Graham is coming to border. He shouldn’t
The Rev. Franklin Graham is coming to the U.s.-mexico border in February.
He’ll start in Texas before heading to Arizona and California.
The majority of places he’ll visit on his 10-city “God Loves You Tour” are in the borderlands of South Texas.
It sounds innocuous, even innocent, like an old-fashioned tent revival. It will be a worship event featuring local faith leaders and Christian music that will no doubt be moving. Graham is the closer.
He’s the son of one of the world’s most famous evangelists, Billy Graham, a preacher of presidents who was political, too.
There are no doubt similarities, yet Franklin Graham isn’t his father’s son. His is an extreme voice.
He preaches an “anti” agenda: anti-immigration, anti-women, ANTI-LGBTQ rights.
Graham says the trip has nothing to do with politics, that he isn’t embarking on a tour because 2024 is a critical presidential election year.
A liberal faith group doesn’t believe him and is circulating a national, online petition calling on venues not to host his crusade. They hope to essentially cancel the tour, which has lined up the support of about 1,000 churches throughout the Southwest, according to news reports.
Graham says he’s going to the border “because it is one of the neediest areas of our country.” In any other year, that mission might be welcome.
Immigration, he insists, isn’t “a Bible thing.”
The group behind the petition sees that particular Graham stance as offensive, an obtuse narrative. “There are few topics the Bible addresses more,” states Faithful America.
They want Graham to stay home. The group has gathered more than 20,000 signatures from folks who agree. The petition calls the tour hypocritical.
Then there’s the irony in the tour’s name: “God Loves You.” Except, of course, if you’re brown and show up at the U.s.mexico border asking for asylum — which is legal, by the way.
It’s also where Gov. Greg Abbott has declared war on immigrants and militarized sections of the border.
Critics acknowledge Graham won’t preach against immigration from the pulpit. But they point to what he does outside worship services.
They contend he’s really on a tour of right-wing radio stations and extreme, conspiracy-driven outlets.
Think insurrectionist vibes. The Rev. Ann Helmke, cofounder of the San Antonio Peace Center and the city of San Antonio’s faith-based liaison, asks that we step back and see what the Bible says and what Jesus did.
Helmke says both ask us to welcome the stranger, which aligns with another universal tenet called the golden rule, treating others as you’d like to be treated in turn.
It’s “almost all Jesus ever said,” she said. If you’re not welcoming the stranger, you’re not welcoming him.
“At the root of his message, the most radical thing about Christianity, in my mind, is to love your neighbor, love God and love your enemy.”
“That’s the gig. If we’re not welcoming the stranger, that’s not love,” she said.
Retired Methodist Bishop Joel Martinez agreed, pointing to the global work of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis and his bishops to live out that biblical command.
He points to the Book of Matthew, in which Jesus speaks to how nations and their policies will be judged: by that standard of welcoming the stranger.
“That is clear as can be,” Martinez said. “Jesus himself was an immigrant,” adding that he experienced the terror and fear many immigrants experience today as they cross borders.
Martinez also pulled out the Methodist Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church. It’s unequivocal as well.
“We oppose immigration policies that separate family members from each other, or that include detention of families with children, and we call on local churches to be in ministry with immigrant families.”
It’s also evident in the farright evangelicals who embrace mission work across the world — as long as all those people stay away from U.S. borders.
It’s where their humanitarianism ends.
The “God Loves You Tour” comes as Congress works toward a bipartisan immigration bill the Biden administration supports. It’s unlikely to pass given that the former president wants it to fail. He may support its goals, including a halt to asylum, but the former president is motivated to deny Biden a bipartisan success.
Graham begins his swing through Texas on Feb. 24 in Brownsville, followed by Mcallen, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Presidio and El Paso. The venues include the Brownsville Sports Park, the Payne Area in Mcallen, a high school in Del Rio and even Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, where federal and state officials have been at odds.
It wraps up March 9 in Chula Vista, Calif.
God help us.