# Lo! How the mighty have fallen. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 10, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593 "2013-11-10T19:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/1 "2013-11-10T19:50:49Z")
A [group picture](https://s3.amazonaws.com/wp.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/files/2013/11/Billy.jpg) of Billy Graham 95th birthday celebration from two days ago. Words fail me. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/2 "2013-11-10T19:59:13Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > Words fail me. Apparently so. Next time bring some content. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/3 "2013-11-10T20:08:06Z")
Yeah, user\_hostile, what kind of lazy suck-ass fucked-up effort is this? Bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/4 "2013-11-10T20:08:44Z")
It’s a picture of an old man, surrounded by some other old men and younger people who are, presumably, family. I don’t get it. Maybe old people make the OP angry?? ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/5 "2013-11-10T20:08:47Z")
Hmm. Figured everyone understood the context. My bad. But I’ll let [Fred Clark](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/11/09/worth-1000-words-the-awful-state-of-american-evangelical-christianity-after-billy-graham/) do the talking: > [@](#): > > At 95, Graham is frail and in ill health. His image and his legacy have been usurped as political tools used by his son Franklin Graham, who seems desperate to be a political player and kingmaker. Not content with living off the interest of his father’s legacy, Franklin has been burning through the capital. > > Just look at how Franklin has exploited his father here. The famous preacher is silent now, a voiceless prop called upon to lend a sheen of respectability to the likes of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News lackeys. > To his credit, Billy Graham looks uncomfortable being dragged out to offer his apparent blessing to a gaggle of dishonest strangers and charlatans that includes two racist billionaires. The scowl on the old preacher’s face may reveal his recognition that this is what has become of his legacy — that everything he did and worked for has led only to this, to the empowerment of lying hucksters and the politics of resentful privilege. Perhaps he’s even realizing that something like this was bound to happen — that the intensely otherworldly focus of his lifelong ministry meant that it couldn’t plant deep roots in earthly soil. > > But just look at that horrifying photograph. Soak it in. > > This is evangelical Christianity in America in 2013. > > White. Rich. Right-wing. Dishonest. Predatory. Outwardly pious, inwardly corrupt. > It’s all about political tribalism. Jesus simply isn’t in the picture. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/6 "2013-11-10T20:12:19Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > A [group picture](https://s3.amazonaws.com/wp.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/files/2013/11/Billy.jpg) of Billy Graham 95th birthday celebration from two days ago. > > Words fail me. None of the mighty in that picture have fallen. All of them are either standing or sitting. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/7 "2013-11-10T20:12:53Z")
> [@Fred Clark](#): > > This is evangelical Christianity in America in 2013. > > White. Rich. Right-wing. Dishonest. Predatory. Outwardly pious, inwardly corrupt. > It’s all about political tribalism. Jesus simply isn’t in the picture. 1965 called, they want their insight back. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/8 "2013-11-10T20:13:19Z")
No one doing the bunny ears? Fail. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/9 "2013-11-10T20:22:02Z")
I recognize Palin, Trump, and Rick Warren standing off to the side, and Rupert Murdoch is helpfully weaing a nametag, but I have no idea who the rest of these people are. What’s the “scoop” here? That some relatively famous people posed for pictures with an old man on his birthday? I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/10 "2013-11-10T20:25:45Z")
Lame OP. Yeah, Billy Graham got old. Yeah, a lot of his “friends” are extremely right-wing Republicans, but surprisingly enough, Graham himself is and has always been a Democrat. Also, he’s not silent- he can still speak. What he can not do is stand, so he sits. I know all of these things because he lives close to me, and the local news constantly fellated his birthday celebration on every news broadcast for several days. The only distasteful thing to me about it was how they trumpeted so proudly that Sarah Palin was going to be there, as if that was a good thing and something to be proud of. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/11 "2013-11-10T20:32:34Z")
Graham’s the only one in the picture who’s not smiling (or trying to and failing like Murdoch), which considering the company isn’t too surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/12 "2013-11-10T20:54:10Z")
If Obama is going to drone strike Americans, here was his opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/13 "2013-11-10T21:11:41Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > A [group picture](https://s3.amazonaws.com/wp.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/files/2013/11/Billy.jpg) of Billy Graham 95th birthday celebration from two days ago. > > Words fail me. look how many people he has in his closet. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/14 "2013-11-10T21:28:35Z")
So who are all the people in the photo? I can identify Donald and Melania Trump, Sarah and Todd Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch, and NC governor Pat McCrory. The guy in the military uniform is Graham’s grandson Edward. Who are the others? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/15 "2013-11-10T21:35:02Z")
Those are the potential GOP candidates for president in 1016. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/16 "2013-11-10T21:35:40Z")
Sorry, ‘fallen’ is nowhere evident in that photo. ‘Old’, now… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/17 "2013-11-10T21:42:52Z")
That picture makes me feel like having an abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/18 "2013-11-10T21:44:51Z")
You can see the large crowd in the background. Probably one of many pics that were taken that day. Maybe one of the lamest Pits ever. Even in this echo chamber you need to bring more than a picture of Palin posing for a picture. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/19 "2013-11-10T21:45:59Z")
Although Rupert Murdoch wearing a name tag is pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593/20 "2013-11-10T21:47:25Z")
Or at least post the one where Graham and Murdoch were lip-locked. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lo-how-the-mighty-have-fallen/673593.md?page=2)