Franklin Graham: Some Administration Officials Are ‘Anti-Christ’

Some of the people working in the Obama administration and in the White House are trying to “completely secularize our military” and are “hostile to Christians,” to the point that they “are anti-Christ in what they say and in what they do,” said Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of world-renowned preacher Rev. Billy Graham.

Franklin Graham made his comments during a Mar. 24 interview with Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, which published an updated report on religious persecution in the U.S. armed forces this month.

During the interview on Washington Watch Weekly, Perkins asked Graham, “I would have to believe you’re also tracking, in fact I know you’re tracking because you were a part of it – when you were scheduled to speak at the Pentagon a few years ago they disinvited you – are you concerned about this intense religious hostility that we see manifesting in our nation’s military?”

Graham said, ““No question. And my son just got back from his seventh [military] tour this weekend.  So, I love the military. There has been huge pressure on the chaplains in our military – and our chaplains have been a wonderful thing for the military. But there is a move to get rid of the chaplains in our country, and to completely secularize our military. Actually, they are hostile to Christians.

“A lot of this is coming from this administration and is being pushed by people within the White House,” said Graham.  “And when I say White House, I’m not saying the president, because I’m not sure how much of this he’s aware of.  But it’s people that work for him that have power, that are sitting in offices, and they are hostile to Christ.”

“They are anti-Christ in what they say and in what they do,” said Graham.  “And they are pushing this agenda into the military. It’s scary.”

Earlier in the interview, Perkins had briefly discussed religious liberty in the military and spoke of moral decline in America. He had also asked Graham, “what will it take for America to come back to our moral principles?”

Graham said, “This is a good question. When you look at scripture, when Israel turned their backs on God – and that’s what we as a nation have done and are doing – there was usually some type of calamity. There was a famine, there was a persecution from their neighbors, nations would come in and overrun them and destroy them.”

He continued, “And it’s, kind of, when they were beaten down to the ground, that they would turn their hearts toward God once again. And they would cry unto the Lord, and He would hear them and He would deliver them. And I don’t know what’s going to have to happen in this country, but my prayer is that America will wake up before that [persecution] happens.”

In their updated report, A Clear and Present Danger: The Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military, the Family Research Council says there has been “a growing hostility to religion within the armed services in the last decade. Unfortunately, pressures to impose a secular, anti-religious culture on our nation’s military services have intensified during the Obama administration. This pressure exists across the armed services, bit it has become extremely acute in the United States Air Force. The Air Force has had the great misfortune to be targeted by anti-Christian activists.”

SOURCE




Over 600 People Walk by Two Lost Girls: Can You Blame Them?

In the Daily Mail, there is a story about an experiment where two little girls say they are lost and more than 600 people at a shopping mall walk by them:

Hidden cameras recorded Uma, seven, and Maya, five, who took it in turns to look lost.

Astonishingly, over the whole hour only one person, a grandmother, took a moment to find out if there was a problem. All of the 616 other passers-by completely ignored the girls.

Heartbreakingly for the mother of the sisters – who was watching from a hiding place nearby – passing couples even split apart to walk around either side of the ‘lost’ girls and people wheeling suitcases took evasive action to avoid Maya and Uma, not thinking to check if they needed help.

Who can blame them? The authorities have spent years making it clear that adults, in particular male adults, are suspect –and now they want those same adults to stand up and help kids with no regard for their own welfare:

Experts said the reluctance of the passers-by was partly explained by people being busy, and partly a fear – especially among men – of any help they offer a child being misinterpreted.

But the NSPCC said a child’s welfare was more important than worrying about being labelled a ‘stranger danger’.

A spokesman said: ‘We have got to get a message out to adults that they have a responsibility to protect children and that must supersede any concern you have for other people’s perception of why you are reaching out to help that child.’

Bullshit — responsibility is a two-way street. It’s not just a “perception by people” that men and even women are a danger to kids, it is a reality that men (and some women, but mostly men) are charged with abuse and face real jail time, job loss and separation from their families for sex abuse charges so readily that they have become immune to the cries of kids. Who can blame them? I can’t. Can you?

SOURCE






MI: Federal court halts homosexual marriage in Michigan

A federal appeals court on Tuesday put an indefinite halt to gay marriage in Michigan while it takes a longer look at a judge’s decision overturning a 2004 ban on same-sex nuptials.

The court granted the state’s request to suspend a ruling by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, who declared the voter-approved ban unconstitutional on Friday. Hundreds of same-sex couples in four counties were married Saturday before the appeals court stepped in with a temporary stay that had been set to expire Wednesday.

The 2-1 decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was a victory for Attorney General Bill Schuette, who had pledged to rush to the U.S. Supreme Court if the court turned him down.

Judges Karen Caldwell and John Rogers said a stay is appropriate, especially because the Supreme Court ordered a similar time-out in January in a gay marriage case in Utah.

‘‘There is no apparent basis to distinguish this case or to balance the equities any differently than the Supreme Court did’’ in Utah, Caldwell and Rogers said. ‘‘Furthermore, several district courts that have struck down laws prohibiting same-sex marriage similar to the Michigan amendment at issue here have also granted requests for stays made by state defendants.’’

Appeals court Judge Helene White disagreed.

It will be months before the next major step by the Cincinnati-based court. It set May and June deadlines for additional filings by the state and attorneys for two Detroit-area nurses who had challenged the gay marriage ban. The court has yet to schedule a day for arguments.

‘‘We will now focus on preparing an appeal in defense of the constitution and the will of the people,’’ Schuette spokeswoman Joy Yearout said.

Friedman, a judge in Detroit, ruled last week in favor of Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, who live with three adopted children. They can’t jointly adopt each other’s kids because joint adoption in Michigan is tied to marriage.

The judge held a two-week trial, listening to experts mostly talk about the impact of same-sex parenting on children. Friedman said conservative social scientists and economists who testified for Michigan were ‘‘unbelievable’’ and ‘‘clearly represent a fringe viewpoint.’’

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia issue licenses for same-sex marriage. Since December, bans on gay marriage have been overturned in Texas, Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia, but appeals have put those cases on hold.

Attorneys for Rowse and DeBoer had urged the appeals court to allow gay marriages in Michigan while the case was under review.

‘‘The public interest in this case lies on the side of ending discrimination, promoting equality and human dignity and providing security for children,’’ they said.

Nearly 60 percent of Michigan voters in 2004 approved adding an amendment to the constitution that says marriage only is between a man and a woman. Friedman, however, said the election result was no defense to discrimination against gays and lesbians.

What remains unclear is the legal status of more than 300 couples who were married Saturday in Washtenaw, Ingham, Oakland and Muskegon counties. Supporters of same-sex marriage are urging the Obama administration to recognize the marriages for purposes of federal benefits as it has done in other states.

Gov. Rick Snyder has not signaled if the state will recognize the marriages.

SOURCE






The Medal of Honor and Race

The other day, I caught some breaking news on Fox. On March 18th, President Obama awarded 24 Medals of Honor to individuals who had been denied the honor due to racism. That’s all I needed to hear. I was enraged. Why? Because, the Left assiduously sustains the mechanisms of racism and hate. They’ve developed it into a smoke stack industry and have constructed assembly lines of malice, churning out classes and victims twenty four hours a day. An endless variety of discontent, racial subversion, and agitation.

Racism is a multi-million dollar business and business is good. Well, it’s good for the plutocrats at the top of the pyramid: the Jessie Jacksons, Al Sharptons, Louis Farrakhans, Reverend Wrights, and Barack Obamas of the world. Their power is generated and sustained by the friction between the classes, particularly between races. The heat feeds the furnace of their avarice and the burning discontent creates the chimera of antagonists by which they inflame the passions of their dupes. And, passionate fury demands change. These Leftists will sacrifice any object to their ritual cauldrons so long as it feeds the infernal machine. Now, dangling above their smelting pots is the gleaming Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Honor was first commissioned by President Lincoln during the Civil War. Since that time there have been 3,487 recipients, including one woman. It is bestowed on those who display gallantry, intrepidity and heroism above and beyond the call of duty. 88 Medals of Honor have been bestowed on African-Americans, the first being awarded to William Carney, July 18, 1863, during the Civil War. 59 have been awarded to Hispanic-Americans, 33 to Asian-Americans, and 32 to Native-Americans.

Obama’s actions are not without precedent. The first President to presumptively attempt to right wrongs was Jimmy Carter, followed by George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Obama's recipients were awarded our nation’s second highest honor, the Distinguished Service Cross. Additionally, several white service men where identified during the review of military records to be deserving of the upgrade. But, in Obama's words, "some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal."

Once again, race has been foisted on us and threatens to overshadow the deeds of the heroic, contorting the fabric of reality to fit a bigoted narrative; leading us to perceive a noble nation as fractious and contradictory, instead of a unity bound by the most noble ideals. This is the great evil of the Left. And, the Medal of Honor has become a pretext, a foil for their demented narrative. Have there been instances of racism? Certainly. Any nation, as large and complex as ours, will produce instances of inhumanity and bigotry. However, what society on the face of the earth has not? America, unlike any other nation, has enshrined the ideal of equality under the law and has made it real through the blood of its patriot sons and daughters. Through a civil war and a civil rights struggle we have gained the prize. We are all the inheritors and beneficiaries of these ideals--a classless society. It is what Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he longed for a day when a man would only be judged by the content of his character. But, this does not serve the Left, the agitator, or the useful fool who militates for the destruction of our republic and the institution of a socialist order.

I am indignant at Obama’s submersing the Medal of Honor in the urine of bigotry. This attitude is the hallmark of his administration. If Obama's objective was to honor those who performed olympian deeds, then why taint these magnificent acts with the stink of racism? In a post-racist America, what object does it serve to besmirch a solemn ceremony, except to gain the subversive advantage of perpetuating an exploitable antagonism? Melvin Morris, of Cocoa, Florida was one of the black recipients. He said that it never occurred to him that his race might have prevented him from receiving the Medal of Honor. It never occurred to him until a subtle minion whispered the calumny in his ear.

Obama has presided over one of the most divisive administrations in American history. This reality is in stark distinction to his campaign promises to foster unity. And, it is in stark contrast to the expectations of naive liberals who viewed their vote for Obama as some sort of mea culpa for white guilt. Booker T. Washington explains President Barack Hussein Obama’s race-obsession: "There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” —from My Larger Education

SOURCE

*************************

Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

***************************