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October 12, 2012
Billy Graham Offers Romney ‘Help’ During Meeting at N.C. Home
Evangelist skirts outright endorsement in Election Day 'crossroads' comments.
(RNS) Billy Graham offered to "do all I can to help” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a Thursday (Oct. 11) meeting at the evangelist's North Carolina home.
Romney campaign spokesman Rick Gorka told reporters after the visit that Graham told Romney: "I'll do all I can to help you. And you can quote me on that."
Graham spokesman A. Larry Ross, who was not at the meeting, confirmed Friday that the evangelist made the comment privately to Romney.
“Throughout his ministry, Mr. Graham has been careful to remain nonpartisan, but at the same time has consistently been an advocate and taken a strong stand for biblical values,” Ross said.
Graham issued a statement after the meeting, which included his son, evangelist Franklin Graham, saying the nation is at a “crossroads” as Election Day approaches.
“I hope millions of Americans will join me in praying for our nation and to vote for candidates who will support the biblical definition of marriage, protect the sanctity of life and defend our religious freedoms," said Billy Graham, who turns 94 the day after the Nov. 6 election.
Although the statement was not an outright Romney endorsement, the issues it raised have been touted by Republicans during the campaign. President Obama has said he personally supports same-sex marriage. Obama’s campaign faith platform describes him as “pro-choice” and seeking “common-ground” ways to reduce the rate of abortions.
The 30-minute session at Graham’s home near Asheville, N.C., comes as polls show evangelical pastors warming to Romney despite some who have stated a discomfort with his Mormon faith. A LifeWay Research poll this week showed two-thirds of evangelical pastors plan to vote for Romney, compared to 54 percent of mainline Protestant pastors.
Obama, who visited Graham in 2010, was backed by 9 percent of evangelical pastors and 28 percent of mainline pastors. Twenty-two percent of Protestant pastors remained undecided.
A recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that white evangelical support for Romney had risen from 69 to 73 percent, while their support for Obama declined. A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll showed that 69 percent of evangelical voters said they would vote for Romney.
Comments
President Obama says he is a Christian and he worships at the Baptist Church and Evergreen Chapel in camp David (other than that, who am I to judge).
Governor Romney thinks when he dies he goes to planet Kolab and becomes his own God and get's the servitude of multiple women.
Billy Graham calls Mormonism a cult on his own Website for goodness sake.
Strange dark times we live in.
Posted By: chas holman | October 12, 2012 5:27 PM
President Obama spends most Sundays at the Church of St. Andrews, AKA a golf course. His autobiography says he used drugs regularly through high school and as an undergraduate. Omama has several half brothers and sisters through his polygamous Kenyan father who continue to live in poverty with no aid from their famous millionaire brother. After North Carolina voters affirmed marriage as heterosexual, Obama announced he supports gay marriage, and he has directed Federal lawyers to argue that the DOMA, Defense of Marriage Act, is unconstitutional, so that North Carolina will be forced by the Federal government to recognize gay marriages contracted in New York. Chaplains in the military are already being punished under the new open endorsement of homsexual sex in miltary dormitories.
Mitt Romney belongs to a denomination that is openly vilified by gays for opposing same sex marriage. He sacrificed thousands of hours of time away from his business to care for people in poverty or in need of spritual counseling. He donates a tithe of his income to his church and much more besides to charitable institutions. He secretly paid for milk needed by hundreds if residents of a Boston homeless veterans shelter, for two years. He paid for scholarships for two boys who became parapegics in a car accident. When the teenage daughter of one of his business partners went missing in New York, he shut down their Boston company and led all the employees to search for the girl. They literally saved her life from a drug overdose.
Which of these two men looks more like a Christian to you?
Posted By: Raymond Takashi Swenson | October 13, 2012 6:23 AM
Apparently some people positively delight in spreading false stories about Mormons and their beliefs. It is too hard for them to visit Mormon.org and learn what Mormons really believe. They would rather listen to those who hate and ridicule people who worship each Sunday byntaking the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and promising God the Father that they will always remember the resurrected body and atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
Mormons, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe that in the Resurrection of the Just, they will join all other good Christians in inhabiting this earth, where Christ will reign as sovereign. Bishop N.T. Wright in his book Surprised by Hope taught that the Bible clearly teaches the earth is the future home of our physically resurrected selves, for which the Anglican bishop was attacked for sounding like a Mormon. He replied in the pages of First Things journal that the Mormons read the Bible more carefully than some other people.
As for becoming like Christ, that is an ancient Christian doctrine preserved by the Eastern Orthodox churches, like the Russian Orthodox Church my mother grew up in. It is called "theosis" and it cites numerous passages of the Bible as well as early Christian leaders like Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, who taught "Christ became man so that man might become god." Theosis was deemphasized by the Catholic Church, and Protestant founders dropped that authentic Bible teaching from their theology. It is a Christian teaching more ancient by two centuries than the Nicene Creed.
Posted By: Raymond Takashi Swenson | October 13, 2012 6:46 AM
Neither of them are Christians, that's clear.
They both need to know Jesus.
We don't need to argue religion. Decide who you think will lead our country in the best direction and vote accordingly.
Posted By: Blake | October 13, 2012 12:15 PM
Takeshi, Obama has had 78 vacation days so far. George Bush during his presidency had over a thousand. Where was your whining about "golf courses" then? And Obama did not use drugs regularly throughout high school, he admits to only TRYING cocaine, once. So stop with the slander.
As for the rest of your b.s. about Romney, I have never heard of any of this, and if anything that you said about his so called "grand deeds" was true, I'm pretty sure Romney would have made sure I knew about them. I noticed he had to go back over thirty years to find something he c0uold show off at the Republican convention.
69% of evangelicals support Romney? That tells me the 69% of evangelicals aren't really Christian. And no, I'm not talking about this Mormon business. I'm talking about Romney committing false witness with every third word that comes out of his mouth, and rejecting the "47%", the same people Christ commanded us to take care of the most. Sorry, you can be a Republican, or a Christian. Not both.
Posted By: Shannon | October 14, 2012 11:59 PM
I didn't say this. I am quoting Scripture.
1 JOHN 1
1:10 If anyone comes to you,
and doesn't bring this teaching, don't receive him into your house,
and don't welcome him,
1:11 for he who welcomes him participates in his evil works.
I Don't see the next verse saying, "Unless of course he is trying to become your leader." or "Unless you share some of the same values." This is very clear.
Posted By: Scott Strickland | October 17, 2012 9:59 PM
False teachers, Mitt Romney, bring reproach upon true saints and the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of these impostors, “the way of truth will be maligned,” Peter says. We suffer from the presence of false teachers. “How?” you might ask. We suffer because these false teachers seek to gain status and recognition by identifying themselves as true saints and associating with true believers. In 1 Peter, we were instructed that unbelievers can be expected to react against the righteousness of the saints because they are threatened by it (1 Peter 4:1-4). We are to expect to be maligned for doing what is right (1 Peter 2:12, 15, 20). When the sin of false teachers is exposed, the unrighteous may almost delight in lumping all professing Christians together so that we are wrongly associated with the folly of fraudulent saints.
Posted By: Scott Strickland | October 17, 2012 10:23 PM
For decades I attended Evangelical or S. Baptist churches where sermons frequently identified the Mormon church as a cult. Now many of the pastors or leaders advocate supporting Romney, a bishop or leader in the Mormon church. Something about this new position is really bothersome.
Posted By: Peter | November 3, 2012 11:38 PM
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