The Self-Parody of Franklin Graham

 

I have a church history. I sat in a hard wooden pew three times a week from the age of 12 until I went off to college at 18 (and found perdition). I've been harangued as a hormonal teenager by a pastor who demanded I reject worldly ways and turn away from temptation. I've been told by another preacher of the Gospel that I was inviting the Devil into my life by watching TV. I've been electrified by an evangelist who told us, as Christians, that we had every right to demand God smite the wicked wicked world on our behalf, and that if we did not pray with muscle and sweat, we were insufficient in our faith. I've been elated -- transported into the bare rafters -- by a visiting Christian platform performer who embodied the bubbling smug champagne of knowing we're saved and most others are lost.

I freed myself of preachers. I turned to other idols. Great is the God Irony. 

Last Thursday, Reverend Franklin Graham posted on Facebook an hilarious self-parody of the preacherdom I left behind:

I do not believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ — that would certainly be inappropriate. I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing — he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post.

 

It's weak, limping around "that would certainly be inappropriate" with "I'm thankful the President has made it very clear yada yada" -- because, after all, Franklin Graham has been the main one to say that Trump is ordained by God and represents the living hand of Jesus Christ on earth. Which boxes the preacher in. "I do not believe Trump would depict himself as Jesus" is just plain bearing false witness. I chuckled as I read it. Pride goeth.