Rev. Franklin Graham expressed sympathy for some 20 victims, six of them dead, from a gunman’s attack in an Arizona Safeway store–even as he cautioned against hastily concluding political motivation.

Graham referred to the crazed shooting by 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner at US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others during a constituent meeting, The Christian Post said.

In a statement Graham said, “My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families in their time of loss and great suffering. [I pray] that they would sense His presence and comfort in their lives,” according to The Christian Post.

Graham cautioned against blaming politics saying, “If something horrific happens to a person, it does not mean those who hold differing views are responsible for the actions of a disturbed individual,” The Christian Post reported.

Those killed by Loughner include Federal District Judge John Roll, a nine-year-old child, and four others. Giffords, who was shot through the left lobe of her brain, is in a medically-induced coma and in critical condition, The Christian Post said.

The attack sparked national debate on the motivation for the shooting, with liberals blaming Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and conservatives, Politico said, even as conservatives blamed liberals and the media.

A Sarah Palin campaign map in September last year, which showed bulls-eye marks on Democratic districts as targets for the Republican campaign, was blamed, New York Magazine said.

Gifford told MSNBC last year, “We’re on Sarah Palin’s ‘targeted’ list, but the thing is, the way she has it depicted, we’re in the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve gotta realize that there are consequences to that action,” New York Magazine reported.

YouTube videos

Loughner posted many YouTube videos and a YouTube profile online, but he never spoke about the Tea Party or the health care bill. He was not on the Tea Party email list, nor was he a member of the Tucson Tea Party, Politico reported.

His reading choices were not rightist, but more liberal and leftist including Siddartha, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (which Politico said were “hippie cult books”) and the leftist The Communist Manifesto.

Troubled, nihilist

The Christian Post said he was “a high school dropout, military reject and loner” who posted YouTube videos suggesting that people create their own languages to avoid mind control.

Former professor Kent Slinker from Pima Community College (where he was expelled) said Loughner’s “brains were scrambled. His thoughts were unrelated to anything in our world,” The Christian Science Monitor reported.

In 2008 Loughner was cited for graffiti, UPI reported. He told a policeman that his tag is “Christian” referring to a ‘c’ and an ‘x.’ The Christian Science Monitor said Loughner suspected the government was controlling Americans through grammar.

New York Magazine said Loughner seemed to nurture a three-year grudge against Giffords when he asked her in a previous event, “What is government if words have no meaning?” To which Giffords answered in Spanish.

Mr. Pitcavage of the ADL, who is a hate crime expert, told The Christian Science Monitor, “It’s a pattern we see sometimes with hate crimes and sometimes with crimes against the government…that personal factors may be the primary mover to violence, and it’s the ideological component to their belief system that often will help them choose the target when they do decide to strike out.”

No time for political opportunism

Influential blogger Erick Erickson called efforts by the left and media to tie the Arizona shooting to conservatives “craven” and “irresponsible” adding, “[It] may very well incite violence to the right,” Politico reported.

Rev. Franklin said, “This is not a time for political opportunism. What frightens me is that our country has accepted murder, violence and rape as entertainment that we see portrayed every day on TV, movies and video games,” The Christian Post reported.

Franklin added, “I agree with Sheriff Clarence Dupnik when he alluded to the fact that this country needs some serious soul searching. If we as a nation are not careful, we could see the destruction of the foundation upon which this nation was built,” according to The Christian Post.

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A survey taken among Protestant pastors indicated that they believe George W. Bush is a Christian, and Oprah Winfrey is not.

The survey was conducted by LifeWay Research through some 1,000 telephone interviews of Protestant pastors nationwide on Oct. 7-14. They were asked, “Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?” The names listed were Oprah Winfrey, George W. Bush, Glenn Beck, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, PR Web said.

PR Web said the survey was taken among pastors leading Protestant churches. It said the survey is important because most Americans say that they are Christian, and Protestantism is the largest Christian denomination in the U.S.

P.R. Web noted that Protestant pastors adhere to specific theological beliefs and ideas of what it is to be a Christian. Because their opinions influence a large segment of America, it is essential to understand what they believe in.

PR Web said the findings were:

• Three-quarters of respondents believe former President George W. Bush is a Christian.
• Winfrey got the lowest score at 19 percent, followed by Beck, at 27 percent.
• Among the politicians, Bush at 75 percent got the highest score, followed by Palin at 66 percent. Obama got less than half at 41 percent.
• Four percent of the respondents said none of the people on the list are Christian, while 15 percent said they are “Not sure.”

Politicians

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay said that most Americans see “Christian” as a box that one checks in a survey form, while Protestant pastors have a more comprehensive view, considering terms like “evangelical,” “born again,” and a faith commitment, among others, as synonyms for Christianity, PR Web said.

This standard is applied when rating the names listed, which would be why only 41 percent considered Obama Christian, even though he is a mainline Protestant, Stetzer told PR Web. USA Today partly blamed the rating on groundless rumors that Obama is Muslim.

Conversely a Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey last August (which was focused on respondents who were not pastors) indicated that 43 percent of respondents were not sure of Obama’s religion. However, 34 percent said he is Christian, and 18 percent said he is Muslim, USA Today reported.

Personalities

Stetzer noted ironically that while most Americans think Oprah’s influence on American spirituality is good, most Protestant pastors don’t believe she is a Christian. He also noted that Glenn Beck may have scored low because he is Mormon, PR Web said.

Profile of respondents

Some factors in the profile of the respondents showed trends. For example, 88 percent of respondents who said they are Democrats with politics described as liberal or very liberal said Obama is a Christian, PR Web reported.

Only 31 percent of respondents who said they are conservative said Obama is Christian, and only 12 percent of those who described themselves as very conservative said Obama is Christian, according to PR Web.

In terms of age, among respondents aged 55 and older, 46 percent of them said Winfrey is Christian, and 83 percent said Obama is Christian. Among respondents aged below 55 years, only 30 percent said Winfrey is Christian, and 74 percent said Obama is Christian, PR Web said.

According to PR Web, churches were randomly selected, reflecting the geographic distribution of Protestant churches. Respondents were the church’s minister, senior pastor or priest. The survey has a 3.2 percent margin of error.

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Faithful America claims that Fox News commentator Glenn Beck preaches a false, piecemeal gospel and has sponsored a radio ad to counter some of the claims Beck has claims made by about Christianity.

The ad says “Would you support a leader who said Jesus’ teachings can lead to Nazi

Glenn Beck / yournews.com

sm? Or who attacks Christian pastors for preaching the full gospel? Then why do so many Christians tune into Glenn Beck? By deriding pastors who preach the justice taught by Jesus and the prophets, Glenn Beck has urged listeners to follow his piecemeal gospel. Scripture teaches that the tongue can be like a small fire that sets a whole forest ablaze, and Christians are cautioned not to praise God in one breath while cursing those made in God’s likeness in the next,” The Atlantic reported.

Beck has spoken out against social justice ideology that is based on faith, urging his viewers to leave churches that preach liberal social justice views.

According to Beck social justice is akin to wealth redistribution and is not in the Bible. Beck said that such ideology is founded on communism and Naziism and dramatically raised up a hammer and sickle and a swastika to further enhance his point, The Atlantic said.

By contrast, Faithful America’s Beth Dahlman cites the prophets and Jesus saying, Beck “has gone after what’s at the heart of what we believe our faith tradition says. For people in our community there is just no way to read scripture and not think about social justice. It’s our obligation as people of faith to take that seriously and to do all we can to make that good news a reality,” Time reported.

The ad launches the organization’s “Driven by Faith, Not by Fear” campaign, according to Time.

The ad will be aired on local Christian radio stations and is scheduled to coincide with Beck’s scheduled appearances in South Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Washington DC.

Faithful America is connected to Faith in the Public Life, an advocacy group that often takes positions on issues such as poverty, health care and immigration.

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