Franklin Graham 'Shocked' to Find Mormonism Listed as 'Cult' on BGEA Site

Religion Today | Published: Nov 21, 2012

Franklin Graham 'Shocked' to Find Mormonism Listed as 'Cult' on BGEA Site

A month after the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association removed an article describing Mormonism as a "cult" from its website, ministry head Franklin Graham clarified he was unaware of the article's existence, the Christian Post reports. Graham told CNN he did not write the article and that he was "shocked" to find it on the BGEA website. "We have 10,000 pages and I don't write the 10,000 pages," he said. "Other people have written it. There was a discussion as to what a cult was and [the article] had a definition of a cult and then they gave some examples and when I found out there were examples they took them off. But I was shocked that we even had that on there. ... If I want to win a person to Christ, how can I call that person a name? That's what shocked me, that we were calling people names." The article was categorized under BGEA's "Looking for Answers" section where the question "What is a cult?" was posed. It defined a cult as "any group which teaches doctrine or beliefs that deviate from the biblical message of the Christian faith. It is very important that we recognize cults and avoid any involvement with them. Cults often teach some Christian truth mixed with error, which may be difficult to detect." As examples of cults, the article listed Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, the Unification Church, Unitarians, Spiritists and Scientologists. The article was taken down in October shortly after Billy Graham, 94, met with Mitt Romney, a Mormon, at his home in Montreat, N.C. But even with the election over, Franklin Graham stated that the "cult" article will never be posted again. 



Franklin Graham 'Shocked' to Find Mormonism Listed as 'Cult' on BGEA Site