Billy Graham association responds

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20121016/NEWS/310160066/Billy-Graham-association-responds?odyssey=nav%7Chead&nclick_check=1

 

 

ASHEVILLE — The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said today that it removed language from its website calling Mormonism a cult to avoid controversy.

The website article had listed as cults “Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, the Unification Church, Unitarians, Spiritists, Scientologists, and others.”

Rev. Billy Graham met with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a Mormon, at the evangelist’s Montreat home Thursday afternoon. Graham’s son, Franklin, also attended.

The article was removed from the website sometime after that meeting, which was held just before Romney addressed an estimated 10,000 supporters in Asheville.

“We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theological debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign,” Ken Barun, chief of staff for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Franklin Graham serves as chief executive officer for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and he questioned Romney’s Morman faith earlier this year.

Pressed during an interview on MSNBC, Graham would not say Romney is a Christian.

“He is a Mormon,” Franklin Graham said in February. “Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism ... but he would be a good president if he won the nomination.”