Healing the Racial Divide in America: Powerful Lessons from Franklin Graham and Ben Kinchlow

ANALYSIS

Accusations of racism are being hurled around the political landscape on a daily basis these days, often aimed at President Trump and anyone who supports him.

In the past few weeks, media outlets have directly labeled Trump as "racist" in wall-to-wall coverage of his comments about Baltimore and Rep. Elijah Cummings, or the so-called "Squad" of four minority congresswomen, dispensing with the usual journalistic pleasantries like "alleged racism" or "controversial comments". 

Racism is clearly a serious problem still in America. Since Trump's comments are all the rage, literally, evangelist Franklin Graham was asked to weigh in on the issue.

An Associated Press reporter asked if he thought President Donald Trump's tweets exposed him as a racist. Here's what Graham replied:

"I told him that I wanted to be clear—the President is not a racist. As others have pointed out, the Left has weaponized that word, and devalued it, using it all the time against anyone who disagrees with them. We need to pray for the President and for all of our leaders," he said.

Then the son of famous evangelist Billy Graham, who helped tear down racial barriers in his own time, took it a step further, offering the solution for racism in America.

"The real cure for the racial divide in our country is for hearts to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ," Franklin Graham concluded.

That brings us to our next point. This week the CBN family said farewell to Ben Kinchlow, holding a special memorial service for the man who had been an iconic co-host of The 700 Club alongside CBN Founder Pat Robertson.

That all started in the early 1970s, on the heels of the 60s race riots, at a time when the racial divide in America was quite fierce. "He broke through a color barrier on daily TV," CBN CEO Gordon Robertson explained on the 700 Club Friday. 

It wouldn't have happened without the power of God, because Kinchlow had become disillusioned by the racism he personally experienced in America, which filled his heart with anger and drove him to follow Malcolm X. 

"Then God got a hold of him, and he became a great witness of what could happen," Robertson continued. 

"Who does God pick him to pair with? [Pat Robertson], the son of a Democratic senator, my grandfather, who was part of the whole massive resistance to desegregation in the South," Robertson explained.

"And here comes Ben Kinchlow, on a daily program, holding hands with a white man, and saying, 'Let's pray together, and let's pray to Jesus,'" Gordon said. "What a great testimony of what can happen with the cross."

That unlikely pairing of the born-again son of a Democratic segregationist and an ex-Malcolm X follower truly puts a face on the kind of racial healing Franklin Graham is calling for - the kind that can only come when "hearts to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ."

BELOW CBN's Gordon Robertson: How Ben Kinchlow Broke Race Barriers with the Gospel