Evangelist Billy Graham dies aged 99

Billy Graham advised US presidents and preached to millions around the world, declaring Jesus Christ to be the only solution to humanity’s problems.

Reverend Graham, 99, died overnight at his home in Montreat in North Carolina.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says he preached to more people than anyone in history, reaching hundreds of millions either in person or via TV and satellite links.

Nicknamed “God’s Machine Gun” for his emphatic style of speaking, he was the de facto White House chaplain for several US presidents, starting with Harry Truman and including Gerard Ford, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon. Barack Obama travelled to Carolina to meet him.

On a visit to Australia in 1959, he preached to 143,000 people at the MCG and to 150,00 in Sydney.

He was the son of missionaries and his five children are also evangelists. He suffered with Parkinson's disease for many years and prostate cancer.

Asked in 2011 what he would do differently, he said: “I would study more. I would pray more, travel less, take less speaking engagements… I'd spend more time in meditation and prayer and just telling the Lord how much I love him.”

Have you listened to a Billy Graham sermon?

 

 

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i personally have no time for religion,     have witnessed a lot of sorrow in my time,    but havent seen any miracles,      IF,   there was a god,   who loved us so much,     why so much suffering,     AND PLEASE LEOAN,   dont lecture me,    it would be water of a ducks back,       BUT,   i say ,good luck to anyone who has found something/someone to believe in,     and if it helps you along the way,  im pleased for you,       but not for me,      BUT,R,I,P, BILLY,     

 

Ignore the knockers Leoan. They're jealous they've found nothing to believe in, hence such negative  comments.

Billy was a poor farm boy who made good. RIP Billy Graham

 

lol - the man was a total "bible bashing scammer"!  Screwed "religious geeks/stupid believers" outta their hard earned money for years!  Lived the high life of total luxury on so called "religious scam money"!!     End of story!     lol lol

Yes indeed. When I was 17 I went with friends to see BG sermon at the Albert Hall in London. I was shocked. He used the same "hype up and indoctrinate the crowd" techniques as was used at Nazi ralleys in WW2 and cults. That was a very long time ago and nothing changed. Well said Foxy.

Have you ever been to a Nazi rally? If you haven't, then you cannot make a comparison. The picture below bears no resemblance to the one in the topic.

Image result for hitler at a nazi rally

I have never been to either, but if invited to one, I would have chosen Billy Graham.

 

I scoured the internet to find anything at all about whom Billy Graham might have, and I quote "  Screwed "religious geeks/stupid believers"

I found nothing, but read about millions around the world who respected his teachings.

Verdict: Idiotic statement by someone who did no research.


Banjo ...

"I have never been to either, but if invited to one, I would have chosen Billy Graham."

Like Jennie, I have been to BG and tend to agree with her summation re BG's techniques. Very slick and intimidatory presentations IMO.

Shocked me too. Very nasty at times.

He once said, (when talking about the fact that everyone dies), something along the lines that we should all face that fact and make an appointment with God.  

He made it to 99, here on Earth - good innings as we like to say.  

He obviously wasn't in any hurry to make his own appointment.

Quote:  "make an appointment with God."

What do you think that means Leonie?

Well I know it doesn't mean exactly what it says, nothing in religion ever does, but the line was just too good to leave alone.

In hindsight (you know what they say about that 20/20) I probably shouldn't have said it.  It was insensitive given that someone has just died, and was maybe even offensive.  If I did, in fact, offend anyone I am sorry.

While I have no religious affiliation myself I know it gives great comfort to other people and I shouldn't be taking cheap shots. 

Thank you for your reply and no you did not "offend" me. I was just curious as to how you may have interpreted the phrase...

I am not a religious person myself..but a deeply spiritual one (there is a great difference as you may probably know) and do believe whatever force that guides us is so great we couldn't possibly fathom its significance...some like to call that force "God"..

To me that phrase means living the best life we can and taking time out to appreciate that force..some do it in prayer..some in silent contemplation..some never do anything at all..the choice is ours..

May the force be with you 

L O L

Yes, both of you provide LOL

 

 

Ohhhhhh lookie lookie - "nasty" ole'  multi-head Banjo has popped back in with the usual vitriol!    L O L

"lookie"???? are you a newly arrived undesirable?

May I suggest some English classes?

 

 

...always knew you one of the "multi-heads" lol lol - always "pop up"  to defend your other "nasty head - aka Banjo"!      lol lol lol 

Get a life or perhaps go join ya' mate Baaaarnaby - both wankers! lol lol lol 

Or - even better - how's ya'  "fake" Gym going - and ya' "fake" Zoo?????  

...........    porky pies have a habit of catching up with questionable  "multi-heads"????  

L O L

Keep going Foxy. You won't last forever.

One day you'll be on the YLC slow boat to China.

You're playing right into everyone's hands.

Make my day and keep going!

Now the little twerp is threatening an elderly lady 

what a man 

Elderly- yes

lady - not in a  million years  brocky

Billy Graham was asked once about the long-term effects of attending his preaching.  He said he didn't know, but it was like having a spiritual bath.

Only listened to Billy Graham in short bursts. In a thousand years he will probably be known as a prophet and worshiped by millions.

 

When I was a small child an uncle told me that this here now on Earth is hell.

I looked puzzled so he said that I would remember his words all my life and sometimes I think that he was right.

funny you said that SOMEBODY,     my father,   who didnt have a religious bone in his body,   said exactly that to me,  many years ago,       you make your own heaven or hell here on earth,    how right he was,        GETTING OF THE SUBJECT SOMEBODY,       did you see that CHRIS BOTTI was here in melbourne on tuesday night,     did a concert at HAMER HALL,    

To each his own, and peoples beliefs are a very personal choice.

Billy Graham is just one of the many preachers that have passed through and no doubt brought much comfort to those who followed him.

Everyone has to believe in something....even if its in themselves. :)



Nice of you to bring him some flowers .. avatar

 

Yes Suze, I am very thoughtful like that...and I wore my most colourful jacket 

:) 


 

BG was a total religious "wanker"   just like you a "wanky"  Clown! lol lol lol 

Yep, that slow boat is looming on the horizon.

Keep it up.

Nothing better to do then threaten and harass elderly ladies Ray?

.... see Raph how the "multi-heads"  appear whenever they disagree with a comment/post?  No brains whatsoever!!! lol lol lol 

BTW Raph - I thank you sooo much for your support but "elderly lady"?   ...... Not quite yet    ...... :-)   Thank you anyway   oxo

Sticks and stones Furface, ...but never let it be said I have ever been disrespectful to the departed, no matter who they are...

The same cannot be said for you. How low can you stoop. 

Disgraceful old girl, disgraceful.! :( 

 

L O L    .......... his departure from this planet means nothing to me!!   Rather be "disgraceful"  for telling the truth than a  pathetic liar!!!

Now run along "dear Clown" - go do what every good lil circus clown does - go shoot ya'self  outta' a firey cannon!  Give ya'self a thrill!   lol lol lol ......

MY only brother got tangled with a religious group,  like BILLY GRAHME,      yelling damnation to the non believers,      come on down,  be saved,        ruined his marriage,    and very nearly his life,        i have  every respect for anyone who has found a true faith,    in an orthodox religion,   but these evangalists that go around  ,   thumping there chests,  ;follow me,    the one true god ,  and be saved,     they do more harm than good,  thank heaven there are not many of them anymore,   i think most people  have wisened up to them now,  

I reckon he will get his comeuppance when he knocks on those pearly gates cats, and he meets his maker..

He may have a little explaining to do .

Changed ya' mind Cranks??? You were all for him a few posts ago??? Even had a go at me for my honesty!  You need to get a life!!!   Now where's that cannon???     lol lol lol 

Cats - you only got to look at the mega followers of Benny Hinn and also the thousands that flock to Hillsong on a weekly basis .........these scumbags are far from finished yet!!!

As long as the "gullible's are around  - these religious scammers always will be!!

can only hope CRANKY,   FOXY,   there will always be people 'looking '''' for something,   as there own lives are not fulfilled,   but i think the general man in the street has got wise to them,    put my brother through hell,    [though im baffled how he got involved in the first place,   it was NOT billy graheme,       i cant even remember what they were called now,    used to speak in tongues,      a really evil lot,  

Yea old Billy was a real nice bloke NOT!

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It is one example of just how much “America’s pastor” was a staunch political ally of one particular American, Richard Nixon. At the 1969 inaugural, Graham delivered a prayer that read, in part: “We recognize, O Lord, that in Thy sovereignty Thou has permitted Richard Nixon to lead us at this momentous hour of our history”—a sentiment that sounded to some as if he was asserting that Nixon was God’s choice. His support for the war in Vietnam was so enthusiastic that on April 15,1969, after meeting with missionaries from Vietnam, Graham sent a memo to the White House urging that, if the peace talks in Paris failed, Nixon should bomb the dikes that held back floodwaters in the North. This, said Graham, “could overnight destroy the economy of North Vietnam.” It would also have destroyed countless villages, sending as many as a million civilians to their deaths.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/21/billy-graham-death-richard-nixon-217039

Let’s Not Forget Famed Evangelist Billy Graham was an Aspiring War Criminalby | 2:52 pm, February 22nd, 2018

Here we go again.

An ancient has died and his memory is being gifted a series of fawning tributes that minimize their negative qualities. That ancient, of course, is Billy Graham—the nation’s crusading and seminal televangelist. And now that his memory is being officialized in the public sphere, it’s time to point out that he was an aspiring war criminal.

To wit: a memo from Graham to Richard Nixon was published in April of 1989. The date on that memo was April 15, 1969. Graham drafted said memo after meeting in Bangkok with missionaries from Vietnam. The title of that memo is “The Confidential Missionary Plan for Ending the Vietnam War.”

Among the memo’s prescriptions for ending the Vietnam War was the following kernel and proof of Graham’s unchecked Godliness:

There are tens of thousands of North Vietnamese defectors to bomb and invade the north. Especially let them bomb the dikes which could over night destroy the economy of North Vietnam.

Graham’s memo circulated throughout the Nixon White House like napalm fire during the heady spring of 1969 and was looked upon quite favorably, but ultimately Nixon didn’t take the dike-bombing advice.

Good thing, too. Because it would have been a war crime.

Under established international customary law, civilian immunity is one of “the oldest fundamental maxims”. This prohibition extends to civilian infrastructure–which very much includes dikes and dams.

The status of the prohibition against targeting civilians was later codified in numerous articles and treaties, most prominently section 51(2) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions–which was passed in 1977 and reads, in relevant part, “The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack.” The prohibition has been reaffirmed time and time again. It is not controversial.

Prior to this codification, the status of the prohibition against targeting civilians enjoyed at least one instance of legalistic gloss and application. As Alexander Cockburn once noted, “The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.”

But aside from the legal prohibition against bombing Vietnam’s dikes or civilian infrastructure generally, there’s also the moral-ethical dimension. By the estimate of working journalists at the time — and Nixon’s own White House — the dike-bombing policy would have killed upwards of one million innocent Vietnamese.

It’s shuddering and sobering to think a man of God would countenance this massive loss of life as acceptable in service of American imperialism. He’s dead now, though, so it’s time for his class to play cleanup.

Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday eulogized Billy Graham via Twitter as a “humble servant.” Vice President Mike Pence was also there for the tribute. Others followed suit — even President Donald Trump, who probably doesn’t know who Billy Graham is.

This sort of whitewashing and historiography of the elite, by the elite, and for the elite is commonplace in the United States. But Obama’s decision to wade into the flood waters of Graham’s memory is particularly telling: Graham was an aspiring war criminal. Obama is an accomplished war criminal. It all makes sense.

Did Graham have some redeeming qualities? Sure. He eventually rebuked his prior support for nuclear weapons and was in favor of de-segregating his worship services well before most liberals had even heard of the Civil Rights Movement.

Billy Graham held his first integrated rally in 1953, taking down the physical barriers himself. He wrote an article for entitled, “No Color Line in Heaven” for Ebony magazine in 1957. In 1963, he bailed MLK out of jail.

The Gospel is freely given, and all are welcome to it.

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) February 21, 2018

There’s tension here, too, though. Graham was notoriously anti-Semitic. He wanted America’s laws to target black folks after he thought the Civil Rights Movement went too far. He was famously homophobic and called AIDS “a judgment from God,” before eventually backtracking.

Graham’s points of decency are important to note—and have been noted in countless articles and farewells. But it’s also very important for people to have an accurate and thorough understanding of a man who carved out a highly influential role as a public intellectual and moral/ethical authority.

Pointing out Graham’s flaws and some of the horrific, sickening details of his life and his untoward, reactionary political positions isn’t the same as dancing on his grave or cheering his death. But it behooves no one to force an inaccurate portrait on the present and posterity just because some feelings might be hurt by the whole truth.

Mentioning the deficiencies of the dead is sometimes disapproved of — but the dead won’t care and the living deserve better.

After all, if Graham had had his way during the Vietnam War, there would be another million or so innocent Vietnamese lives blinked out of existence by the blunt force of empire. And though unfortunately still controversial in certain quarters in America, the lives and deaths of millions of Vietnamese matter a bit more than the image of one dead preacher.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/lets-not-forget-famed-evangelist-billy-graham-was-an-aspiring-war-criminal/

 

 

 

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