John McCain DID NOT “Rebuff” Billy Graham

Rumors and Lies can be distructive. The real scoop by Gary Bauer: Over the past 24 hours, I have received numerous emails from conservatives reacting angrily to the news that Sen. John McCain rejected an offer to meet with Reverend Billy Graham. Rush Limbaugh reported the story on his show yesterday, as well. The story is false and, to his credit, Rush later acknowledged that. But, e-mails are now swirling around cyberspace alleging that the Republican presidential nominee has spurned one of America’s most beloved Christian leaders. Here are the facts.

Several months ago, Senator McCain’s campaign contacted Franklin Graham’s office directly, letting them know that the senator would be willing to meet with the Graham family. In recent weeks, Texas Pastor Brian Jacobs contacted the McCain campaign offering to arrange a meeting between the senator and Billy Graham. The McCain campaign, knowing that there had already been contact with Franklin Graham, politely declined the offer.

Here’s just the first sentence of a statement released yesterday by a spokesman for Franklin Graham: “The offer to meet with Mr. Graham was extended by someone who is not in an official capacity to arrange such a meeting, nor is he affiliated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.” The spokesman later added, “We don’t know who this Brian Jacobs is – we had to Google him to find out.” Unfortunately, for whatever reason, certain individuals, whose agenda remains unclear, and who were not speaking for Billy Graham, went to the press to make a story out of a non-issue. One of the individuals involved, by the way, has issued a press release announcing that he is making himself available for media interviews!

My friends, allow me to speak bluntly: This kind of embarrassing nonsense has got to stop. Our movement is on the verge of being totally overwhelmed by the Left, while some on the Right are engaged in petty, self-destructive bickering, doing the Left’s work by dividing and demoralizing fellow conservatives. The primaries are over. Either Barack Obama or John McCain will be president. Period. And there are very clear differences between them. (Click here to learn more.) Now is the time for us to work together to prevent the election of the most radical candidate in my lifetime. If we were serious about winning and serious about defending our values, all conservatives would be coming together to prevent a national disaster on Election Day.

I realize that many conservatives have disagreements with John McCain on some issues. So do I. But in this election, Senator McCain is not our enemy. Yet, as long as our movement remains divided and splintered, we will guarantee our defeat. Remember Ross Perot? Remember Ralph Nader? If Obama wins in November, every conservative in this country will be forced to watch for four or eight years while the values we cherish are attacked and destroyed. I don’t know how many different ways I can say this, but I will continue saying it until Election Day, because too much is at stake for men and women of faith and conservatives of all stripes to sit out this election. As Edmund Burke so rightly observed, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Conservatives who cannot appreciate the differences between John McCain, who suffered tremendously while defending his country, and Barack Obama, who opposes virtually everything conservatives cherish, will, in my opinion, bear considerable responsibility for the judges Obama will appoint, for the continuation of Roe v. Wade, the likely redefinition of marriage in every state of the union and for whatever foreign policy and economic disasters result from the election of such an inexperienced and naïve leftist.

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