As part of their pander to the religious right, Fox News seems to have become the official mainstream media (!) outlet for the Billy Graham empire. When Billy's son Franklin was disinvited from a Pentagon National of Prayer event after having made anti-Islamic comments (Islam is "evil"), Fox had his back. Sean Hannity whitewashed Graham's anti-Obama commentary. And when Billy Graham turned 95, Sean Hannity honored him with a special TV homage which was pimped on Fox & Friends. Grateful for Fox's support, Franklin said that God is "using" Fox News. And now that publicly funded charter schools have been warned that their official participation in a toy drive sponsored by "Operation Christmas Child," a ministry of Graham's Samaritan's Purse, is problematic, Fox News's ultimate Christian culture clubber, Todd Starnes, is fired up!
Starnes Fox News article, also featured on Fox News Insider, reports that an evil humanist organization has threatened to sue two charter schools because, they contend, the school's participation in the toy drive is a First Amendment violation. Unable to fund a court fight, the Sky View School in Colorado dropped the project. But heroic school students bravely "defied" the humanists by taking the toy collection boxes outside the school. Starnes did provide one comment in defense of the humanist position; but he ended his piece with this scorching riposte to the humanists:
"But even worse than that, nobody likes a humanist who gets their underwear in a bunch over American school kids trying to make sure poor children have a merry Christmas.In the words of the Grinch, “pucker up and kiss it,” humanists."
As noted in the letter, sent to the schools by the American Humanist Association, "the purpose and effect of Operation Christmas Child is to induce impoverished children to convert to Christianity, the school’s promotion of this program violates the Constitution."
Samaritan's Purse is clearly a religious organization and should not be promoted in schools which receive tax dollars. The same thing would apply to - say - a campaign run by Catholic Charities. What would Starnes think about students providing contributions for a group run by an Islamic charity? What Starnes either doesn't know or chooses to ignore is that in addition to toys, the boxes contain a conversion pledge which the child can sign. The website for the project makes the case for the secularists: "Gift-filled shoeboxes are a powerful way to introduce children to God’s greatest gift, salvation through Jesus Christ."
Toddles loves the Second Amendment but doesn't seem to understand the First (except when the evil gay agenda is trying to suppress the rights of good homophobic Christians) If Todd Starnes thinks that this isn't a violation of the First Amendment, he can keep on pretending!
Wonder if we'll see Toddles whining about this on Fox TV?!
And considering the fact the article includes “Franklin Graham Charity” in the title should have raised an IMMEDIATE warning flag to you that there wasn’t going to be a purely humanitarian mission in mind. Franklin Graham is the most noxious piece of scum operating as a servant of Christ. (I’d love to be there on “Judgment Day” to see the look on Graham’s face when Jesus himself kicks old Frankie-poo down to the fiery pits for failing to live His teachings, instead of shystering His teachings.)
