Franklin Graham still does not get It

I never was a fan of Billy Graham. I thought him too political. I saw him in Nixon’s White House when the nation needed a peace in Vietnam and a truce at home between generations. Graham was successful financially in his using stadiums and tours not unlike the come to town revivals of America’s rural past.

Graham too was a Protestant. When I was young and Catholic, I thought him a strange creature indeed.

These days when I am now a Cultural Christian or a minimalist in the Christian faith, I see Billy’s son Franklin as too much in the same mold as his father and a son who never had to make it on his own. He inherited the family’s business. While there is nothing wrong in inheriting a family’s business – Franklin will never be Billy – and Billy was never that great a preacher outside of his own created and self generated PR bubble.

Some stats from an article in USA today and commenting on another article from the Huffington Post. Sometimes comment on comment on news articles is all that the blogosphere is about. Sometimes I would rather have a subject kicked around from many different angles before I come to rest on my own private comfortable position on any given subject.

Franklin Graham got disinvited from a Pentagon sponsored national prayer day May 6 event because of his harsh tone on Islam.

Does National Day of Prayer include or condemn you?

Does National Day of Prayer include or condemn you? A survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, conducted in March by LifeWay Research, the Nashville-based evangelical polling firm, found most hold strong and consistent negative views of the religion of Islam. When asked which is closer to their beliefs:

• 47% agreed with Graham's comments that Islam is "a very evil and a very wicked religion."

• 24% agreed with former President George W. Bush's remark that "the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion."

• 17% were undecided

• 12% agreed with both statements

Although 69% don't think Christians and Muslims pray to the same God and only 19% would call Islam "spiritually good," …

I think that Islam in its present form as a state religion under penalty of death is an evil thing. I do not believe that Islam in its writings or beliefs is any more evil than Christianity or Judaism.

I think that the ancient archaic National Prayer Day that goes back to the dawn of the Cold War with the Soviets and was started by the likes of a Graham family business or a Coe family business need some rethinking and retooling to fit into this modern age.

The American Town Square of fifty, sixty, seventy years ago was a town square full of while males on their lunch hour. That the present day American Town Square is 24/7, multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-sexual.

I find it a great shame that the views of Franklin Graham do not recognize or dissect the difference between geographic political Islam from the philosophy and religion of same. It was not too many centuries ago that Christianity was the official state religion of most of the countries of Europe. Today those countries are secular – thank God for that.

Franklin Graham and other Protestant ministers who want to look at the world through the prism of the old American Town Square of seventy years ago are woefully out of sync with reality and the true message of Jesus oft times hidden in the gospels.

Entrenched and vested self interests of religious fat cats like the Grahams and the Coes are a great burden on the beliefs of modern people seeking a modern understanding of God and a modern understanding of our relationship to our universe.

Anti-Christian Conspiracies Everywhere - Sarah Palin

Palin, Sarah, former unfinished Governor of Alaska has thrown down the gauntlet for the next teabagger Glen Beck investigaton of yet another conspiracy against “Christian” America. In a speech given in Wisconsin, she rambled and hit the hot botton tea bag issues and threw in some nonsense about the creative design of the new dollar coins as something of an anti-Christian conspiracy.

I am beginning to see her and her tea baggers as nothing more than an aging Boomer Kindergarten class – or the GOP version of the Peter Pan syndrome – never wanting to grow up and deal with a real world like the rest of us.

Palin sees conspiracy in new dollar coins

She then got a standing ovation from most of the crowd, but a few had begun to leave before she even finished and within seconds of her concluding, scores more got up and put on their jackets as they walked away.

In addition to the suggestion that government officials would consider hastening the death of the infirm or handicapped, she began her remarks with a puzzling commentary on the design of newly minted dollar coins.

Noting that there had been a lot of “change” of late, Palin recalled a recent conversation with a friend about how the phrase “In God We Trust” had been moved to the edge of the new coins.

“Who calls a shot like that?” she demanded. “Who makes a decision like that?”

She added: “It’s a disturbing trend.” … (Palin)

The decision to put "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the edges of presidential dollar coins has received little attention from the press, but was reversed in 2007, before President Barack Obama took office. Sens. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) sponsored legislation to move the motto back to the front face of the coins.

"It is important that our national motto, 'In God We Trust,' is prominently displayed on all of our currency," Brownback said. "We should not relegate our heritage to the side."

I am not alarmed by anything Sarah Palin reads off the prompter or index cards in front of her. She is only as good as her handlers. She doesn’t write anything or think anything. She reads what is put in front of her. In the end the Schine Effect, where you are only as good as your handlers, will kick in.

In the mean time, with PAC money pouring in and Rupert giving her rich man’s welfare in the form of the book deal, she has to pay back favors and read what is put in front of her whether she understands it or not. Sarah Palin is earning her big bucks and enjoying her full fifteen minutes of fame.

What I find amazing is she is backtracking over issues already taken care of by the Coe family religious cult which was handled by a Coe family acolyte Sam Brownback as mentioned above.

This whole “In God We Trust” thing has, since it was adopted as the national motto in 1956, been an exclusive Coe family project. This all follows in line with the Coe Family Presidential Prayer breakfast starting in 1953 and later changed to National Prayer Breakfast in 1970. “In God We Trust” sounds harmless enough but it is within the exclusive handling copyright (Masonic?) realm of the Family.

Fellow Coe Family acolytes Sens. DeMint (SC) and Colburn (OK) made certain that the Coe family brand “In God We Trust” got carved in the new U.S. Capitol visitor’s center. I don’t think the Coe family handed Sarah this one to read out off the prompter. Careful Sarah on whose toes you might step on seeing conspiracies everywhere.

It is probably the last we will hear about this “anti-Christian” conspiracy from Sarah “Weather Girl” Palin.