I believe he tried to say he didn’t remember making them but if he did he was sorry. Yes it was 40 years ago and maybe he’s changed his tune since then, but I tend to not trust the apology of someone who isn’t sorry until they’re caught. I’m not saying he’s the worst person EVAR but I think he’s fairly full of it. Just my opinion, worthless as it is.
Is he vocally against it? I remember there was an ad Graham did against it in North Carolina. But since Billy rarely takes a political stand, and he’s getting up in years and not as with it as he used to be, I’d heard a lot of speculation that Franklin was behind the ad and was just using Billy’s name.
He has come out against same-sex marriage several times, and has made other homophobic remarks. I do not cut him any slack. His mind is intact, and regardless of his age he’s capable of changing . . . but he doesn’t.
I didn’t realize reprehensible views get a pass as long as you have an ideology to fit them in.
Graham’s nice enough for a fundamentalist which is faint praise indeed.
That’s how I feel about it. The other stuff posted in this thread makes him look good by fundamentalist standards, but that is literally the faintest praise I can think of.
I’m inclined to cut him some slack for that because he’s pretty much the only evangelist blowhard who supports Israel without quietly (or loudly) plotting to convert the Jews.
I’m a bit more concerned by his refusal to support Kennedy because he was a Catholic, but that was an even longer time ago.
I almost never do this but if you could provide a cite I’d be very interested in reading that.
I have never heard of Billy Graham going soft on the whole Jesus issue; he’s never pulled any punches when it comes to preaching about salvation.
Isn’t this damning him with faint praise? The man makes millions teaching that Christians live by a certain special set of ideals and we are pleasantly surprised that he actually lives some of those ideals himself? I am glad to learn that Graham is a better person than the likes of Pat Robertson or Jimmy Swaggart but that bar is so low as to be meaningless. It saddens me that Christians have come to accept “he’s not that crooked” as the best they can hope for in a leader.
I have no use for the man. The best I could say about him is that he’s not that bad for an evangelical crazy fundie.
Question: Did/does Billy Graham self-identify as a Fundamentalist?
He was one. Now they generally hate him because he’s steered the evangelical movement away from fundamentalist viewpoints (see the article I linked above, for instance).
I always thought he was an OK guy, until that nasty anti-gay letter/ad he ran in the papers. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that his scumbag son was completely responsible for that though.
Okay, I hadn’t realized.
Re the Nixon-Jews thing: Yeah, Graham should have been more forthright but he wasn’t directing the conversation & from the transcripts I’ve read, it looks like he may have been pandering to a very powerful man who he’d just realized was kinda nuts. Do you confront or do you just go along & hope to get to the next subject? And in the faint praise category, it wasn’t ALL Jews that Nixon was lambasting, just the Lefty ones. A REAL Anti-Semite wouldn’t go on about ‘good Jews’ and ‘bad Jews’.
Re the gay thing: On what grounds would anyone ever think Billy Graham is A-OK with Gayness? I mean- that’s not a top priority issue with me anymore but I’m still an official bad-guy for holding a moderate version of the traditional Judeo-Christian position on it.
Re Salvation: Billy has drifted from “You must be born again” (words of Jesus) to “You should be born again” + “I have other sheep who are not of this fold” & other words of Jesus which indicate some wiggle-room. He’s now an Evangelical Inclusivist or an Inclusive Evangelical.
Re Fundamentalist: There are Fundamentalists & there are Fundamentalists. Heck, I think I’m one when it comes to the REAL Fundamentals of the Christian Faith, but I totally realize a lot of self-named Fund’ists might barely consider me a Christian.
“It’s all good as long as one of you is underage”?
I keed, I keed!
Excuses excuses. He said this was how he really felt about Jews but couldn’t admit it in public. I’m inclined to take him at his word rather than trying to find a way to say he didn’t really mean it. Nixon’s defenders say he wasn’t an anti-Semite either. If you’re favorably disposed enough toward someone, you can excuse anything.
I’m not sure. But he’s wrong anyway.
Dash you, Sir, for making me chortle at mine own comeuppance!
Ummm, what’s the point of a religion that has no point?
I’m an atheist too, but I reserve the most respect for faiths (and faithful) that take a stand. I mean, we’re only talking here about the word of God, the almighty omnipotent creator of the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. This wishy-washy, touchy-feely ecumenical cafeteria Catholic pseudounitarian pablum makes my skin crawl far more than fundamentalist beliefs. Again, it’s GOD, you’re supposed to be fundamentalist, priests, pastors and imams shouldn’t be allowed to rewrite two-thousand-year-old rules simply because unbelievers won’t invite them to coffee unless they express the proper amount of 2012-approved love for gay people, Jews, Mormons, cat owners and Prius drivers. 
I like Billy Graham, as a person. As a pastor? Eh, I like my pastors with more conviction.
I see your point; this could be my own personal thing, since most of my religious indoctrination comes from the Mennonites. A religious leader keeping $25 mil for himself when he could be doing good works with it just isn’t good enough, to me. I guess my stance is basically he might be good, but he could be better.