Prophecy: Long before Trump, legendary evangelist Billy Graham warned against the toxic potential of mixing religion and politics.
Speaking with Parade magazine in 1981, the famed evangelist declared that religious leaders “can’t be closely identified with any particular party or person.”
At the time, Graham was criticizing the work of Jerry Falwell, founder of the infamous anti-gay group known as “The Moral Majority.”
Snopes investigated the statement after a meme went viral quoting Graham as saying:
"I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."
god spoke through him
If god don't like it , then why is it happening ?
Snopes found the quote cited in the meme to be true and accurate.
Speaking of Falwell in the 1981 interview, Graham said:
I told him to preach the Gospel. That’s our calling. I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. Liberals organized in the ’60s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the ’80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.
In the interview Graham went on to make it clear that he was not a part of Falwell’s anti-gay political movement:
"It would be unfortunate if people got the impression all evangelists belong to that group. The majority do not. I don’t wish to be identified with them. I’m for morality. But morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak out with such authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists can’t be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle to preach to all people, right and left. I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future".