Arkansas Blog

I like being consistent and being the old atheist I am, I don't want to like Billy Graham, but I have all those growing up years to battle. Around my house, at least with my mother, Billy Graham WAS God. Mom tuned him in any time he was on TV. I spent hours of my childhood listening to him, thinking now here's the closest thing to God on the planet.

I had my doubts about the local preachers and I figured out early that Oral Roberts was a big fake.....900 foot Jesus, indeed! But I didn't question Billy Graham, George Beverly Shea or Cliff Barrows, and they must be doing something right...still at it at nearly 100, all of them.

So it's kinda confusing to think about at this point. I am not on a world wide crusade to make atheists of the world. If ya like handling snakes, get after it, but for whatever reason the curtain was lifted for me and I see nothing but small men operating the control panel, making the great Oz speak and throw lightening bolts for profit. None of it makes a lick of sense, but if it makes dying a little easier for the sheep, so be it.

God speaks to different people differently. Billy and his brother grew up on a farm in Charollete, North Carolina working their father's fields. One day, upon the advice of one of his father's Negro farm workers, Billy went to see Mordecai Ham a traveling evangelical. The next day he and his brother were planting crops and clouds began forming an unusual formation which appeared as the letters P G. Billy naturally knew it meant 'preach god' and took off for Bob Jones University. His brother thought it meant 'plow good' and remained on the farm ever since.
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Tim "the vote grifter" Griffin, Karl Rove, John Yoo, and telebangelicals.. to name a few..

What exactly is the Clinton School trying to teach? Who decides to invite these folks? Do they actually get paid and if so how much?

I keep trying to see the humor in this Summers line up of speakers.. I guess it's a bit to dark for me to laugh at.

>>I keep trying to see the humor in this Summers line up of speakers..<<

Keep at it Eureka and you will come to the realization that Clinton was the best moderate Republican president the Republicans ever had.
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Billy will very soon be sitting at the right hand of his maker. Although I saw no mention of it here, Rex Humbard, the world's first televangelist, died the other day at age 88. He had ceased preaching years ago. What I never knew about him until reading his obit is that he grew up in Hot Springs where his pappy was also a preacher.

I don't know if dbi or eLwood will pass through this way again but if y'all do and have a moment... take a look at the post at my name.

Got it Eureka. Two of my friends have been reporting the book to a group in Fayetteville.

durango, I remember being taken to Humbard to be "healed" from my chronic bronchitis as a kid. Sorry no miracles to report. Mds didn't have today's great respiratory-pulmonary drugs. He and his dad had one awful radio show on Sun mornings which I could tune in on my home made, crystal set radio when I was 9. Unlike Billy, he was a flash n' chrome evangelical. He lacked the marketing talent Graham had and was too much of a homeboy to venture into California and discover a big market. Calif is where Graham became a star.

Sorry about the Humbard miracle that failed to emerge, eLwood. Of course, Benny Hinn could have whacked you on the forehead, knocked you unconscious, and had you "HEALED!" by the time you got up off the floor. There's still time . . . he's still around!

well, durango, my mother, rest her soul, was a big Bennie fan, she had the plug-in jesus lights, special cloths, etc and watched everything Hinn did. For many years she didn't pay any attention to that stuff but when she reached 75 that's was almost her entire life interest. She did manage to have her pic taken with Graham in Okla City.

If you want some interesting evangels, watch the ones in Calif who hold sessions to "cast out demons", complete with fake, dramatic lighting and weird sound effects. Of course the poor "demonized" are likely suffering from what normal people would call bi-polar disorders and in some sad cases autism.

Did anyone on here attend the Clinton library presentation of "The Preacher and the Presidents"?

I would be curious to know how much discussion was given to Graham's relationship to Nixon, it was
pretty damn strong, and on the Watergate tapes was Billy's voice concurring that "Jews control the media." He first denied he ever said any such thing then the tapes were revealed and he went quiet about it. Later when confronted again he said he was trying to "please the president."

Very telling anecdote, eLwood. Can you pin it down for us?

I believe the hand of Billy Graham reached out and directed Eureka's browser to the excellent report on the dangers of BlackwaterUSA to be found by clicking on Eureka's name. For a refresher course, click on my name and watch a BlackwaterUSA-type mercenary shoot innocent Iraqis from a moving truck, with Elvis playing in the background. No, he works for a British group called Aegis Defense Services....but it makes no difference.

And of course Cheney is assembling a secret army, no dictator in the history of the world has managed a takeover without one. As the article points out.....you may find a BlackwaterUSA mercenary peeking in your bedroom window in the near future. Oh wouldst Billy Graham use his pull with the Big Guy now! Before we worry about saving our souls, we better worry about saving our lives and the lives of our children.

We are so damn sure it won't happen here....America is too good ya know....but every sin against man on record has also been found to be done by the hand of an American. We aren't too good. We are merely human. It can happen here....it IS happening here. Wake up!