Franklin Graham Quits GOP Because It's Not Far Right Enough

[debatethis]

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/22/evangelicals-consider-exodus-from-gop-over-pp-funding.html

It's from Daily Beast but Fox is reporting it as well.

Will Franklin Graham Lead an Evangelical Exodus From the GOP?
Franklin Graham announced this week he was leaving the Republican Party as a result of the inclusion of Planned Parenthood funding in the spending bill that sailed through Congress last week. While he’s the first to formally bail, he might not be the last.

Billy Graham’s son is over the GOP.

Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, posted on Facebook yesterday that he plans to leave the Republican Party. His growing frustration highlights growing (and sometimes paradoxical) anger that pro-life and evangelical Christian leaders have for Republican Party leadership.

Graham took to Facebook to rip Republicans in the wake of a spending bill the House passed last week that maintains federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

“Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!” Graham wrote, referring to videos that showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing their fetal tissue donation program. “That should’ve been all that was needed to turn off the faucet for their funding.

“This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself Independent,” he continued. “I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America.”

On one hand, comments like this aren’t particularly out-of-character for Graham. On Nov. 6, he told CNN that he wasn’t particularly enamored of the GOP.

“I don’t have any faith in any of the political parties,” he said. “The only hope that we have is for God to intervene and I want the church to stand up and to vote.”

And he made a similar, politically agnostic comment in May, as The Christian Post reported.

That said, yesterday’s comment raised eyebrows because it’s a commitment to officially break with the Republican Party. And evangelical leaders say he’s channeling a sentiment that’s increasingly widespread in their community.

After the House voted to pass the omnibus spending bill that kept federal dollars in place for Planned Parenthood, many conservative Christians—evangelical and Catholic—were furious.

Robert Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, said the uproar isn’t surprising.

“This Planned Parenthood sponsorship in this bill further confirms what many evangelical Christians believe about the Republican Party establishment, and that is, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Republican establishment and the Democratic establishment,” he said.

“This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself Independent,” said Graham.

“And I believe that disenchantment that many evangelical Christians have explains the rise of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump,” he added.

Jeffress said this disenchantment has been growing for more than a decade, especially since George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign. During that race, Bush pushed for a federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage as part of a strategy to get evangelical Christians to the polls. It worked, and he got re-elected thanks to their strong showing. But in his second term, the president and his team abandoned their promise to try to write a gay-marriage ban into the Constitution. And that left many evangelicals feeling used and betrayed.

Brent Bozell, a prominent conservative activist who founded the Media Research Center, said Graham’s split from the Republican Party is especially devastating because of his role as a faith leader, rather than a political one. Graham isn’t known for his politicking; rather, evangelicals know and respect him for his disaster relief work—in particular, for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox-donation program that figures prominently in how hundreds of churches celebrate Christmas.

[debatethis]

Also here's the full FB post:

Shame on the Republicans and the Democrats for passing such a wasteful spending bill last week. And to top it off, funding Planned Parenthood! A Huffington Post article called it “a big win for Planned Parenthood.” I call it a big loss for America. After all of the appalling facts revealed this year about Planned Parenthood, our representatives in Washington had a chance to put a stop to this, but they didn’t. There’s no question—taxpayers should not be paying for abortions! Abortion is murder in God’s eyes. Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps! That should’ve been all that was needed to turn off the faucet for their funding. Nothing was done to trim this 2,000 page, $1.1 trillion budget. This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself Independent. I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America. Unless more godly men and women get in this process and change this wicked system, our country is in for trouble. I want to challenge Christians, even pastors, across the country to pray about running for office where they can have an impact. We need mayors, country commissioners, city council members, school board members who will uphold biblical values.

In just a couple of weeks, I will begin going state by state to every capital in our nation to hold prayer rallies for our country and share this same challenge on the Decision America Tour. Des Moines, Iowa, is first on January 5. I hope you’ll join me in your capital—check decisionamericatour.com for more dates and details.

[zelda25]

I saw this on FB yesterday. Because my father shared it, with a comment that he agreed with Graham  . 

[berrysweet]

Good.

And that's coming as someone who identifies as Christian, but not evangelical. I think one of the biggest mistakes the Republican Party has made in the last 20 years was affiliating itself with the evangelical church.

[cattledogkisses]

For the love of Pete, people, TAXPAYERS DONT PAY FOR ABORTIONS.

Why does everyone have such a hard time understanding this?

[jln]

I hope this works out for the moderate repubs. Maybe they can claim their party again after the evangelicals step aside.

[debatethis]

Dec 23, 2015 17:57:28 GMT -5 berrysweet said:

Good.

And that's coming as someone who identifies as Christian, but not evangelical. I think one of the biggest mistakes the Republican Party has made in the last 20 years was affiliating itself with the evangelical church.

Yep. I am neither evangelical nor GOP anymore due to the two of them being so inextricably, illogically intertwined.

[5thofjuly]

Dec 23, 2015 18:59:43 GMT -5 jln said:

I hope this works out for the moderate repubs. Maybe they can claim their party again after the evangelicals step aside.

This. I can imagine many Republicans saying "Don't let the door hit you..." I imagine the Lugar Republicans are just aghast at the current Presidential primary. 

On another plus side, maybe this could be another way to dismantle the 2 party system. That wouldn't be the worst thing.

[mrsukyankee]

I would love it if the Evangelicals decided to form their own party. They could start chatting with the BNP or EDL in the UK about their idiocy.