Via Yahoo:
DENVER – A watchdog group objected Tuesday to an evangelist's invitation to speak at the Pentagon next month, saying his past description of Islam as "evil" offended Muslims who work for the Department of Defense and the appearance should be canceled.
Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said inviting evangelist Franklin Graham to speak May 6, the National Day of Prayer, "would be like bringing someone in on national prayer day madly denigrating Christianity" or other religious groups.
It would also endanger American troops by stirring up Muslim extremists, Weinstein said.
Graham is the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham and president and CEO of both Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization in Boone, N.C., and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, in Charlotte, N.C.
Um, just a weird question--I get that Franklin Graham hates Islam and is bigoted towards a faith tradition that also prays, but didn't we just find out that the National Prayer Day idea in itself was probably un-Constitutional? And isn't it kind of divisive for the military to appear to be embracing any religion, anyway? So, regardless of whether any particular preacher should be representative (and they all probably have some bias against other religious traditions, in keeping with the faith towards their own)--is it representative of the nation as a whole when it leaves out all the non-believing vets and troops and the non-believing civilian Americans who support them? Does an acknowledgement by our military establishment of religion this way seem a little weird, no matter who participates?
The whole thing is a bit weird to me.
Just the kinds of questions I sometimes have....
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