I have been to the Lifeway offices multiple times, and I have yet to see Billy’s statue. I wonder if he still has antlers.
Do you think this constitutes as a graven image?
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Evangelicalism’s “David.”
How far we’ve come.
Not that I don’t love me some Billy Graham.
I wonder, will they engrave a plaque for the bottom of the statue with his famous words:
“The Jews have a stranglehold on the American Media. … if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something.”
— Billy Graham to Richard Nixon in Oval Office recording following a “prayer breakfast”, Feb. 1 1972
Kelsey Grammer?
Not graven yet! Once he fires it, maybe. I’d like to see the urn for that thing.
Yeah, pretty weird to find in anti-Semitism something old Billy and Voltaire actually have in common. How ’bout that for some strange bedfellows? Then again, Voltaire wasn’t exactly worried about saving souls, so at least he wasn’t pretending to be all lovey-dovey.
Now Bart, I have to interject on behalf of Reverend Graham. 🙂
First, let me say this: Reverend Graham’s comments were wrong. They should never have been said.
But sadly, those kinds of racist statements were culturally acceptable at the time, a part the culture/generation that he was raised in. Again, that doesn’t make them right.
My grandmother was one of the dearest people I ever knew. But once in a while, she’d let the n-word slip. I remember once after she had said it, I looked at her, and said, “MAMMOM!! Don’t say that word!”
She looked at me with shock in her eyes. “What did I say?”
She was 84 at the time, and I don’t believe she had any clue that her words were “wrong,” according to the up-and-coming generation.
Again, that doesn’t condone racism (for any generation)!
But sometimes the “sins” of one’s culture/time/experience become our own sins by default. The “thinking” of a particular stretch of time in history affects the people of that time. Our culture affects us in positive and negative ways. Reverend Graham’s statement was sadly acceptable conversation in the circles he walked in. But when the “conversation” was brought to light, he apologized for his words. He regretted saying them, and had obviously wised up in the 20 or so years.
While his culture and apology don’t make his words right, I don’t think they should “define” him as a person.
Nobody got killed. Words are powerful–yes. But they aren’t guns or bombs.
I often think about my words. I’m sure I’ve said things (and say things) that the culture deems acceptable today that 20 years from now my son will look at me and say, “Dad, DON’T say that!”
Sure, you and I aren’t “Billy Graham” with the power to advise presidents. But we are human, and products of our culture and time, and would never want to be “remembered” for a mean statement that, at the time, lots of people said.
Just my thoughts. 🙂
I think the only Christians who see this type of art as a “graven image” probably aren’t all that fond of Rev. Graham anyway. (He’d most likely have been a little too liberal for their taste!)
I remember in the hyper conservative church I grew up in how much they railed on Billy Graham because he’d stand on the same stage as Catholics and pray. For shame!
Matthew,
I have no major disagreements with what you’ve said.
But just three things, if I may:
1- (and just as an aside)Judaism isn’t a “race”. It’s a religion, a set of beliefs and practices. In fact, referring to Jews as a race has some negative connotations.
2- Billy may be a product of his upbringing, or he may have developed his perspective of Jews on his own. We actually don’t know.
But unlike for Thomas Jefferson the slave owner, slavery was a normal and accepted reality in America in the 18th century. Anti-semitism wasn’t a natural and accepted behavior among educated people in the late 20th century.
3- My main point in bringing up Billy’s ill advised statement is this: That a person who professes to be a “man of God”, a follower of Christ (who Himself was Jewish), who testifies that Christianity is a religion of love but who uses steriotypes and hate speech is a hypocrite.
No, he’s not the biggest hypocrite that ever lived. But there’s a big difference between your Grandma and a man who has millions of followers and of whom his followers, and the public at large, have the expection of a higher degree of ethics and sense of brotherhood and tolerance.
Afterall, Billy created that expectation himself.
Perhaps a life size statue Vs. a mega-size statue would have been more in keeping with his slightly tarnished reputation. 😉
Bart