Christian influence
Dear editor:
I was always a fan of Billy Graham. I began listening to his radio messages as a boy, then later followed his crusades via television. His organization provided little if any conflict of interest and he ended his career squeaky clean, unlike the vast number of TV evangelists today.
However, I have never cared for his son Franklin, who seems to be far, far right and tends to mix religion and politics a bit too much. His Sunday, June 2, "special day of prayer for the President of the United States" is a good example. Now, regardless of the fact that I am not a supporter of the POTUS, I do pray for him and his staff regularly, as St. Paul admonishes us to do, "Pray for kings and all those in authority that through their leadership we may all lead a life of godliness and dignity."
But Franklin Graham's special prayer day had a very different theological cast to it. He made very clear that the prayers were not to be so much for the POTUS's leadership toward integrity as much as prayer for his political favor. Franklin recounted all the various enemies that our current POTUS has who have attempted to make his supposed accomplishments look bad. Franklin described all these efforts as evil.
Just who are all these enemies? The Democratic Party? Robert Mueller? The many "never-Trump GOP members of the past? Is it "evil" to question the leadership of the POTUS, regardless of who he is or which party he belongs to? What if Nixon had never been questioned? What if Watergate had been dismissed only as a terrible political error? What if Sen. McCarthy in the 50s as a member of Congress looking under every possible place for Communists had not been questioned? We would not have the United States of America had our forefathers (most of then well-to-do financially) had not questioned King George's actions.
I must agree with the GOP columnist Micheal Gerson in his June 4 syndicated column when he states: "In their day of prayer, Graham and other Trump evangelicals have used a sacred spiritual practice for profane purposes. They have subordinated religion to politics. They have elevated Trump as a symbol of divine purposes. And they are using Christian theology as a cover for their partisanship."
Real honest Christian influence is needed in American politics. Evangelicals should be making a broad plea for human dignity, opposing dehumanization in political discourse, promoting racial reconciliation, and protecting civil liberties of all religious folk. Politicizing faith on the right or left makes the gospel secondary, and in the end produces more unbelievers or at least those with no faith at all. Surely, true ministers of the gospel understand this!
John W. "Doc" Crawford
Hot Springs
Why the Trump bashing?
Dear editor:
I have enjoyed reading The Sentinel-Record and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspapers through the years, especially the editorial pages. These have been my favorite and I couldn't wait until I could get to them. But not anymore.
Why do these editorial pages keep battering President Trump when the majority of people in Arkansas voted for him? Can't you give credit to Mr. Trump for some of the positive things he has done for this country and is still trying to do?
Take, for instance, the amazing speech he gave on Thursday in France commemorating the heroes of D-Day. My husband and I are university graduates, and we thought his speech was very well written and well presented. However, one of the articles in the Sentinel on Saturday, June 7, just couldn't give him a full measure of approval.
Also, the cartoons are not funny.
Pat Gladden
Hot Springs
Clarification
In a Letter to the Editor in Sunday's edition, by Lloyd Hoffman, the following sentence should have stated: "Obviously, God is the storm Maker!"
Editorial on 06/18/2019