Comments on: North Carolina fundamentalists are on the offensive to oust atheist councilman

By: cecil bothwell

cecil bothwell — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:35:36 +0000

I’ve enjoyed the discussions popping up all over the Web.

Per Graham’s politicsâ€”that’s what my book is about, and while some seem to think it’s a hatchet job, it’s actually an investigative political biography. I don’t take particular issue with Graham’s religious beliefs (except insofar as his actions seem at odds). What I found fascinating was that the public stance was that of offering spiritual guidance, but my five years of poring over presidential communications, documents in presidential libraries and the Billy Graham archives showed that he was a covert political operative. He advocated war to every president from Truman forward, even urging genocidal bombing in Vietnam (to Nixon). The week before the first Gulf War, GHW Bush wrote that Graham told him Saddam was “the AntiChrist itself” and that it was Bush’s historic mission to destroy him.

As an investigative reporter for many years, I thought the story of those back-room conversations and advocacy were worth telling. Graham may not have been the out-front political operator that other right-wing religionists have been, but he was arguably far more influential.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:36:25 +0000

Franklin Graham has taken on his father’s mantle, but operates in a very different way. He also has a reputation as a bit of a playboy. Ned Graham is another “modern” evangelist who also operates a charity (East Gates) which is under a financial cloud, and is being handled only by himself and close family members now. Neither of these two characters is fit to tie his father’s shoelaces, but I seem to remember one of them being involved in some sort of a scandal years ago, where he had exposed himself to a group of girls, but if so it has been airbrushed from history! Can anyone help?

By: Brian Worley

Brian Worley — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:21:36 +0000

I’d love to know if father and son here (Graham’s) had one of those old school/new school father and son talks?

Barriejohn, could you privately email me? I don’t know of another way to do it (reaching you)…I wanted to ask about an older discussion we had.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:43:56 +0000

Billy Graham certainly made a mistake getting so close to Nixon, though, and even flirted with the idea of accepting a position in the administration. Asking Tricky Dickie to speak at his Knoxville Crusade in 1970 nearly ended his career! And if you look at the BGEA site whose name do you see in bright neon lights – why, Sarah Palin, of course!!

By: Brian Worley

Brian Worley — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:13:44 +0000

Asheville is basically my “hometown” being I graduated from high school just 20 miles outside of Canton. I am so happy for Bothwell!

A few points about the city. I believe Graham still lives just outside of Asheville in Montreat. He still has a training center in the area. Asheville has really changed over the years…yet some things stay the same! I made a few comments in the introductory letter of “Anatomy of a Christian Hate Letter” series on my website main page about what another past recent of Asheville had said (Thomas Wolfe).

What changed in Asheville was that many of the tourist who visited fell in love with the city/area and moved there! The locals lost the city to the influx of the new residents! The changing of the leaves in the fall is an aesthetic treat to behold in the local mountains!

I’m sure many of the “old timers” in the region are furious with Bothwell’s victory…this signifies that times are changing. Rolling Stone said that Asheville was the “New Freak Capital of the U.S.” Yet 20 miles away in Canton, the local church pastor who wanted to have a “non KJV Bible and Christian book burning of Christian writers like Graham and Warren” this past Halloween was denied by law from doing so!Yet regionally, many of the locals are still so religious that I myself cannot get very good old friends to return an email or even become Facebook friends!

Another point worth noting is that B Graham himself stated something like “God himself didn’t have a political party” which is to be contrasted to many of today’s infamous preachers who climb the religious right ladder. Sure Graham was usually around presidents…but otherwise steered clear of the religious right machine. I’ll close by stating..”So many paradoxes here”! Congradulations Mr. Bothwell!

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:42:11 +0000

Look at this (it seems that any comment more than two words long disappears for hours, and can’t be edited either, now!):

http://proudatheists.wordpress.....n-atheist/

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:38:44 +0000

That intellectual giant and all-American hero, Rick Warren, is spouting more lies about atheists being in the minority on a truly mind-boggling Faux News interview viewable here:

http://proudatheists.wordpress.....n-atheist/

What on earth the execrable Fox News is doing transmitting tripe like this I have no idea!

By: William Harwood

William Harwood — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:43:46 +0000

I can understand why the incurably godphuqt are desperate to equate the absence of superstitious ignorance with the absence of moral worth. With the number of nontheists, both in America and worldwide, already up to 36 percent (Ronald Aronson, Living Without God) and increasing exponentially, they know at least subliminally that they are facing elimination and can only survive by convincing the curably ignorant that their mind-AIDS is a virtue to be clung to at any cost.
With the winning of elective office by blacks, gays, Jews and other minorities leading to those formerly-suppressed groups being recognized as entitled to full equality, it will be just a matter of time before the election of nontheists encourages other nontheists to come out of the closet. And the godphuqt know that, once the masses become aware that nontheists outnumber any specific religion, the fact that theism correlates inversely with intelligence and education and positively with incarceration in correctional institutions, the two-thirds of believers who are curable are bound to start wondering if they are on the losing side. And at that point enslavement to religion will go the same way as enslavement to Soviet fascism.

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:02:28 +0000

I recall an amusing anecdote that I heard some years ago from a Dr W. Graham who resided near the home of the evangelist. Apparently, he got so fed up with receiving phone calls asking whether he was Dr Billy Graham, and whether he could dispense some of his famous advice, that he gave up trying to explain the situation and just listened to what the callers said, giving them the benefit of his own home-spun wisdom! According to what he said they were all more than satisfied with his helpful replies, so one can draw one’s own conclusions from this little tale!!

By: barriejohn

barriejohn — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:57:30 +0000

In case readers are not aware of the fact, Billy Graham did in fact live at Charlotte, North Carolina. The Montreat Presbyterian College (“We’re real people with a real and active God”!) has now grown up around the farm where the great man was born, along with a Conference Centre and the vast Billy Graham Library, opened a couple of years ago,