From the ArcaMax Publishing, Politics Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/politics/s-371349-488471
The pilgrim is making little progress. In a futile effort to convince
faith-voters that he is one of them, John McCain paid a visit to the
Grahams of North Carolina -- -- father Billy and son Franklin. After
the meeting, not a word was said about the Grahams' past indiscretions
concerning Muslims or Jews and neither, for that matter, was an
endorsement proffered. The next guest was country singer Ricky Skaggs.
He did better. He got lunch.
McCain plods a cruel treadmill. He has thus far sought the endorsement
of the extremely purple Rev. John Hagee and the equally purple Rev.
Rod Parsley. Both of them were later asked to unendorse on account of
the offensive things they've said. But to paraphrase Hyman Roth in
"The Godfather," this is the business they're in.
Billy Graham's observations about Jews were made a long time ago and
were imparted in confidence to Richard Nixon and his secret White
House tape recorder. The two ruminated about the power and influence
of Jews, with Graham adding a bit of original investigative reporting:
"They're the ones putting out the pornographic stuff." Had he peeked?
Graham apologized for such remarks and said he no longer held such
views and everyone, including me, takes him at his word. His lasting
damage, I offer as an aside, was to convince the young George W. Bush
to abandon his wastrel ways, where he excelled, and instead seek the
path that has led him to where he is now, a calamity for the nation
and the world. Graham's burden is heavy indeed.
But the transgressions of Franklin Graham are much more recent and
more to the point. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,
Franklin Graham called Islam a "very evil and wicked religion." As
preachers are wont to do, he amplified his remarks to include
"mainstream" Islam, alleging that the Koran preaches violence. He is
renowned throughout the Muslim world for these remarks and therefore
hardly a figure a presidential candidate should visit.
Erich Segal's line from "Love Story" -- "love means not ever having to
say you're sorry" -- really applies to faith. If you proclaim it, you
are forgiven almost anything. In Franklin Graham's case, his piety
excuses his ignorance and intolerance -- his slap at a worldwide
religion of almost 2 billion because of the horrendous acts of a few.
What could a Muslim say about the massacres of the Crusades? What
could anyone say about the wars between Catholics and Protestants,
culminating in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572 when
possibly 100,000 French Huguenots were slaughtered? France is Catholic
today partly because of the sword.
It would have been very McCain of McCain to have skipped this meeting
in the cause of religious tolerance. It would be very McCain of McCain
to forcefully denounce the persistent rumor that Barack Obama is a
Muslim -- whenever it comes up. (It would also have been wonderful of
Obama to have excluded Franklin Graham from a minister's meeting he
convened in Chicago last month.) Both presidential candidates are
over-pastored.
For too long now, the term "faith-based" has been synonymous with
dumb. It's dumb to talk of Islam as if the terrorists are its true
representatives (F. Graham). It's dumb to think the Holocaust was
God's way of getting the Jews to return to Israel (Hagee) or that
Catholics are not true Christians (Hagee, again) or that "Islam is an
anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the
world" (Parsley).
It's dumb to reject evolution when all of science thinks the opposite
and it's dumb to oppose sex education, as if knowledge was a sin by
itself. It was beyond dumb for the Rev. Pat Robertson to predict a
natural calamity for Orlando, Fla., because of Disney World's policy
regarding gays. Yet, the endorsement of such men has been sought by
virtually every Republican presidential candidate of our times. To
pass this kind of muster is very disquieting.
The liberal clergy in this country is a faded force. Gone are the days
when ministers led the civil rights movement and marched to end the
Vietnam War. Now, the ones with political clout are too often
small-minded men who swaddle their bigotry and ignorance in the
soothing word "faith." And John McCain, like a spiritual beggar, goes
from one right-wing minister to another, ignoring their previous
statements of intolerance and hoping for an endorsement. The other
day, he didn't even get lunch. He deserved humble pie.
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Richard Cohen's e-mail address is cohenr@washpost.com