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   From: rander31273@gmail.com   
      
   Franklin Graham has become a parody of himself with his blind support for   
   Trump   
   BY ISSAC J. BAILEY - OBSERVER EDITORIAL BOARD   
      
      
   Franklin Graham blindly supports Donald Trump despite it all. MAX FAULKNER   
   Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any   
   support. It was, and remains, the most insulting thing anyone has said   
   about Trump voters because it means they have no principles, no core. It   
   didn't bother them that he said that about them.   
      
      
   I didn’t know then that Trump was referring to the Rev. Franklin Graham,   
   who has become a parody of himself. I should have known, given that Graham   
   decided to side with the man who wanted American missionaries who   
   contracted Ebola in 2014 to be left to die in Liberia.   
      
   “The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back,” Trump tweeted. “People   
   that go to far away places to help out are great — but must suffer the   
   consequences!”   
      
   One of those missionaries was Kent Brantly, who said he had felt called by   
   God to travel to West Africa. He went on behalf of Graham’s non-profit,   
   Samaritan’s Purse. Fortunately, the Obama administration ignored Trump and   
   brought Brantly home, saving his life.   
      
      
   Not even that level of callousness gave Graham pause about Trump. Graham   
   assesses behavior, not on right or wrong, but political affiliation. That   
   truth slowly began revealing itself during the 2016 presidential election   
   cycle. It continued as Graham began embracing Trump no matter how many   
   lies the president told and was recently cemented in an interview with The   
   Associated Press.   
      
   For months, Trump denied knowing that his personal attorney, Michael   
   Cohen, paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to remain silent about an   
   affair with Trump.   
      
   “I found the president to be truthful with me,” Graham said.   
      
   We “just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt,” he reasoned,   
   despite Trump’s history of bragging about extra-marital conquests, his   
   declaration that he needn’t repent for anything, his propensity to lie   
   about issues consequential and not.   
      
   But all doubt was erased when Rudy Giuliani said Trump reimbursed Cohen   
   for the money. Giuliani did that after consulting with Trump. They’ve   
   since tried to muddy the waters with a partial reversal, but serious   
   people should not believe them. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times   
   and Washington Post have nailed down further confirmation of the scandal.   
   Cohen had hundreds of thousands of dollars to use to keep such issues   
   private and Trump knew about this for months, even as he and his press   
   secretary repeatedly told the American public otherwise.   
      
   Still, Graham recently told the AP: “I think this thing with Stormy   
   Daniels and so forth is nobody’s business. … I think when the country went   
   after President Clinton, the Republicans, that was a great mistake that   
   should never have happened.”   
      
   Graham led the charge against Clinton, declaring in the Wall Street   
   Journal in 1998 that private conduct has public consequences.   
      
   “Clinton’s months-long extramarital sexual behavior in the Oval Office now   
   concerns him and the rest of the world,” Graham wrote. “If he will lie to   
   or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate,   
   what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?”   
      
   Graham says Trump’s affair happened before he was president. He cares not   
   at all that Trump has been proven a pathological liar since he was sworn   
   into office, telling a list of lies and misstatements that has surpassed   
   3,000, according to the Washington Post fact-checker.   
      
   This isn’t about political hypocrisy; it’s that Graham is teaching his   
   flock that nothing really matters. He’s become a moral leader who no   
   longer believes in morality.   
      
   That he and his most ardent supporters aren’t ashamed of what they’ve   
   become in service of Trump is most shameful of all.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)