Billy Graham’s granddaughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, spoke at the Republican National Convention last night to recite the predictable pablum of the Religious Right.
No, it was worse than that. Mrs. Lynch spewed rank idolatry for the Republican party. It’s the kind of behavior that got Old Testament Balam scorched by the Lord.
But nowadays, she is only one among many, for Trump seems to keep a kennel of false prophets on hand for every conceivable occasion.
Lynch opened her speech with a declaration on the importance of “our faith.”
She didn’t mention whose faith happens to be our faith, but the confusion was quickly clarified. She meant the pagan, American faith placed in our blasphemous civil religion.
This became evident as she listed her topics of concern. They were all the gems of Religious Right activism: abortion, the Supreme Court, and transgendered civil liberties.
Lynch’s flawless interweaving of (1) her descent from Christian evangelist, Billy Graham, (2) a rote recounting of Religious Right political priorities, and (3) the themes of American civil religion all stamped Mrs. Lynch as yet another immoral Siren working hard to bewitch the innocent, the ignorant, and the depraved into shipwrecking themselves against the rocks of bogus national piety.
Alas, if only the Christian faith WAS being persecuted in America today! Perhaps the genuine church could finally shed itself of this dead wood and dull-witted false teachers.
Notice that Mrs. Lynch’s examples of what she means by the Christian faith being “bullied” in the public square all consisted of threats, not to Christian faith or practice, but to the various privileges that church institutions enjoy at public expense.
I am fairly certain that Jesus never commanded his disciples to build religious institutions like schools or hospitals while demanding tax breaks or other special dispensations denied others operating in the same public arena.
Tax breaks and exemptions are nice, if you can get them.
Just as religious institutions (operating in a world unto themselves, ignoring the standards to which others are held) are beneficial, if you can build them.
But PLEASE stop pretending that those things have anything to do with either religious freedom or practicing the Christian faith. They don’t.
Just as losing those privileges has nothing to do with a loss of religious liberty.
So, Cissie, listen up:
No one is stopping you from following Jesus through the American public square.
No one is prohibiting you from living out your faith to your heart’s content.
Stop confusing religious privileges with religious freedoms. They are very different animals.
And please stop the horrible confusion of American civil religion with the Christian gospel.
I fear that you’ve set your grandfather spinning in his grave.
