Who’s Birthday was it anyway ?
Gleanings from Reading Footnotes. Dr.Gary Straub. Meadow @StMatthews. Advent 2023
The whole Graham Household seemed curiously and querulously at odds around the matter of WHOSE 95th birthday will soon be celebrated!
By all reports, Billy’s grandkids voted for a celebration small & mostly family. Quiet, no PR, no crowds. So, somebody please cancel the 911Fire Trucks when his candles get lit. After decades of faithful gospel ministry, it seems our famous globe-trotting evangelist is stepping back into the bosom of his Montreat family. Well, at least, so it seemed, until….FRANKLIN…
That is…until… Franklin seized the party reins! Since his ascension to the Presidency of Billy Graham Inc, Frankie’s theology shifted rather drastically from Billy’s own graciously moderate, mostly middle-ground evangelicalism to a BIG right turn toward Frankie’s own Fundamentalism, married to the Far Right. Frankie appears to be roped into the rabid wing of the Republican Party. I heard earth’s tectonic plates shift as seismic theological change occurred in F. Graham.
To this day, I’m haunted by Billy’s famous quote which guided his nearly half-century of world-class ministry. QUOTE:
“It would DISTURB me if there was a wedding between Religious Fundamentalists and the Political Right. The Hard Right has NO interest in religion except to dominate and manipulate it.”
Recall Nixon? Billy learned this lesson the hard way after being spun like a top during dirty tricks by Nixon. Note to the praise of God’s grace & Graham’s grit —he repented, extracted and climbed back aboard the Good Gospel Ship. Lesson learned—thus the above quote Billy lived by.
And yet… Franklin seized Billy’s birthday celebration to pump out an 800 Guest Gala of Splendiferous Strays and Stars of the American Political Right.
There’s a good bit of guff on Frankie getting elevated to boss of Billy Inc. Maybe you saw the party pics? Sarah Palin sitting beside Billy, with #45 exactly in front & directly across from him. BTW…We might ask Wells Fargo why they lost Billy Inc financial accounts because of their Pride Parade support. Franklin runs a Tight Right Ship, executing (in a “Christian sort of way”) any who dare dissent fr. his hard nose, UNsubtle script.
FAST FORWARD. At 6:30 pm on Channel 6 (after advertising 2 Plumbing Supply ads, and just before a blitz of 6 Big Truck Law firms)…about now… here comes Franklin, looking EXACTLY like a Billy Graham make-over, complete with wavy coif—ala Billy redividus. He’s soberly cranking out the standard 60 second Salvation Plan; closing w/ the ‘every-eye-closed’ Sinner’s Prayer and an 800 number to call for follow-up.
Do you wonder why Frankie still pounds the Sand of Salvation a decade after Dad’s death? My take: Frankie finally got the family memo and is still repenting and atoning w/ the grandkids for blowing up Billy’s 95th Birthday. Doing public penance is utter agony for Fundamentalist celebrities. Let’s calculate how many 60 second salvos of salvation & TV “mea culpas” per night…until he regains the full family redemption. My guess: even as Chairman of BG Inc, Frankie will still be serving his penance until well after the mid-terms.
THREE FULL DISCLOSURES:
#1) I picked up some sobering observations off a book penned by Jon Ward, Chief National Correspondent for Yahoo News. His ‘23 book—Brazos Press: “Testimony—Inside the Evangelical Movement that FAILED a Generation.” Well…Just buckle up before reading.
#2) I attended a Billy Graham film debut and made my first confession (age 8) in a rented, run-down vaudeville theater in Newberry, PA on a cold Saturday afternoon. Since seminary, my theology may have diverged a bit from Billy… yet I still hold high regard for Billy Graham as one of my Spiritual Mentors. In his honor, I helped host his Chattanooga crusade.
#3) I want to acknowledge the RAZOR THIN line between the sin of cynicism (vs) soberly dividing the Word of Truth. Sober dividing requires a steady hand and stout heart. Please do not attempt this kind of surgery solo. Dividing truth seems to require Solomon’s sword.
