I'm sorry, but Billy Graham is a central tenet of the OLD politics of division. What could he "add" to an Obama administration? I want to say good luck and good riddance the the old guy ---
There is no way a partisan right-wing evangelical could help to mend the social political divides in the country (which goes for Family Research Council's Tony Perkins too... "research" my ass... & Focus on the Family's James Dobson)
Time to make a clean make & focus on what unites the country (really), and not the same old social conservative divisions.
Boy you don't know your history. Billly Graham was the first evangelist to have integrated services. He was banned from some ciites because of it. Billy Graham was condemning racism before Obama was even born.
Billy Graham years ago had an accounting set up for the Billy Graham Associatoin. He organized an orgnization for preachers to join that went by his strict guidelines. Preachers that have gone by those guidelines have not gotten into trouble. It has been those religous organizations that didn't follow the good accounting practices that Billly Graham set up.
Billy Graham had a board set up to govern his association and the minutes are a matter of public knowledge. He draws a salary or he did when he was still able to preach and that salary was and is set by that board. There has not been any scandal concerning Billy Graham. Now those other guys mentioned is a whole different kettle of fish. I don't have any use for any of them.
I'm sure that Franklin Graham made that statement. I don't know if Billy Graham even knows that statement was made. The fact is Billy Graham is dying from old age. How long the process will take is anyone's guess. Billy Graphm is losing both his hearing and his eyesight.
Think about it. Billy Graham has made every president Republican or Democrat his personal friend. He has stayed out of the politicla arena. From reading his biography and knowing a little more aobut him through various sources, I suspect that Billy Graham is much more liberal than his son Franklin or any other major relifgous evangelical leader. His beloved wife Ruth was a Presbyterian until she died. Billy though a Baptist when with his wife to the Presbyteriah Church when he was at home and away from the evangelical crusades.
Billy Graham and Robert Schuler are the only TV type religous persons in the USA that I like and admire. The rest of them I have little use for. And that includes the REv. Billy Graham's son, Franklin. He is NOt the person his dad is.
Even if you don't agree with me on respecting Billy Graham, it just doesn't seem right to pick on him now when he is too deaf to hear, to blind to see and to frail to preach.
Billy Graham is far to frail to pastor to anyone now including his own family. As if he didn't have enough problems, he has Parkinson's Disease as well.
I'm sure that Dr. Graphm has said to his family, I hope I can be in good enough health to meet Mr. Obama when he is the President. I doubt very seriously that President Obama would decline such a meeting.
President Obama would most likely have to go to North Caroline to see Dr. Graham. I doubt Dr. Graham has the stamina to make a trip to Washington,
I see Franklin Graham's making that pubilc comment as a step in preparing Dr. Graham's many friends around the world for what Dr. Graham's son knows is coming soon and that is the passing of a legendary preacher.
Dr. Graham has paid his last pastoral visit, preached his last sermon and has now buried his beloved wife Ruth. Nearly blind, nearly deaf and faily fast.
The saddest part about it is there isn't another Billy Graham around. A preacher that is universally liked, respected and has been above reproach in his dealings with people. A leader in racial reconciliation ministries, world traveled and even held crusades in Soviet Russia.
The group evangelical preachers we have now don't come close to Dr. Grapham's record. That is the real trajedy that Billy Graham isn't able to pasotr anymore. The real tragedy is America doesn't have someone of his stature to take his place.
Yes, I am a Christian and I read some of the comments by non-Christians about Christians. Unfortunately, you are right. Keep in mind that just because someone says they are a Christian doesn't make it so. Being a Christian means being Christlike. Christ is another word for Jesus. Read the gosples Matthew, Mark Luke and John and see if the Jessu you see there is the same type of person that some of these religous yo yos are? Nope! Most of them don't come close to being like Jesus. Who had Jesus killed? Some not all religous leaders of his day. Not the masses that adored him.
It isn't the Jesus Christianity that most non Christians have a problem with. It is the Pauline version by St. Paul who never even met Jesus who shaped much of Christian theology of many churches. Paul was more wordy than I am. His sentences sometimes covered more than one paragraph. Tis true. His letters to churches meant to be pastoral letterrs for that church's speciific needs at that point in time have been turned into documents that been used to supercede (in my opinion) the peaceful and loving Jesus covered in the gospels. Some of these "Pauline" churches rarely preach form the gospels that give the biography of Jesus and stay only in the letters of Paul and selected sentences from the Old Testament to back up what ever belief they want to espouse at that point in time. All you hear is the Apostle Paul this and the Aostle Paul that. I want to stop them and ask, I thought it was Jesus you worshipped. When did you decide that Paul was God instead of Jesus?
I totally understand the mistrust of these tV evengelical preachers by the non Christian world. I'm a Christian and I don't trust them.