Earlier this week, news broke that the Reverend Franklin Graham was bolting the GOP. But could he be the first in a wave of evangelicals on the way out the door?
The Rev. Franklin Graham quitting the Republican Party poses a significant blow to the GOP’s 2016 White House aspirations, especially if other evangelical pastors follow suit and their millions-plus congregations stay away from the polls.
Graham suggested earlier this week that the last straw was congressional Republicans funding Planned Parenthood in the recently passed, $1.8 trillion tax-and-spending package, despite revelations about the group harvesting fetal tissue.
However, he made clear Wednesday night that the funding was only part of the reason he left the GOP to become an independent.
“It’s not just that,” Graham said on Fox News’ “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “It’s the way the bill was passed. It came down so quickly. And it didn’t seem like anybody tried to fight it. It was just, ‘Let’s get home for Christmas.’ “
Graham, the son of evangelical leader Billy Graham, also expressed disappointment with GOP and Democratic leaders but insisted he’s not trying to lead a GOP exodus.
“I’m not here to hurt the Republican Party,” he said, adding that the GOP appears to have “some good candidates” in the 2016 White House race.
Earlier in the day, the Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus, head pastor for the New Life Covenant Church, in Chicago, expressed similar concerns.
“People already know how evangelicals feel about the sanctity of life,” he told FoxNews.com. “That’s a continual fight. But the government spending also speaks to us. That was the disappointment and frustration you heard in brother Graham’s tone.”
It’s clear that President Obama would have fought Congressional Republicans tooth and nail over the defunding of Planned Parenthood, but in forcing him to do so, the party could have exposed the truth about the gruesome organ trade Planned Parenthood was involved in. Graham is right to be upset; in most ways, Paul Ryan has behaved in the exact same manner as John Boehner. But it’s hard to see what evangelicals have to gain by abandoning the GOP. The party has been incredibly successful in winning victories against abortion at the state level, and broad evangelical turnout could be exactly what’s necessary to defeat Hillary Clinton, the most radical pro choice candidate the Democrats have ever run. Were evangelicals to stay home, it would all but ensure a Clinton victory, and the opportunity for the radical pro choice Clinton to appoint multiple Supreme Court Justices to the Supreme Court. These appointments would likely not be friendly on the matter of life, nor the matter of religious freedom. Both parties should take a moment to recognize what’s at stake here and reconcile.
AAN Staff
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