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7.06.2005

The New Foe of the Evangelical Right

Is it the guy on the right or the guy on the left ?

Apparently it is now both . . .

Rev. Graham's Dem ties irk the right
By John Nichols

Yes, of course, there is some dismay among religious right activists with regard to the U.S. Supreme Court's reinforcement of the wall of separation between church and state by placing tight constraints on the display of the Ten Commandments on or around official buildings.

But what's really got fundamentalist politicos up in arms is not a secularist Supreme Court.

It's the Rev. Billy Graham.

The nation's most popular and respected evangelist has earned the wrath of the religious right by associating with former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and - in what has to be the ultimate political sin among those who believe that the GOP is "God's Own Party" - for uttering kind words about the former first couple.

As it happens, Graham is not much of a Republican.

The pastor, a close confidant of every president since Dwight Eisenhower, announced last fall that "I've been a Democrat all my life."

At least some evangelicals thought he sounded like one over the weekend, on the second night of the three-day crusade in New York that was billed as the last round of public preaching in the U.S. by the 86-year-old pastor.

When the Clintons appeared with Graham on stage in front of more than 70,000 people gathered at Flushing Meadow Park in Queens, N.Y., the preacher asked the former president to take the microphone.

Clinton, a Baptist who has often portrayed personal foibles that earned the ire of the religious right as falls from grace, praised Graham for refusing to appear before segregated audiences in Arkansas during the school desegregation fights that rocked that state in the 1950s."I was just a little boy, and I'll never forget it. I've loved him ever since," said Clinton, who turned to Graham and added, "God bless you, friend."

When Clinton finished speaking, Graham praised the former president's communication skills, going so far as to suggest that Clinton ought to become an evangelist in order to clear the way for "his wife to run the country."

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|| doug, 16:58

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