Billy Graham’s support for Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has received a lot of criticisms for being too political.
Romney visited Graham and his son, Franklin Graham, at their home in North Carolina earlier last month, Graham praised the Mormon politician for his strong biblical values. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association also published articles urging Americans to vote based on Biblical values. Unlike Obama, Romney is in favor of preserving traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman and does not support abortion.
Furthermore, an article which labelled Mormons as “cults” was removed from the BGEA website.
Larry Ross, spokesperson for Billy Graham said in an email, “throughout his public ministry for more than 60 years, Mr Graham has been careful to remain non-partisan, but has been a consistent advocate for a biblical worldview and taken a strong stand for biblical values with respect to political issues.
In response of criticisms for showing hospitality to Romney, Ross defended by saying that a lot of politicians and presidential candidates did the same thing in the past which included Obama.
Ross said that “the biblical values ads sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) that ran the following week are also consistent with both the mission of the ministry and Billy Graham’s personal methodology throughout his public ministry to diligently and consistently remain politically neutral and non-partisan” He added that “against backdrop of moral decline and a cultural shift in our nation that reflects timely issues, Mr Graham’s quotation in the ad is an extension of his faithful preaching of a timeless message and strong stand on biblical values for more than six decades.”
The controversy regarding Billy Graham’s support for Mitt Romney will not be settled anytime soon. Meanwhile, we can see Graham’s strong mission in holding onto biblical values.
