FRANKLIN GRAHAM'S TOUGH GOSPEL: WHAT WOULD THE BISHOP SAY? FAST FROM WORDS!

The Reverend Franklin Graham s political remarks are so offensive in the eyes of some Canadian Christian leaders that they asked him to stay away from Vancouver, where he is scheduled to lead an Evangelical Festival this weekend.

Franklin Graham is the son of famous evangelist Billy Graham and director of the international Christian relief organization the Samaritan Purse. He is no stranger to politics and was invited to read a passage from the Bible during Trumps inauguration ceremony.

In answer to the Canadian leaders, Graham has stated that he will do nothing but convey the simple Gospel message; a timeless message of Gods hope, love and redemption for all people regardless of ethnicity, age or gender identity Christ died for all.

We are to believe that during the three days of the Festival, the Reverend will put a lid on his politically charged remarks that are often more than uncharitable to certain groups.

These are praiseworthy intentions indeed, but being a man of the world who moves in the thick of the political landscape, the Reverend knows full well that he can no longer pretend to be a mild-mannered preacher of the Gospel. He chose to open Pandoras Box long ago, and to make his own the words that spewed out--words that create violence and hatred.

With a spate of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents covering our nation like a virus, Franklin Graham has found justification for his tough talk in Jesus who, according to him, also uttered the occasional harsh words about the Pharisees. That may be true, but Graham is no Jesus, and the people he attacks in his speeches are not abusing the poor, and in the name of God ignoring the most basic rules of humanity. The Pharisees incurred Jesus holy anger because they were using their privileged positions to trample on the spiritual and religious foundations they were supposed to protect.

From the comfort of his North Carolina residence, the Reverend has defended his judgmental tone with the observation that we live in a dangerous world. I happen to live in the same state and wonder what it is he is so afraid of. Yes, indeed, this world is getting dangerous, but more so for people like Srinivas Kuchibhotla and his friend; the Indian engineers who were shot in a Kansas bar by a white man yelling Get out of my country! The shooter thought he was doing the Nation a favor by eradicating two men who looked like Muslims.

As Reverend Graham ponders the danger of the world from the safety of his home, I would like to introduce him to someone who could not walk the streets in safety. He was the Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Beni Suef, a rural town in the south of Egypt. His name was Athanasius, and when he passed away in the year 2000, he had governed his diocese for nearly four decades. During that time he had witnessed the consequences of others opening the Box, and experienced the reality that violent speech eventually can and will translate into physical violence.

As I write this blog, the Coptic Christians in Egypt, are under attack again. This time they are fleeing from their homes in Sinai where Islamic State radicals are hunting them down.[2] It serves us to remember how this condensation of hatred and intolerance started. During the 1970s, firebrand Muslim preachers in mosques across Egypt had started preaching a message of intolerance and division between them and all who disagreed with them. Christians were their easy and immediate targets, and the Bishop faced the devastating task of burying many a parishioner murdered just for being a Christian.

He saw churches in his diocese go up in flames, and villages reduced to ashes after interreligious riots erupted. Yet I never heard him say one bad word about anyone, whatever their faith or orientation. Being a bishop he could rely on a long and intense training of deep spiritual searching in the desert where he had lived as a monk. Facing the elements, harsh cold or heat, scarcity of food and comfort, he had learned to seek joy in the knowledge that there was a truth and a higher purpose that far surpassed him as individual human being. It had instilled in him a deep senses of humility and the knowledge that if God created all, we are all one, even if on the face of it we are riddled by difference and division. It had taught him not to judge.

Whenever I was in Egypt, I would visit him. A few months before he died, I mustered the courage to ask him why he never got angry about what some of the Muslim radicals had done to him and his church. When there is violence in our country, we all suffer, he said. In fact, the ones committing violence suffer the most; their lives become fractured, their minds race thinking of what they can do next, they become like ships without an anchor and crash on the rocks.

A few minutes later he added that hating was more difficult than loving: I have never met anybody I did not love. You see, regardless of faith, country, or how people live their lives, I imagine all I meet to be carrying a letter of reference from Christ Himself. The attitude came naturally; the Bishop lived by the idea that Jesus did not hoover over us up in the sky but joined us in the mud.

The Bishop cared for people; for everybody. It made him one of the most beloved religious leaders in the south of Egypt. In spite of all the violence, he persisted in never shutting down the channels of human kindness. Nobody asking his help left empty handed; he sat with them, visited their homes, and made sure they had money, food, clothes, medical care, and proper housing.

The Bishop refused to be afraid or to give in to intolerance and prejudice and saw no other way to keep Pandoras Box shut than to never be afraid or speak ill of others. He has been dead now for nearly two decades, but the stories told about his acts of kindness are still multiplying. The majority come from Muslims. Scores continue to remember the Bishop, trying to honor him by following his example. They call him the living Gospel.

We can all take a clue from the high bar he set. The season of Lent has just started. I suggest our fasting includes condemning violent hate speech, and refraining from thinking evil and speaking evil.