Billy Graham

[docyabut2]

 Billy Graham died 99 years old, good old Moses.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43142263

 

Edited February 21, 2018 by docyabut2

[White Unicorn]

1 hour ago, docyabut2 said:

 Billy Graham died 99 years old, good old Moses.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43142263

 

He was honest to his beliefs. You can't say that for many other evangelicals that are popular today! He wasn't just about gathering monetary donations. 

I went to some of his revivals since my ex-spouse played music for some of the revivals. It was uplifting messages not just hell and damnation sermons

He had a good life and will be remembered by many. 

 

[Dark_Grey]

As far as fundie preachers go, he was one of the greats. My grandparents loved his sermons and owned some of his books. RIP

[WoIverine]

Modern day Methusaleh, RIP Billy.

[XenoFish]

Here I was thinking he was already dead. 

[+and-then]

1 hour ago, WoIverine said:

Modern day Methusaleh, RIP Billy.

Yup... and remember what came after Methuselah.

[WoIverine]

23 minutes ago, and then said:

Yup... and remember what came after Methuselah.

Yep, nearly / if not in the very year of his death.

[HollyDolly]

 Sorry to hear he has passed on. He certainly was nothing like the  current crop of  preachers with their prosperity gospel etc.  My father never  cared for him, but then we never watched him anyways. I recall watching Archbishop Fulton J.Sheen ,  as a kid, and still watch him when they show reruns of his old shows on Catholic TV. Graham I think was sincere, not a phony like some of these guys today that's for sure. And if he helped people find  God or whatever they were searching for in their lives, and helped the poor or needy in anyways then he was a good man.

[Podo]

A prominent Pagan's take on Billy Graham. It's an interesting perspective, and worth sharing, I believe.

[Mr Walker]

On 22/02/2018 at 3:50 AM, Scudbuster said:

Gotta say I agree with Hitch on Billy Graham and general religious hypocrisy........."lying to the young for a living" 

 

Billy didn't lie, and his message appealed to people of all ages and all cultures.

  There has never been a larger crowd at the Melbourne oval,   not for sports or pop concerts, than when he preached there   Rightly or wrongly he believed what he preached and, as other posters have said, had none of the hypocrisy of many modern preachers.

  One might disagree with what he preached and believed, but because they are beliefs, no one can call them lies. Way back before the sex  scandals of modern media   personalities and politicians,  he made a policy of never being alone in a room with a woman,  to protect both his  own reputation and hers .

[Jodie.Lynne]

I find it rather astounding that a 'simple man of god' should die a millionaire. It says something about the state of religion, and of preachers.

[WoIverine]

6 minutes ago, JMPD1 said:

I find it rather astounding that a 'simple man of god' should die a millionaire. It says something about the state of religion, and of preachers.

There are examples of wealthy, blessed people mentioned in the Bible, so it does happen.

[Jodie.Lynne]

Personally, I find 'preaching for money' to be the oldest profession, and far less reputable than the 2nd oldest one.  

[+and-then]

11 minutes ago, JMPD1 said:

Personally, I find 'preaching for money' to be the oldest profession, and far less reputable than the 2nd oldest one.  

And that is your right.  I've known individuals who were low-bottom drunks/addicts/gamblers who were literally at death's waiting room whose lives changed completely because of the message of the Gospel.  They believed and invested themselves in hope instead of despair and cynicism.  They became better fathers and mothers and members of their communities.  I believe that when we breathe our last and the body assumes room temperature, the only things that matter are the comforts and joy we gave others while we were here.  Everything else perishes with our flesh.

[Jodie.Lynne]

Just to be clear, I have no issues with what you (generic pronoun, not singling anyone out) choose to believe; as long as it harms no one else! If, however, you try to force your ( again, generic pronoun) beliefs on others, or try to influence what others can or cannot say or believe, then we have a slight problem.

 

I have always stated that "If your beliefs bring you comfort and peace, then it is the right belief. For YOU, not necessarily for me"

[Mr Walker]

2 hours ago, JMPD1 said:

Personally, I find 'preaching for money' to be the oldest profession, and far less reputable than the 2nd oldest one.  

Billy Grahams net worth is estimated at 25 million  That is not a big sum, given his background and the potential he had to make many times that sum.

Today many sports stars models and actresses have much greater wealth, accumulated over a shorter time frame

But anyway, why judge a man by his wealth rather than his character?  

https://www.biography.com/people/billy-graham-9317669

However, through his long and extraordinary career, Graham has overwhelmingly been regarded in a positive light, one Time reporter calling him "the Pope of Protestant America." Another reporter from USA Today writes, "He was the evangelist who did not rip off millions (Jim Bakker) or run with prostitutes (Jimmy Swaggart) or build a megachurch (Joel Osteen) or run for president (Pat Robertson) or run a Christian political lobby (Jerry Falwell)."

Graham's integrity has encouraged millions to heed his spiritual guidance, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Bono, Muhammad Ali and United States presidents from Eisenhower to Bush. He has been rated by the Gallup organization as "One of the Ten Most Admired Men in the World" a staggering 51 times. He is regarded by contemporaries as humorous, non-judgmental, sincere, innocent and accepting.

Legacy

Graham was awarded the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Freedom Award, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion, the Big Brother Award, the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, and the Speaker of the Year Award. Additionally Graham was recognized by the National Conference of Christians and Jews for promoting understanding between faiths, and bestowed with the Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

 

I suspect graham was motivated by a need and desire to preach the word, and to help others find salvation 

 The organisation which grew up around him was used for this purpose, not to favour one  part of the christian religion  but  to bring god and men closer to each other, what ever their particular faiths 

Charities run by his foundation have revenues of between 500 million an 1 billion dollars a year.  His son is paid about 2 million  as ceo That is on the small side  among people running similar sized businesses 

http://time.com/money/5168865/billy-graham-net-worth-quotes-money-greed/

In 2005, Forbes listed Billy Graham as the highest-earning employee at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, with annual compensation slightly over $450,000. But it’s unclear how much money he earned over the years, and how much he actually kept. A 1978 profile of the preacher in Texas Monthly said that Graham’s salary was set at just $15,000 per year in 1950. It was up to $39,500 at the time the story was published, yet Graham estimated at the time that he also gave away roughly $600,000 that same year.

 

Long-time TIME contributors Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, co-authors of The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House, say that Graham regularly insisted that his crusades be audited and made public to avoid any hint of scandal, and that Graham could have easily made far more money if he wanted. “He was turning down million-dollar television and Hollywood offers half a century ago,” Gibbs and Duffy wrote in TIME in 2007. “He never built the Church of Billy Graham, and while he lived comfortably, his house is a modest place. If he had wanted to get rich, he could have been many, many times over.”

Grant Wacker, a professor at the Duke University Divinity School and author of America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation, also says that Graham has led an exemplary life free of financial scandal. “People who didn’t like Billy Graham spent a lot of time trying to find personal violations of his moral and ethical code, and they couldn’t,” Wacker told NPR after Graham’s passing. “They didn’t exist. He was a man who maintained absolute marital fidelity and moral and financial integrity. He was an evangelist who lived the way he preached.”

 

“The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve come to realize just how destructive greed can be. One reason is because a greedy person is never satisfied,” Graham wrote in one column.

“Greed causes a great deal of harm,” Graham said in one interview. “Our hearts aren’t satisfied by materialism. They can’t be. That’s why you see someone who has made millions driven on to make more millions. People confuse amassing money with security. But it is not so. What a pity to confuse real security with making money.”

In another Billy Graham quote, he said, “Envy and greed always—always—exact a terrible price. I have never met an envious or greedy person who was at peace.”

Yet money is not necessarily a bad thing, according to Graham. “Money represents your time, your energy, your talents, your total personality converted into currency,” Graham once wrote. “We usually hold on to it tenaciously, yet it is uncertain in value and we cannot take it into the next world.”

Edited March 4, 2018 by Mr Walker