Comments on: Prayer for our Nation http://www.sourapplesblog.com/2009/02/22/prayer-for-our-nation/ Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:02:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Elliott http://www.sourapplesblog.com/2009/02/22/prayer-for-our-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-3428 Elliott Mon, 18 May 2009 21:22:44 +0000 http://elliottcallahan.com/blog2/?p=365#comment-3428 @Daniel That doesn't surprise me at all. You can bet that at least 50% of any given e-mail forward is patently false. I withdraw my criticism of Mr. Graham. Feel free to substitute for his name 'asshole who writes religious e-mail forwards.' :) @Daniel

That doesn’t surprise me at all. You can bet that at least 50% of any given e-mail forward is patently false.

I withdraw my criticism of Mr. Graham. Feel free to substitute for his name ‘asshole who writes religious e-mail forwards.’

:)

]]> By: Daniel http://www.sourapplesblog.com/2009/02/22/prayer-for-our-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-3427 Daniel Mon, 18 May 2009 18:25:18 +0000 http://elliottcallahan.com/blog2/?p=365#comment-3427 FYI, it wasn't actually Billy Graham: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/prayernation.asp FYI, it wasn’t actually Billy Graham:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/prayernation.asp

]]> By: rebekah http://www.sourapplesblog.com/2009/02/22/prayer-for-our-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-47 rebekah Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:08:19 +0000 http://elliottcallahan.com/blog2/?p=365#comment-47 ugh, i received this via email forward from a friend's mom... she's not a fundamentalist christian but one of those "believe anything anyone tells her" type of people ... i was raised Southern Baptist too and experienced a lot of what you talk about. I used to think Graham was fairly harmless as well but he's misguided as are all Christians, I believe. love this blog, btw. :) ugh, i received this via email forward from a friend’s mom… she’s not a fundamentalist christian but one of those “believe anything anyone tells her” type of people … i was raised Southern Baptist too and experienced a lot of what you talk about. I used to think Graham was fairly harmless as well but he’s misguided as are all Christians, I believe.

love this blog, btw. :)

]]> By: Ryan O'Brien http://www.sourapplesblog.com/2009/02/22/prayer-for-our-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Ryan O'Brien Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:11:03 +0000 http://elliottcallahan.com/blog2/?p=365#comment-59 Billy Graham is a difficult case. In his long and illustrious career as an evangelist, he has always seemed to be sincere in his beliefs, except maybe for that Jew-baiting incident in the '70s. (Well, there were a few other lapses, but you can Wiki them if you want.) Of course now he is 90 years old, in very poor health and I'll wager the picture included in the e-mail was not recent and the homily was written by another, possibly his son who took over his empire. Mr. Graham has been around during my entire life. Like him, I was raised (at least during one of my parents' varied religious phases) a Southern Baptist. As a child, I was simply astonished at the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of the adult church members in our congregation in southern Maryland. Without going into a bunch of examples, let's just say they didn't seem to practice what they preached. These frequent lapses were excused of course by the old saw that a church was a hospital for sinners, not a shrine for saints. Hey, anything goes as long you show up for a good dose of flagellation on Sunday morning. One of the few religious teachings I actually took to heart was that you should never trust a preacher with more than two suits. I believe Mr. Graham had many, many suits and a very fine lifestyle to go with them. He was one of the earlier successes in promoting Christianity as a big business and had the ear of most U.S. Presidents and corporate CEOs during his long career, which as I said, lasted most of my lifetime. I despised the man for profiting from others' misery and for his ability to convince them that he had some sort of superior moral compass which they should follow. If there's a hell ... Billy Graham is a difficult case. In his long and illustrious career as an evangelist, he has always seemed to be sincere in his beliefs, except maybe for that Jew-baiting incident in the ’70s. (Well, there were a few other lapses, but you can Wiki them if you want.)

Of course now he is 90 years old, in very poor health and I’ll wager the picture included in the e-mail was not recent and the homily was written by another, possibly his son who took over his empire.

Mr. Graham has been around during my entire life. Like him, I was raised (at least during one of my parents’ varied religious phases) a Southern Baptist. As a child, I was simply astonished at the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of the adult church members in our congregation in southern Maryland. Without going into a bunch of examples, let’s just say they didn’t seem to practice what they preached. These frequent lapses were excused of course by the old saw that a church was a hospital for sinners, not a shrine for saints. Hey, anything goes as long you show up for a good dose of flagellation on Sunday morning.

One of the few religious teachings I actually took to heart was that you should never trust a preacher with more than two suits. I believe Mr. Graham had many, many suits and a very fine lifestyle to go with them. He was one of the earlier successes in promoting Christianity as a big business and had the ear of most U.S. Presidents and corporate CEOs during his long career, which as I said, lasted most of my lifetime.

I despised the man for profiting from others’ misery and for his ability to convince them that he had some sort of superior moral compass which they should follow.

If there’s a hell …

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