Franklin Graham is crazy

[yngliberal]

I don't remember subscribing to their fundraising letters but they are starting a program to draw more teens towards Christ but the letter I received from him is just crazy. The following are some snips. I am a Christian but I don't listen to Franklin Graham. This is about as right-wing as you can get.


Are you saddened as you watch our country's public schools systematically eliminate any trace of God from the classroom? Are you sick and tired of the fact that students can barely even mention the Name of Jesus Christ without fear of punishment or the threat of lawsuit?

I mention Jesus and I never get into trouble.

Children today are forbidden to pray in schools like most of us did when we were children. The Ten Commandments-the Judeo-Christian bedrock of morality-can't be posted in the hallways. Not only are expressions of Christian faith off-limits, but in many cases, an immoral, godless agenda is often punished upon children. Just the other day, I read where a homosexual storybook was being read to second-graders.

So I guess preaching hate and bigotry is okay?

It's a shame and a disgrace that our society has come to this. It seems the government lacks the moral will and vision to do anything. Many times, biased, liberal courts only make matters worse. School boards often bend and bow to secular forces that are hostile to God and His standards.

Liberal courts? The Supreme Court is very conservative and the judge in Pennsylvania who ruled against intelligent-design was a Republican. Not a liberal. And we saw what happened to the Dover school board that was supporting intelligent design in schools.

----I really don't understand how people can give to the Billy Graham Association due to the fact that they fly around in expensive multi-million dollar jets when that money could've went towards feeding the poor and helping the poor in general. I just don't get it.

[Cassandra]

1. Franklin Graham was talking the other day...

about what a wonderful opportunity Iraq is for proselytizing.

[AX10]

2. That would be: Franklin "Facsist" Graham.

[spanone]

3. This is why our forefathers had the foresight to seperate church & state.

And bush* has done a remarkable job destroying it.

[WI_DEM]

4. praying is not off limits in public schools!

Tbere was many a time I said a silent prayer prior to a big test.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. Absolutely not!

When I taught public school back in the '80s, there was a Bible club that met after school, got its photo in the yearbook and everything! When I taught world culture, I showed the kids the different way s people prayed and told them the different names people had for God. Didn't have a problem with that, either, though I think I was lucky (and I phrased it in such a way that it was seen as culture)

[Lexingtonian]

5. Show me one of those "biased, liberal courts"

and I'll show you a court that actually obeys the Constitution, Frank.

[Swamp Rat]

6. I wish Jeebus would reach down from the sky and pinch off his head!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Franklin Graham appears to be one of those "Talibornagains"

in that he only wants HIS form of religion practiced and only HIS prayers, etc, used in schools, by the government, etc. I still can't figure out how he got his version of Christianity out of the Bible. I have several different translations, and they all teach the Christian ideals of tolerance and forgiveness.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Franklin Graham and * have a couple of things in common:

1. Franklin was the * of his family. He was a hellraising drunk who embarassed the s__t out of his father and the family.

2. In middle age, he found god, and got sanctimoniuos like *, a real expert on Jesus. Now he thinks he's god.

3. Both FG and * have a thing for one-upping their fathers and make a bigger name than their fathers did.

[Dudley_DUright]

10. Franklin needs to re-read the 10 commandments again

He seems to be forgetting the one about bearing false witness.

[dave502d]

11. They don't care about God, It's the money, n/t

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. Me thinks

that he is playing to his audience. They feed off each other in some sick way. IOW, fundies are co-dependent.

[Jacobin]

13. I never prayed in public schools in the 1950's and 60's

EVER.

It was explained to me that there was a separation of church and state and that religion was to be discussed with your parents and at your place of worship, if any.

Franklin Graham was going to go to IraqNam and hand out bibles.

Let's buy him a plane ticket over there

[Ringo84]

14. Re:

"Are you saddened as you watch our country's public schools systematically eliminate any trace of God from the classroom? Are you sick and tired of the fact that students can barely even mention the Name of Jesus Christ without fear of punishment or the threat of lawsuit?"

No, but I am sick and tired of fellow Christians whining about persecution.

"Children today are forbidden to pray in schools like most of us did when we were children. "

A lie.

"The Ten Commandments-the Judeo-Christian bedrock of morality-can't be posted in the hallways. "

The bedrock of Christian morality. Would you be so happy if they tried to post verses from the Q'uran in the hallway?

"Not only are expressions of Christian faith off-limits, "

A damned lie.


"...but in many cases, an immoral, godless agenda is often punished upon children. Just the other day, I read where a homosexual storybook was being read to second-graders."

Hopefully, it will make them more open-minded than their idiotic parents seem to be. The only immoral, godless agenda here is yours, Franklin! Asshole.
Ringo

[bullimiami]

15. he is insane, like his dad, only worse.

[Bucky]

17. His dad is apolitical, essentially pro-choice, & preaches tolerance

You can argue that Billy Graham moved religion in a more fundamentalist direction, but you can't exactly call him a right winger. He doesn't go near the antiabortion crazies and says that there is room for divergent opinions on when life begins. He steers clear of the anti-evolution loonies, too. He counseled Republicans like Falwell against helping out the Clinton witch hunts. He refused to preach in the South during the 1950s if his tent revivals were forced by local laws to be racially segregated. I don't agree with Billy Graham on a lot of things, but he has never dragged religion into politics or politics into religion.

[Ringo84]

19. I Agree

Billy Graham is OK. Franklin Graham is a nut.

I first realized how stupid he was when I saw him on TBN. One of the fundy elite had died, and Franklin said something about how he "fought liberalism".
Ringo

[Erika]

22. Billy Graham was a democrat

and he certainly was not insane. He had humility.

He insisted in desegregation.

[msongs]

16. AIDS patients should die if they dont convert to Graham's Jesus

if you watched the PBS Frontline Aids program this week you saw the vicious Graham and his fascist cohorts salivating over Bush money to enhance their personal lifestyle...oops..to spend on meds for african aids patients. There was an entire convention of thousands of people who were celebrating the fact that millions of sick people could be converted to Jesus in exchange for life saving medicine. Their whole process of providing medicine depends on africans agreeing to US and christian demands on how to live their lives in africa in return for christian provided drugs. No more mention of condoms or safe sex, destruction of african tribal and cultural practices, total submission to the beliefs of the medicine providers.

wonder if Jesus would make people convert before providing medicine? then again, Jesus was jewish.

Msongs
www.msongs.com
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mugs and shirts

[Erika]

24. Franklin is no Billy

Now he may be a Falwell or a Roberston. I wonder if it was because of the rich and famous lifestyle in which he was raised.

He shows no humility. Kind of like W.

Yeah, Billy should have spent a little time more at home. You got a boy dictator and a daughter husband batterer.

Oh well, Christianity moves on.

[greekspeak]

18. Deliberate misrepresentation of the situation on the ground

This is nothing but manipulation of sincere Christians' religious beleifs.

"Children today are forbidden to pray in schools like most of us did when we were children." Wrong. Children can pray all they want to.

"...students can barely even mention the Name of Jesus Christ without fear of punishment or the threat of lawsuit?" I teach in a public university, Intro New Testament, and we say "Jesus" and "Christ" about 50 times a class meeting.

Graham states that "expressions of Christian faith off-limits." Well that explains the many Christian organizations that meet at schools of all sorts.

Graham's problem is simple: he and his ilk are not allowed to use the school's PA system to coerce students into prayer. Why coerce? Control. Social control. Prayer is a red herring.

[Erika]

23. His father believed in finding Christ through love

Not force-feeding. Franklin will likely be another Bakker or Swaggert.

[saltpoint]

20. Franklin Graham is absolutely nuts. A dangerous man.

Second graders like being read to. The topic needs to be imaginative and engaging, but they aren't that easily freaked out.

Snow White is a straight tale, isn't it? It gets read in early gradeschool classes, right? Any permanent damage from that recorded so far?

Graham should be locked in a room with The Dead Kennedys blasting from hundreds of speakers, ceaselessly.

[Erika]

21. Franklin justs want to be anointed a cabinet member

in a theocratic administration.

Billy should have spent a little time more at home. His daughter was arrested for battery on her husband.

You know, just the regular right wing program.

[johnaries]

25. The ACLU has sued to let students express their religion in school

on many occasions. Here's just one example:
http://www.aclu.org/studentsrights/expression/12845prs20040511.html

DETROIT - The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today announced an out-of-court settlement between the Utica Community School District and a local student over the censorship of her 2001 yearbook entry. The student's entry had been deleted from the yearbook because it contained a passage from the Bible.

"While it is true that the Constitution forbids public schools to promote religion, schools must be careful not to suppress the private religious expression of students," said ACLU of Michigan Legal Director Michael J. Steinberg, who represented the student. "In this case, a high school purported to create an open forum for student expression, yet censored a student's speech because it was religious in nature."

How come these nuts never mention this?