The sap in my veins starts bubbling when some ignoramus like Billy Graham spouts nonsense that’s layered in irony thick enough to frost over the entire Statue of Liberty.
On June 30 of 2009, you see, in one of his more insipid syndicated columns Billy was asked by a reader why atheism was getting so popular.
One of Billy’s thoughtful explanations for the growing ranks of non-believers was that the barbaric, heathen philosophy of atheism would…
…appeal to people who want to be free from God or any moral restraints.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I find it utterly absurd and hugely ironic that a “man of God” of Billy Graham’s stature has the audacity to mention being free of moral restraints.
Could Graham possibly be stupid enough to believe that atheists “… want to be free from moral restraint”?
This explanation comes from the mouth of the man flapping above the old loins that fathered the hateful and freaky Franklin Graham, the “man of God” who outraged Muslims (and anyone else with half a brain) in 2001 when he said that Islam was “a very evil and wicked religion.”
Billy G’s free from moral restraint explanation issues forth from the “spiritual adviser of presidents” who counsels love for your enemy out of one side of his mouth while praising “just wars” from the other side, wars in his long decades of life that have killed and displaced sufficient men, women, and children to stack the bodies high enough that you would leave far behind the very atmosphere of the earth if you climbed that horrendous pile of death and misery.
Does a man who supports war so predictably and so unquestionably have any business talking about morality?
I mean, seriously, so many self-righteous and loud “Christians” wouldn’t recognize morality if it charged them in their pews yelling “Bonzai!” while rapping ‘em on the head with a two by four.
One more quick point about all this…
I had to clean the guffaw spit off my monitor this morning when I read in old Billy’s column that atheists, while not “large in number”…
… do tend to be aggressive in promoting their ideas.
Ho ho ho.
Now, that’s rich coming from a man who spouts his judgmental tripe every day of his life in every venue that’ll give him an outlet.
Only the “Reverend” Al Sharpton, with “Reverend” Jesse Jackson a distant second, do it better.
Atheists aggressive?
I’m 61 years old as I write these words and never once in all those 61 years have I had an atheist or a duo or trio of atheists pounding on my door on a Saturday morning to “witness” to me about their religion, the “one and only true path to God and eternal salvation.”
When’s the last time you had an aggressive atheist get in your face and do everything but shove needles through your elbows to get you to listen to their version of The Truth?
No, it’s not atheists who are aggressive with their dogma.
The aggressive ones are judgmental opportunists who make fortunes spouting perversions of the Good Book while pretending to teach the gospel of Christ.
Jesus, of course, would be doing flip-flops in his grave (were He still in his grave) at the nonsense preached in His name.
And that’s my religious rant for this last day of June, 2009!
> never once in all those 61 years have I had an > atheist or a duo or trio of atheists pounding
> on my door on a Saturday morning to “witness”
> to me about their religion
True. On the contrary, I have found that the committed atheists prefer ambushes in the workplace or elsewhere in the public square where the potential for making a believer look stupid are maximized. I have experienced this myself, but I guess you’ll have to take my word for it that I didn’t instigate it.
You seem to overlook the underlying motivations of each group, too: Why should an atheist care what you believe as long as it doesn’t interfere with their non-belief? On the contrary, many Christians knock on doors out of compassion. As a strategy, it might be a poor choice, I’ll grant you that. But I don’t doubt what drives them.
Chet, we’ve all had bad experiences with members of just about every religion we’ve come into contact with. I’ve had bad experiences with politicians, teachers, and police, too, but I know that it isn’t wise to write off the whole lot of them.
Calling Graham “stupid” and his son “hateful and freaky” isn’t really a positive contribution to the discussion. I assure you that they would not call you either one.
FYI, a little background: Franklin Graham spent the first 25+ years of his career toiling in quiet anonymity as the founder of Samaritan’s Purse, an extremely lean and effective relief organization.
Anyway, as always I remain your friend (and born-again Christian),
== Ross ==
Ross W. Lambert
I read your blog for the first time today. I am on your email and newsletter lists. I have made purchases from you, and my wife buys your D-I-L’s products.
Wow, Chet, from whence the vitriol? I have never seen this in your writings, but I have perceived your preference for eastern religions and the peace movements.
Mr. Graham , as far as I know, has never forced himself onto anyone. He has simply publicized that he will be preaching at a certain location at a certain time, and people fill up the venue. He certainly never forced himself into the White House for all those years.
By way of comparison, one of the purchases I made from you was the info about the 5 rites. I sent the $$ you were requesting, even tho the rites are offered and explained by others on the internet for no cost. I began the regimen and followed it precicely. Even though there were many paragraphs promising incredible results, I received no benifit from it, except possibly the improved core muscle improvement that I would have gotten from any crunch and stretching routine. I got only slightly better results from the 11 day diet program I bought from you. I have no complaints. I have chosen to do business with you, and you have delivered the products I requested. I could say, however, that I have been way more damaged ($$) by you than you ever will be by the Graham family.
I’m pretty sure that the stack of good works done by Christians would cast a large shadow over those of the Atheists.
One good result of reading your blog for the first time is that I was led to Mr. Lambert’s fine blog.
I hope you’ve spent a little time considering where that nastiness came from.
Lynn Allen
Well, I’ve seen plenty of atheists who were nasty and arrogant when there is any talk of God.
Regarding your blog you wrote…..
Not for faint-hearted baby boomers. If you’re into Political Correctness, surf on out of here. But if you’re a baby boomer who likes crisp, informative, opinionated, and occasionally funny writing, you should take part in the fun by commenting and moving the discussions onward and upward.
……………………………………….
I am a baby boomer, not faint-hearted, not into political correctness. Unfortunately, what you wrote about Billy Graham was nothing but pure hate!
I pray you will open a Bible and read the message God has for you. He’s a good God who loves you. The reason a Christian would knock on your door is because they are concerned about your eternal life. Yes, we all have an eternal life….there are only two choices….Heaven or Hell. If you don’t choose Heaven, then it will be Hell for you.
I will say a prayer for you and your family.
Shirley
Shirley,
There is no such thing as hell. The Bible does not teach hellfire and brimstone. These falacious teachings are probably some of what drives Chet away from religious conversation.
“open a bible”…and read what it really offers. We were made to live on earth. The earth was made for us. (Psalm 37)
Why would God take us from our home that he gave as a beautiful gift to us?
Death is not natural and very misunderstood. However, we can’t make sense of it with wrong teachings. Revelation 21 makes clear that God will get rid of death soon. All things will be restored to their natural, perfect state — here on earth where we want to be. God would not torment people. Yes the wicked will be removed, but will not suffer eternally. They will simply cease to exist. (Ecclesiastes 9)
The rest of mankind can then enjoy perfect life forever — with their cells renewing themselves constantly, as scientists have discovered they are supposed to.
The writer of this article must agree that there is now a surge amongst Atheists towards Militant Atheism, as promoted in a recent TED lecture by Dawkins. The new Militant Atheism appears to me to be verging on the sort of approach I dislike about some Religions that try to force their agenda or dogam down my throat.
I’m really uncomfortable around those who try to ram their religion or their lack of religion or their politics or their tax woes or anything else down my throat.
Live and let live, that’s my approach to life.
We have far too many noisy people in this country who think they have the answers to everything and that their answers must be bought into by everyone else.
I wish people like this had less time on their hands or that they’d use their time to do something constructive rather than being a pain in the ass.
Chet
Now I warn you, I did not read any of the other comments….but I did read your post. I am a Christian, that is a sinner saved by faith alone through grace alone, and I do like to have dialouge with all diffrent kinds of people- different cultures, upbringings, religions, all of it. That said, I would like to ask you two questions, to help me understand where you are coming from better.
You say that you did not appreciate that Graham said that those who reject God do so because they desire to be free from God, and moral restraints. Do you want to be free from God? I suppose thr answer is clearly a yes, but it is the ‘free from any moral retraints’ part that bother you, right?
I don’t know what sort of personyou are, and I can’t judge Graham’s heart behind his statement, and I would say that some of the most caring, morally responsible ( morality defined as consideration of fellow man) folks that I have met have indeed been Agnostic, Athiest or Pagan or Wiccan. The trouble is, salvation has nothing to do with us, we can’t earn it by doing good, or lose it by doing bad, rather it is a free gift from God. So being a good person does not save a soul from eternal seperation from God. When I talk to my friends who associate with any of the religions mentioned above, I always make sure they know from me that one thing, and then I don’t pester them about their choices in life. That is indeed between them and their creator. ( Yes, I realize that you probably also do not believe that God created you.)
My only other question would be if you have researched Islam and understand why a devout believer such as Graham would indeed call Islam evil. It is evil as far as our beliefs go, and it isn’t as far as yours go. Clearly the Muslims and all of the non-biblically rooted masses of Americans and people worldwide also do not believe Islam is evil. The reason we think it is, as Christians, is because Islam rejects Christ, and instead raises up Muhammed as the Christ-replacement in the Koran. Anyt teaching that rejects Christ is evil for us, because we cannot accept that Christ is not the son of God, that he did not die for our sins and be raised again and that we do not need Him in order to have sweet fellowship with God while on Earth, as well as to be saved from the Lord’s just eternal judgement against all of us people, sinners from bith due to The Fall of all men. We reject those teaching from Any Source, just as you reject any teaching that seek to tell you that you are a sinner from birth who is in need of salvation and that the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is not your faith.
Also you mentioned believers who profess to believe in loving one’s neighbor and peace with all men(and women) so far as it has to do with you, as the Word says, engaging in war with other people/countries and that you cannot reconcile the two. The Word says ‘as far as it goes with you’ for a reason; sometimes peace between two people is impossible. many times, protecting your country, your family or your faith will cause one to have to ‘go to war’. We must protect from an enemy. Does that mean kill abortionist doctors, no that is not what I am referring to. I am referring to wicked and evil nations and orginizations that seek to erase God from our Constitution, to make their evil agenda larger than God is in the US especially and abroad. War when necessary against an evil enemy has long been supported by the Lord, yes He also says thou shall not kill. That is because life is up to Him- He creates it, He takes it, He is sovereign, not us. So if He wants to protect His people from an evil force and war is what is necessary to do so, then the call for war must come from Him- not from some people who want to go to war for their own selfish reasons. Really the two are not incompatiable, if one has an understanding of the Bible as a whole. Of course God would prefer to not have to go to war. But in this evil and wicked age, ‘War has to happen sometimes.’
Not sure whom you are referring to when you say “The aggresive ones are judgmental opportunists,who make fortunes,spouting perversions of the Good Book,while pretending to teach the gospel of Christ” but I can imagine the sort of characters you might be referring to. Some extremists are indeed drawn to Religion as a seemingly acceptable outlet for thier extremist agendas, and us Christians don’t appreciate those people either, LOL
I guess one could call me an opportunist because I do talk about my faith in God when it comes up, and judgemental because I believe that Jesus is the only way to God. Yet, I do not pervert the gospel so far as I can tell & I pray continously that I may never do so, for surely I do not know it all, and it would grieve me greatly to misrepresent God- either His great Love or His great Holiness and Justness.
I am glad to have found your blog whilst searching Google for The Hallelujah Diet , mentioned to me by a friend. I found some interesting information about the possible dangers of living strictly Vegan, and very much appreciate the info. Thank you for sharing it.
-Stacey
Stefani, you are incorrect. Please do follow your own advice an open a Bible. The English Standard Version/ESV (at any bookstore, open and read for free) is very easy to understand. The Word is very clear about what happens to our souls when we are seperated from God, through choice or (if satan could have his way) it potentially could be through his stealing souls- but God will not allow that to happen. Anyone who ends up living apart from Christ, rejecting salvation and finds their soul in hell upon passing ends up there because of his or her own choice to reject God. Satan is a defeated foe, he can only take what souls willingly go to him, either by choosing to believe that there is no God or choosing to worship some man-made God, what the Bible refers to as idols (such a Muhammed, the Pagan religions Godesses and so on.) Please do read the following verses and then get back to to me about if there is a hell God warns us about. And tell me if you get the feeling He wants Any Soul to end up there after you read His word to us.
The trouble with not really educating yourself about all things is that stuff can sneak up on you and devour you while you are ‘asleep’ spiritually and intellectually. God is trying to warn you, all of mankind. He desires that none should perish, but that all should have eternal life.
-Stacey
Revelation 20:12, 15, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life…And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die… (Ezekiel 33:11)
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18
Matthew 25:46, And these shall go away into EVERLASTING punishment: but the righteous into life eternal
Revelation 21:8, But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Psalm 9:17, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28. For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Sinner, you will either TURN from your sins to Jesus or you will BURN for your sins. If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be tormented in the flames forever without a single, solitary hope. The biggest fool in the world chooses hell. No need to argue with me about this. God said hell is real, your argument is with Him and you won’t win that one. You have been warned. Repent or perish.
And here is a good page someone has put together to help other people:
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/hellreal.htm
Love the commentary. These attitudes and ridiculous persecution complexes do nothing but prove Chet’s point!
I applaud any atheist, skeptic, agnostic, or anybody who rightfully calls out any busybody “Christian” who interferes in someone else’s affairs and pushes their religion onto them. To quote Jessie Ventura, “Organized religion is a sham for weak minded people who enjoy meddling in other people’s business.”
I do agree with Alex Jones, especially about the zealot and egomaniac Richard Dawkins. He’s a huge discredit to scientific discourse and turns science into Science, complete with its own clergy and elect and dogma. Along with the pushy and mentally unhinged and socially inept “Skeptics,” Dawkins and his extremist ilk are the reason creationism and other threats to true science are even on the radar. Dogma cannot be fought by another form of dogma in an emotional arena.
Once again, I’m loving the other comments! Keep on, Christian soldiers… keep on rolling on the crazy!
Wow! Now I like Chet Day even more! I’m with you!