Rev. Franklin Graham prayed outside the Pentagon Thursday -- not inside leading an official National Day of Prayer service. Instead, he and a half-dozen others stood on the sidewalk and bowed their heads in prayer for about five minutes, according to Associated Press.

Normally, it's not news when an evangelist prays or a father of a soldier prays for the troops and their leaders (Graham's son is on his fourth tour in Afghanistan).

But Billy Graham's son and heir Franklin is almost always news because of his propensity for taking public jabs at other religions, remarks he doesn't consider offensive. He believes only Christians are saved, no other faith leads to God so he's merely speaking hard truths, not mocking or maligning others when he calls Islam evil or jokes about Hinduism.

And he's news today because Graham is the honorary chairman of the private Task Force that leads national events where all the prayers are strictly Christian.

Two weeks ago, his invitation to lead the Pentagon service was withdrawn.

Objections to the divisive evangelist came from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, headed by Mickey Weinstein (and derided by Graham in an interview with me Tuesday as "an organization of one man who rants and raves") and Muslims in the military (who Graham called a handful of people who are being allowed to"trample on Christian rights").

So, undaunted, Graham said his prayers and chatted up the media. According to Andrea Stone at AOL News, the service inside the Pentagon was led by the head of the Armed Forces Chaplain Board (a Protestant) along with Catholic, Jewish and Muslim chaplains who were "hastily added to the program" after the Task Force was dropped.

Graham appeared to appreciate the role that non-Christian chaplains can play. According to Stone,

Graham was asked by Pentagon reporters how he would feel if his son Edward, an Army captain now serving in Afghanistan, was wounded in combat and only a Muslim chaplain were nearby to pray with him. "Look, we're human beings," Graham said. "I would be thankful that someone cared enough to reach out to my son, regardless of what the person's faith was."

Are you joining in any National Day of Prayer events? Is this an event that you, like most in a USA TODAY survey, support?