I looked but I didn’t find anything about Billy Graham. Did you mean Charles Templeton? Different guy, and not on his deathbed - he announced his agnosticism in 1957 and didn’t die until 2001. He also didn’t stick to his ministry after losing his faith - he became a broadcaster and writer after a brief foray into politics.
Regards,
Shodan
I heard an interview with Fred Phelps’ granddaughter, who stated near the end of his life, he expressed doubt about god and his own beliefs. This apparently got him disfellowshipped by his church/kin just before his death. His granddaughter left the church.
According to this poll a pretty large amount, A majority of all American Christians (52%) think that at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life, with only 29% believing that theirs is the one true religion that leads to eternal life.
The problem is that the more moderate faiths are more likely to keep their religious beliefs to themselves, so all you hear about in the media are the fire and brimstone types.
I was trying to remember a particular preacher guy, so I searched on megachurches, which led to an odd discovery. The largest church in my state, by attendance, is in a backwater town that has a population around half what is listed for the church’s average weekly draw. It is at least fifty miles from the biggest, most sinny, city in the state in a pole building amidst a lumber yard, a hot rod dealer and a heavy equipment company. It looks like they do live electrified music for their “services”, in a barn-like setting.
Even the normal people in this area are pretty weird.
As a no longer “practicing” Catholic, I say “fuck that shit”.
To hell with the pedos. To hell with the embezzlers. To hell with the pervs. To hell with the ones who DARE tell ME what to think , feel, or believe at this point. And to hell with anyone that says the exercise of my own mind (be it doubt, questioning or what-the-fuck-ever) is a “scandal”. The questioning of faith, or dogma is sign that you actually THINK.
They want mindless unthinking minions? Fuck them. They want to protect pedos? Fuck them.
I walked away from all their bullshit long ago.
And another thing. That “we are sinners”? Fuck THAT too. I never embezzled or raped children. Fuck them. To hell with the lot of them and their lying self serving sanctimonious hypocritical bullshit.
So how can religious folks who oppose abortion claim that pregnant women who are single should have to give birth and have the option of single motherhood, yet condemn homosexuals who raise children as “child abuse” because “children need a mother and a father”? Isn’t that hypocrisy supreme?
And if a lesbian gets pregnant by rape, I guess she should be forced to have the child and forced to give it up. And, hey if a woman gets pregnant by rape, the baby did nothing wrong. It’s not wrong to tie a woman to her rapist for the rest of her life if he claims paternal rights, and the child shoukld be delighted to know it is the product of rape.
That’s a pretty good summary of just how fucked up it is. But NOTICE, there is nothing about holding the “baby daddy” or the rapist responsible for anything.
Maybe the old solution of looking for a tree and stout rope for the rapist/deadbeat was the right answer all along.
Why shouldn’t the baby daddy get paternal rights? A child needs a mother and a father. Depriving it of a father would be wrong because “the baby didn’t do anything wrong and it needs a mother and a father.”
Anti-abortion groups believe the fetus should have more rights than the pregnant woman.
If the baby daddy is just out to dip his wick and provides NO support, he gets no sympathy from me. He should then get no rights, except the “right” to have part of his money garnished to support however many kids he fathered, by however many women he had. Some men are so bad that “depriving” the child of his presence is a far lesser evil. Let’s have some accountability.
If he’s a rapist, NO rights for him except to pay support during and after prison. If he fights it, just hang him. And then whatever he did have either goes to the mother, or gets sold and the cash goes to the mother.
I do know a lesbian who got pregnant by rape, had the child and raised it with her partner. When she was deciding what to do I told her to ask some really religious Christians about it. They said “Oh, have the baby, but give it to a REAL family.” Apparently she and her partner were not real enough.
The rapist’s family later threatened to seek custody, claiming “If a lesbian can be a good mother, a rapist can be a good father.”
all religion is hypocrisy supreme
They believe the fetus should have more rights than they will allow it to have once it becomes a born baby.
And he’d be RIGHT.
Please tell me he had a real bad “accident”.
Not that I know of, but his family never followed through on the custody claim.
I’ve heard the rah-rah Christians state that Christians should be the first choice as adoptive parents.
Yeah, really — once you are born, then it’s “survival of the fittest” and if you’re among the losers, too bad. Which is damn ironic when you consider how many of them are antievolutionists.
From their POV, this is totally correct: if a baby’s adopted by Good Christian Parents, then the baby’s more likely to grow up Christian and be ‘saved’ and go to heaven when it dies.
Now there’s no reason why anyone else should buy into this bullshit, but given their assumptions about this life and the aprés vie, it makes perfect sense.
And there’s this:
“We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now” — Special Adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative Paula White
Yeah, there’s a word to describe deliberately making a miscarriage happen. Eight letters, begins with ‘a’.
IIRC, them types are usually against that. But apparently if the pregnancy is ‘satanic’ it’s OK to blow right past pro-choice to being pro-mandatory-abortion. The only consistent aspect, of course, is to remove choice from the pregnant woman.
As Josh Marshall points out, since they’re ‘satanic’ they’re not ‘children’ or ‘unborn babies’ or any of that; they’re now just ‘pregnancies.’
I can see it becoming the new line when an unmarried pro-life evangelical woman finds herself pregnant: regardless of how she and her bf were having sex and all, her pregnancy was clearly contrary to God’s timing and therefore ‘satanic.’ So in her case an abortion is absolutely mandatory.
Whatever he believed or pretended to believe, or disavowed, that fuck can burn forever in the same hell he wished on everyone else.
What do they consider a “satanic pregnancy”? Jewish? Muslim? Lesbian? Atheist? Unwed mother?
I know it’s not one resulting from rape, because tying a woman to her rapist for life is not considered wrong in their book. Slut got what she deserved.