Billy Graham’s son Franklin Graham opposes evangelism in China during Olympics!
“American evangelist Franklin Graham came under fire this week for saying he opposed evangelism during the Beijing Olympic Games.
Graham had made the comment to Chinese reporters during his recent trip to mainland China, where he visited government officials, church leaders, and preached to 12,000 people at a Chinese megachurch.
The eldest son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham said he opposed missionary work during the Games because it is prohibited under Chinese law, and he does not encourage anything illegal. [End times comment: what! This is not the instruction of the Bible, We must obey God and not man! Following Frankin Graham's example, few of the early church would have evangelised as it was illegal, and they would not have been martyred....]
In response, a respected religious freedom activist defended Chinese house church Christians as “law-abiding, patriotic citizens” who are not doing anything wrong except following their faith which teaches them to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
“[Christians] cannot and will not [concede] to a ‘faith moratorium’ in order to please an atheistic government during the Olympic Games, even if that means enduring imprisonment and torture,” said Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association, in a statement on Wednesday.
Fu, who was recently honored by President Bush for his religious freedom advocacy in China, denounced the Chinese law as unjust because it asked Christians to go against the teachings of Jesus Christ.
He called Graham’s comment about submitting to the ban on Olympic evangelism “a deep offense” to the hundreds of house church prisoners and their family members.
In China, the Christian population is divided into two groups – those worshipping in the state-sanctioned churches under the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and those attending unregistered house churches.
TSPM leaders have publicly stated that foreign evangelistic efforts during the Beijing Olympics are not welcome or tolerated, Fu said. But house churches feel differently.
“To the house church leaders, it’s an issue of the lordship of Christ to the church,” Fu explained to OneNewsNow. “And if the church ceases to do evangelism, is it the true church? It’s a big question.”
Religious freedom has improved in communist China in recent years, but the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) this year still recommended the State Department to keep China on its religious freedom blacklist because of its treatment of house churches and religious minorities not recognized by the Chinese government.
Recent persecution of unregistered churches include the arrest of 270 Protestant house church pastors in December, and the expulsion of more than 100 foreign missionaries last summer – the largest event of its kind since 1954 after the communist government took power in 1949.
Article from http://www.christianpost.com/
because it is prohibited under Chinese law, and he does not encourage anything illegal.
One would hope for the sake of Franklin’s soul, he never lives anywhere it is illegal to be a Christian… He seems to be offering Ceasar a wee bit more than Ceasar is due on this score.
Remind me again what qualifications Franklin has to be so well known? Oh that is right…
Sort of makes Catholic sensibilities on ministerial celibacy not look so bad after all, eh?
Franklin Graham was not talking about Chinese citizens. He was talking about groups outside of China coming in and jeopardizing the progress that has been made towards a more open church and open evangelism because they were not familiar with the culture and laws about evangelism in China. He in no way meant “let’s stop evangelizing China.” The whole reason he was in China was to forge more trust with the government and to attempt to ease some of the Christian persecution. For further clarification on his true intentions go to http://www.billygraham.org.
I don’t think it matters whether he was talking about residents or newcomers/foreigners - he said he does not advocate breaking the laws against evangelism, which is not at all biblical, is it?
Maybe Franklin Graham did speak out of turn. However, since it is a very sensitive issue, it would have been better to control his tongue and not say anything at all.
I think it is a sad fact that western believers have no understanding of what it is like to face real persecution.
The Chinese house churches really understand what it is to pick up a cross and follow Jesus. When doing that could mean imprisonment or even death, I reckon that puts you in a position of total reliance on Jesus doesn’t it?
The testimonies I have read from Chinese Christians and others who have suffered for the Lord really makes the ‘laughing’ revivals utterly laughable.
Genuine spiritual gifts or supernatural occurances, like the ability to run miles and miles after being beaten on the legs or when imprisoned finding the doors to the outside being left open for no apparent reason.
What do we get in the west? laughing, shaking, animal noises and being stuck to the floor?
How utterly pointless is that?
In those places where there is persecution, like in China, the church is growing faster and faster … in the West, it is shrinking. How many ‘moves of God’ have there been in the last 15 years? It hasn’t had any affect on the decline of Western Christianity.
Shalom
If Franklin Graham really doesn’t advocate anything illegal why has he been so keen to support the illegal invasion of Iraq by the US led Coalition forces under Bush? This has predictably led to an enormous amount of death,torture and suffering by Iraqi civilians at the hands of so-called “christain” military forces……………….. not that we actually bother to count the Iraqi dead. It has also led to the almost compolete annihilation of the Iraqi Christian Church, most of whose former members are either now dead or refugees in other countries.
One senses a degree of hypocrasy here. Is Franklin worried that evangelical activity in China might detract from US Gold medals and the US “Christians in Sports” brigade who attribute their wins to God!!?
It breaks my heart to see the son of Billy Graham sharing the stage with heretics Paul and Jan Crouch.He is lending credibility to them,just as his father lended credibility to charlatan faith healer Oral Roberts,many years ago.It makes you wonder what Franklin is thinking,what he is all about.