The Media Research Center’s Tim Graham kicked off a Nov. 18 post by complaining that “pseudoconservative David Brooks” had accused Christian supporters of Roy Moore of being “heretics” who are practicing “idolatry” by almost voicing an unequivocal condemnation of Moore:
One can understand the “making an idol out of politics” part, but “heresy” means something different to religious folks than it does to David Brooks. It means a false teaching against the core teachings of Christianity, a rejection of orthodoxy. He’s not exactly separating church and state on the special election. Personally, I think the charges against Moore are serious enough that I would withhold my vote from him.
Graham doesn’t live in Alabama, so he’ll never have to act on that. Unfortunately, he went on to justify voting for Moore anyway because no matter how “serious” those charges against Moore are, simply being a Democrat like his opponent, Doug Jones, is infinitely worse:
But a Christian could look at the two choices left on the ballot and say if I need a Senator to vote against abortion, against the LGBT agenda, and for religious liberty, one cannot vote for the Democrat. That would be closer to a heretical vote, if we’re buying the Brooks definition.
Graham then went on to defend right-wing evangelical Franklin Graham for standing by Graham, with a quick pivot to the Clinton Equivocation:
Franklin Graham spoke to Roy Moore on the phone, and is accepting Moore’s denials of wrongdoing. He tweeted “The hypocrisy of Washington has no bounds. So many denouncing Roy Moore when they are guilty of doing much worse than what he has been accused of supposedly doing. Shame on those hypocrites.” This drew angry tweets from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Andrew Kaczynski. But on its face, if Rev. Graham is talking about the Clintons and their defenders, then he has a point. The Broaddrick rape charge is a very serious charge that a vast majority of liberal journalists have dismissed as fake news for decades — which makes them look hypocritical on Moore.
Finally, Graham attacked the Washington Post for its purported political motivation in running the story on Moore’s history of perving on teenage girls — with even more Clinton Equivocation:
Nowhere in this PBS discussion is there any questioning the timing or the liberal tilt of The Washington Post, who for whatever reason couldn’t locate these charges until the very convenient (for Democrats) time that Alabama could not change the ballot. There was no reflection by Brooks that the Post sat on its Juanita Broaddrick story in 1999 — as did NBC News — until Bill Clinton was safely spared in a Senate impeachment trial. So are they hypocrites, or heretics? Once again, the press doesn’t discuss its own political maneuvering.
Graham doesn’t question why, if this story has been out there so long, why right-wing media outlets — like the MRC’s own CNSNews.com — didn’t beat the Post to the punch and defuse it before Moore got the GOP nomination. Sounds like he’s just mad that the truth was told at all.
You know, we’re starting to doubt that Graham was telling the truth when he said he wouldn’t vote for Moore. He’s laboring hard to give Alabama voters every reason why they should.