Samaritan's Purse (SP) meets the remaining 6 Standards for Charity Accountability.

[SunSeeker]

15. Thanks for the info.

Gee, those would be great questions for a reporter to ask him. Sigh. I guess I should be happy he got what little follow up he did with the faith remarks.

[yellowcanine]

16. He was nailed on this in 2009 and responded by "giving up" contributions to his retirement

plan at both organizations, which apparently was a gigantic part of both salaries. That probably made him eligible for food stamps though it is not clear if he gave up the retirement plan contributions for the duration or just for one year - or if he actually did it at all, as both organizations have very limited transparency.

[Monk06]

24. He questioned Obama's Christian beliefs in order to neutralize any investigations by the IRS.

It's no accident he did this in an election year. Now if his racket is
investigated he can claim retaliation.

He and his father were not the first but the most successful of the Evangelical
Mafia. Well connected and smart.

[Bruce Wayne]

13. His father never pulled a stunt like that.

But then again, Billy Graham's ministry was to the United States, not just to the Republican Party.

[BigDemVoter]

18. I agree with you on that. . .

But let's not forget that the Rev Billy is a big, fat Repig as well, although he won't make the public spectacle of himself that his stupid son does.

[Bruce Wayne]

19. "a big, fat Repig"

Conservative? In some respects, certainly. But this is also someone who counseled Democrats and Republicans alike, never awarded "God's" endorsement of a candidate, refused to take a stand against abortion rights because he said Christians could have honest disagreements about the issue, and in the 1950s refused to preach before racially segregated revivals. Big, fat Repig? I don't think you know Billy.

[BigDemVoter]

20. oops

I mispoke-- by "big fat Repig" I meant he has very republican tendencies. My sincere apologies to any heavy/whatever people out there; I didn't mean to offend--



Yeah, he did counsel dems as well as repubs, but he is still a Republican & that's always bad news in my book.

Thanks for your response

[BigDemVoter]

17. His public microphone needs to be turned O-F-F

I, for the life of me, cannot understand why his asinine statements make the news????

WTF??

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

21. Hmmm...

“I apologize to him and to any I have offended for not better articulating my reason for not supporting him in this election—for his faith has nothing to do with my consideration of him as a candidate,” Graham’s statement continued.

Of course it has nothing to do with why he isn't supporting Obama. Has everything to do with his SKIN COLOR!

Yeah, I said it!! *arms folded*

[rickford66]

22. worthless piece of s**t

This huckster and his father have been gaming the system for years. Why does anyone listen to these creeps? They had a revival type meeting here a couple years ago. They sent a frontman and family to live here for a year to prepare the groundwork. A zillion people showed up and layed their money down. Any dollars end up helping the poor or needy? Who knows.

[bzonline123]

23. I'm deeply concerned about this news

I posted my comments on USATODAY, and it was quickly deleted. So I decided to do it here as well. I'm deeply concerned about this news. Does Franklin Graham know many innocent peoples around the world and inside the United States have been killed for the reason in order to rise Obama as President of the United States? I even doubt if Obama is able to keep his wife safe. And Obama obviously has either no desire or power to stop such human sacrifice. Halleluiah! Let's go kill for Jesus Christ, no guilt at all. For that reason, I'm sure I should become a Christian one day. Mr. Frank, you are either a weaker one or need a better education on Humanity.