Franklin Graham’s unpersuasive attempt to address the Samaritan’s Purse controversy

Franklin Graham, president of an evangelical relief organization called Samaritan’s Purse and also head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, is obviously aware of the controversy surrounding his desire to provide aid to families in Iraq.

Since news of Graham’s ambition was reported, a small firestorm has erupted. Even White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer declined to comment when asked what the administration thought of Graham’s plans to provide relief assistance in Iraq.

As Steven Waldman, editor of Beliefnet, an online source for religion news, noted in his column this week, “news of Graham’s activities is starting to spread in the Muslim media.” As Waldman reported, the publisher of a British Muslim magazine responded to Graham’s plans by writing, “For the few remaining Muslims who doubted the crusading nature of the coalition forces, the final blow came last week.” An Arabic news website, khalifah.com, learned of Graham’s intentions and said they reinforce “the conviction among some Arabs and Muslims that the U.S.-led war of aggression on Iraq is part of a new ‘crusade’ campaign.”

Graham decided to take on these criticisms directly by publishing an op-ed essay in yesterday’s LA Times under the headline, “No Strings Attached: For Iraq’s suffering people, aid is aid — Christian or otherwise.”

Graham seems confused about why his intentions seem so contentious. More likely, he’s just doing his best to change the debate.

“Our team is made up of veterans of war-relief projects in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Rwanda and Somalia and includes a doctor, an engineer and a water specialist,” Graham writes. “Funded by volunteer donors, they will be able to quickly provide clean drinking water to 20,000 people, temporary shelters for 4,000 families and medical supplies for 100,000 Iraqis.” All of this is true, of course, but not particularly relevant. No one has argued that Samaritan’s Purse can’t provide aid; the debate is over whether Graham’s group should provide aid.

Graham adds, “I imagine those who may be starving or in need of emergency medical attention in the coming days and weeks of this conflict in Iraq would not debate the appropriateness of faith-based relief assistance.” Also true, but still missing the point. The utility of religiously-affiliated organizations providing relief in Iraq is not controversial, just the benefits of Franklin Graham providing that relief.

Here’s the important paragraph from Graham’s essay: “In Iraq, as is the case wherever we work, Samaritan’s Purse will offer physical assistance to those who need it, with no strings attached. We don’t have to preach in order to be a Christian relief organization. Sometimes the best preaching we can do is simply being there with a cup of cold water, exhibiting Christ’s spirit of serving others.”

This is demonstrably false. Graham is avoiding responsibility for his ugly, divisive remarks about Islam and he’s misrepresenting the work Samaritan’s Purse has done in the past.

Graham must realize that when he said that Islam is “a very evil and wicked religion,” as he did two months after 9/11, he effectively lost credibility as an altruistic religious leader intent on providing a helping hand. It’s remarks like these that have made his plan to help in Iraq so divisive, not the fact that his group is a faith-based enterprise.

But more importantly, Graham is simply not telling the truth when he says Samaritan’s Purse’s aid comes with “no strings attached” and that his group doesn’t “have to preach in order to be a Christian relief organization.”

The point is Samaritan’s Purse does not operate this way. Just last week, the international director of Graham’s group told the Religion News Service that the group “does not deny the name of Christ.” He added, “We believe in sharing him in deed and in word.” He said if Samaritan’s Purse provides relief in Iraq, “We’ll be who we are.”

And that’s the problem. This is an evangelical organization that seeks to convert non-Christians. As I mentioned earlier this week, when Samaritan’s Purse went to El Salvador in 2001 to help families recovering from two devastating earthquakes, the group distributed fundamentalist tracts to victims, encouraged villagers to accept Jesus as their personal savior, and held 30-minute prayer meetings before showing residents how to construct the temporary houses. Strings were attached. They did feel the need to preach.

The group’s director in El Salvador made in quite clear: “We are first a Christian organization and second an aid organization. We can’t really separate the two.”

If that’s true, and Samaritan’s Purse can’t separate the two, then the Bush administration must ask Franklin Graham to keep his group out of Iraq. It will be a tremendous challenge to convince the people of Iraq and its neighbors that it is America’s intention to “liberate” the country and our goals are compassionate, not imperialistic. Graham’s presence will make this difficult task infinitely more complicated, and perhaps even dangerous.

I know Graham and Bush are friends. I’m hoping Bush has the courage to tell his friend, “Thanks, but no thanks.”