The misdeeds, ignorance, and barbarism of religion politicians is the stuff of legend: Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps, and on and on. But as I thought about it, I honestly couldn’t recall even a hint of dispersion ever cast toward Billy Graham. In fact, Charlotte, his hometown, named a major thoroughfare after him, the Billy Graham Parkway, despite their longstanding policy of naming nothing after someone until after they’ve died.
Vivisimo and Google searches turn up nothing (nothing credible, anyway). In fact, Salon says that Graham is “clean as a whistle”. Does anyone know of any Billy Graham scandals?
I am aware of none concerning the man himself. He does indeed appear to be to be scandal free.
There was something a couple of years ago about his son being implicated in some financial irregularity involving church (or BG’s organisation), funds but I believe that nothing came of it. If I remember correctly, BG’s son was just involved with the particular work to which the funds related rather than being directly implicated in the actual alleged wrongdoing, and it was only that loose connection to BG that made the whole thing newsworthy. I would do a search and a link, but it is not about BG himself, so it is not a response to the OP. I stress that these are just my feeble recollections of a one-off news story.
BG appears to be that rare example of a man who does practice what he preaches, and long may he continue to do so.
In my opinion, Billy Graham is the type of preacher that other televangelists should try to be. As far as I know, he has never been the object of any scandal whatsoever (unless you count hanging out with Richard Nixon scandalous.) He truly practices what he preaches, and when he does preach he stays to a very simple gospel message. You won’t often find Graham trying to delve into any deep theology and when he does, he’s not afraid to say that there are some things that he just doesn’t know. He was also instrumental in creating the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability which keeps financial information on various Christian ministries on the up and up. I don’t think you’ll find a more honest and deicated Christian than Graham in the pantheon of televangelists.
An unquestionably anointed but very young and green prophet once hinted darkly to me that all was not well in the Graham camp. He didn’t say any more and I really got the impression that it was such a vague generalisation it didn’t really mean anything at all; just a traditional prophet’s refusal to support anything of the establishment. It may have refered to Dr Graham’s offending some particularly exclusive Christian sect. I ignored it.
That is the only thing I’ve ever heard against the man, and it ain’t much.
Some fundamentalists and evangelicals think he goes to far in his ecumenicalism (not sure if that’s a word but you know what I mean). Bob Jones III has distanced himself from him and disapproved of the fact that Graham has prayed with catholics and met with the pope.
So, if you are a fundamentalist then there’s your dirt.
Euthychus, I’m not sure I’d call Graham a televangelist. He does have have TV specials but that’s not his main work or focus. He doesn’t ask for money while on TV.
He used to have a policy of not going into a hotel room alone - he was afraid someone would sneak a naked woman in there and she would jump on him and someone would then snap a picture to discredit him. I doubt he still does that now.
Not only that but he never has lunch or dinner with a woman alone. Hillary Clinton wanted to have lunch with him and he said he would, but not alone.
Bob Jones III was is the head and grandson of Bob Jones University, the school that got Bush into controversy during election season because he visited there. You’ll find plenty on that place.
I don’t agree with everything Graham says-(I hear he’s still of the homosexuality is a sin, mindset). But truly, he’s not a jerk about it. He’s not a hypocrite, and he’s more, well, humble, I guess you could say. He believes in what he does, and he doesn’t have that air of “holier than thou.” like so many do.
I don’t agree with everything he believes-but I respect the man.
Bill Graham’s foundation tries to hide the fact that it has a huge pile of money. Billy’s afraid it would discourage fund raising if people knew how well off they really are. Several church and charity rating groups rank his low for reasons like this. Note: I’m not saying they’re spending money unwisely, just there’s a large lack of openness open what’s going on.
But that’s minor compared to:
Billy likes politicians of a certain political bent, regardless of their ethics or even if they are truly (vs. “publicly”) religous. And the more scum-sucking the politician, the more Billy seemed to like him. A guy who thought Dick Nixon was a great moral leader doesn’t strike me as having a full deck, religous credo-wise. I wouldn’t trust this guy’s opinions on religous matters one solitary bit. I don’t think God belongs to a political party.
Weak, weak, weak. According to the Salon site cited above:
And your comments about the politicians were a waste of space. C’mon, this is GQ. I’m looking for substantive answers here. If you know of any real scandal, give a link.
Thanks, Lib, for an excellent cited refutation to this. It would be nice, now, if ftg were to come back and acknowledge the correction - or, indeed, to offer a contrary cite. Intellectual honesty, ftg…
And to address the OP - although as a Catholic, I’m no particular devotee of Graham’s, I have to add to the laudatory comments – he is, by acocunts, a man who lives what he teaches. He’s to be admired.