I really appreciated what Seth Andrews had to say with respects to the passing of Billy Graham:
"He was arguably the most influential evangelist of the 20th century, and he died at 99.
His son, Franklin Graham, now carries the torch, preaching a debunked mythology and enjoying the favors of the powerful.
I see father and son as both oppressors and victims, allegiant to a Bible that isn't moral, a religion that no one needs, and a message that isn't true.
I don't celebrate Graham's death. He was a human being, with family and friends, and he likely had the fierce conviction that he was doing the right thing.
But while Graham enjoys the status of near sainthood within the faith, there's no denying the damage done as he held global altar calls so that millions could be "saved" from a problem that never existed.
This religious Old Guard passes, and slowly, we see the bad ideas of religion drifting away with them.
Here's to a future where those with influence promote science, reason, skepticism, and humanism." -Seth Andrews (of The Thinking Atheist)
9
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Now his boy inherits over 25 million bucks gleaned from the weak minded, to further muddy their minds and the minds of those to come.
RobCampbell
Level 7
Feb 22, 2018
4
Some of that money came from my parents. While I was a child, we were poor and mostly on Welfare. But if it meant going hungery to send Graham a little more cash, that is what happened.
@Reignmond that truly sucks
@RobCampbell They were far from the only ones.
[Billy Graham] assured listeners that God loved us so much that He created governments, the most blessed form being Western capitalist democracy. ...The question of whether this was actually the recorded word of God or a rider inserted into the bill by Roman senators with rather more worldly aims never dimmed Graham’s insistence that all governments are the work of the Almighty...
Based on that Biblical mandate for all governments, Graham stood in solid opposition to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, all but addressed to Graham, King noted, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’ … If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws. ”
....In light of the Biblical endorsement of rulers, Graham supported police repression of Vietnam war protesters and civil rights marchers, opposed Martin Luther King’s tactic of civil disobedience, supported South American despots, and publicly supported every war or intervention waged by the United States from Korea forward.[counterpunch.org]
TXLarry
Level 5
Feb 21, 2018
4
some skeptics might call that a basis for inaction, I'm involved in exactly that question myself with some JWs who say we should only preach and wait for god to give us a new world, not do anything at all to improve the one we are in because it is based on sin and god himself says the end is near
Grahm was no friend Martin Luther King or The Civil Rights Movement. In the 60's he was as much political as he was religious. Toward the end of his life he said he regretted his vocal anti semetic rhetoric and his opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. The only thing he did not oppose was the Viet Nam, War, He loved it like baby Jesus.
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