Graham Blends God, Country at the Pentagon

He is a modern-day crusader, an unapologetic Christian missionary who wants to bring humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Iraqis, most of whom are adherents of a religion he has branded “very evil and wicked”: Islam.

But if the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, has been stung by increasing criticism and suspicion over his true motives for wanting to enter Iraq, he’s chosen not to lie low until the controversy wanes. Instead, he spent Friday preaching at, of all places, the Pentagon.

While his sermon at the Pentagon services hewed to the meaning of Good Friday, and he made no mention of Islam, Graham freely mixed God and country, the sacred and the patriotic.

“Holy Week is a week where we celebrate and remember the price that was paid for our freedom,” he told a standing-room-only crowd that included one of his sons, a West Point cadet. “And of course, this week we look back on the events of the last few weeks and we come today to thank God for this nation.”

A group of Muslim employees at the Pentagon had protested Graham’s invitation because of the evangelist’s previous statements about their religion. The Muslims did not, however, demand that the invitation be rescinded, nor did they demonstrate against the services in progress.