At the last of his 417 crusades, the one held in New York City in June 2005, evangelist Billy Graham made an unscripted proposal.
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton were sitting with him on stage in Flushing Meadows when Graham greeted them as his "wonderful friends of many years." "I told him," Graham said of President Clinton, "when he left the presidency, he should become an evangelist, because he had all the gifts." Graham paused, and added with a smile, "And he could [let] his wife run the country."...
...But Graham had praised and defended both Clintons before. And in a new interview, Hillary Clinton reports that the evangelist fulfilled a pastoral role during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and helped the First Lady endure the ordeal. At that time, Clinton says, Graham was "incredibly supportive to me personally. And he was very strong in saying, 'I really understand what you're doing and I support you.' He was just very personally there for me."
She added: "The entire world was judging my decisions and my actions and there weren't very many people who, frankly, were understanding, and he was. He said, 'You know, forgiveness is the hardest thing that we're called upon to do. And we all face it at some point in our lives and I'm just really proud of you for taking it on."...
...Of Senator Clinton, Graham said he liked her as a person. "I keep up with her," Graham said. "I think a lot of Hillary...She is different from the Hillary you see in the media. There is a warm side to her — and a spiritual one."
These quotations, due to be widely heralded in a new book and an ABC television special, are yet another sign that the Reverend Billy Graham's discernment is still sadly defecient. Billy has been much too weak about sanctity of life issues, terribly naive about the Communists' claims that there was religious freedom in the Soviet Union, and too frequently star-struck about people in power, especially alarming hypocrites like Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and now the Clintons.
Let us hope and pray that Rev. Graham will correct the impressions that his earlier statements will have on a gullible electorate, reminding Americans of such other fruits of Hillary's "faith" as lying, financial misdealings, dirty politics, greed, and a passionate dedication to the cruel injustice of abortion.
