As the pulpit for the radical Christian right, Fox News has a cozy relationship with Rev. Franklin Graham. That Billy Graham's son actually thinks that God works through Fox News isn't surprising given that Fox allows him a pulpit from which to preach about Christian victimhood, a popular Fox meme seen in their defense of Graham when his anti-Islamic rhetoric earned him a dis-invite from a Pentagon Prayer Day service. So, in the spirit of the season, the virulently homophobic Graham visited Megyn Kelly for a pleasant chat about how nasty secularists hate Jesus.
Wednesday, Kelly opened with some juicy war on Christmas agitprop: "it is now just two weeks until sparkle day in the city of Pittsburgh PA. What is sparkle day, you ask. It used to be Christmas and this is just another example in what my next guest calls a growing hostility towards the sacred holiday for millions and millions of Americans." There was laughter off set as she said that her guest, Rev. Franklin Graham, must be "looking forward" to sparkle day As the chyron read "Taking the Religion Out of Christmas," Franklin's response was a whine about "the secular and the humanists who are wanting to take Jesus Christ out of his birthday and they're wanting to deny that he ever exists." The chyron framed the message: Graham: Decades of Increased Hostility Towards Christians."
Kelly sat in rapt attention as Graham, who believes that Pres. Obama is a secret Muslim, accused the government of "attacking Christmas" and the "name of Christ." (No specifics) Underscoring Fox's Christian mission, Graham preached that Jesus came "to save us for our sins." He yammered about Jesus' death on the cross and how faith alone will save us. (Kelly's Catholic Church says it's faith and good works but I digress...) He yammered about divisions in our country (Thank U Fox News) and how only Jesus can unite us. (And who cares about those Jews, amiright?)
Kelly, whose legs are two of Roger Ailes most prized possessions, asked Graham what he thought about "a world in which in your face sexuality, Miley Cyrus, the sex tapes stardom of people like Kim Kardashian, this culture where we have, you know, certain songs with the filthy lyrics that are put in our face on the Grammy's when we watch with our children." In blowing her racist dogwhistle and doing her famous "scary black man thing," she alluded to how singers use "gangsta signs that are some way of communicating with their fellow human beings." She then snarled about how Nativity scenes "are too offensive." (No specifics)
Graham preached about how "we are glorifying sin" and that "hell is a real place," but Jesus does forgive sins just as Grahams's sins were washed clean when he accepted Jesus as his savior. Kelly validated the War on Christmas meme when, after saying how "amazing" it is that people are offended by Christmas, she cited some Christmas crimes as compiled by Graham.
She spoke of Sparkle Days in Pittsburgh and banned poinsettias (something making the rounds of Christian blogs in 2002.) She advanced a big fat Christmas lie as told by Todd Starnes and picked up by Graham; i.e. that a VA hospital banned performance of Christmas carols in public places. (The hospitals didn't want to force Christmas Carols on all patients, some of whom were non-Christians so the carolers were offered the option of performing in the chapel and a day room). She referenced those nasty atheist billboards which, OMG, tell people not to go to church on Christmas. (Fox had something say about that!) She reported that a Maryland school district (another Fox outrage) "stripped religious holidays after Muslim leaders complained." (The holidays remained, only the description was removed). She snarled that she could go "on and on." Graham praised Kelly for using her program to "expose this" and urged Christians to defend "their rights" which are being lost.
Kelly cued up her endorsement of Graham's charity, Samaritans Purse, with the right wing trope about how, in the good old days, churches, not government, provided relief for the poor. The rest of the segment was about the awesomeness of Graham's "Operation Christmas Child" which sends stuff to kids, around the world. Kelly provided website information for those who want to donate. Not mentioned was that the care package includes a book about Jesus.
Megyn Kelly just exudes Christianity from every one of her pretty pores. Ya think!
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/12/12/Fox-News-takes-back-sparkling-report-on-Pittsburgh/stories/201412120057