Billy Graham & The Cold War Before the Culture War – White evangelical voters, Donald Trump, and the evolution of the religious right
The Cold War before the culture war March 6, 2018 by Fred Clark WN: What emerges with great clarity in the two articles highlighted below is the extent to which the “Red Scare” and the Cold War in the early years of Graham’s preaching dominated his message — at least implicitly. The further insight is […]
The Last Real Evangelical: Evangelist Billy Graham
Feb 23, 2018 photo above: Evangelist Billy Graham speaks in Dallas at the 1974 Southern Baptist Convention. (AP) by Mel White / MelWhite.org1 WN: On the day of Billy Graham’s death (February 21, 2018), I posted a critical commentary on Graham. Today I post a positive reflection by Mel White, who counted Graham as a […]
Billy Graham and the Gospel of Fear
February 21, 2018 byCecil Bothwell Photo above by Richard Bromley | CC BY 2.0 [NOTE: For a differing view with my reflection on it, please also see my February 23, 2018 post about Billy Graham.] WN: Billy Graham’s passing (February 21, 2018) will occasion countless eulogies the world over; he will be touted as the […]
When Billy Graham Planned To Kill One Million People
photo above: Billy Graham visited troops in Vietnam around Christmastime 1966 and returned in 1968. His son Franklin Graham, CEO and president of the BGEA, shared: “My father felt it was important to go and minister to the U.S. Military. He went to Vietnam not because he supported the war, he was going there to […]
The Rev. Billy Graham is No Phil Berrigan!
By: William Hughes originally published in The People’s Voice WN: Neither are most of us… An excerpt: Rev. Graham has been doing his preaching gig for over 60 years. He has reportedly spoken to “more than 210 million people in 185 countries and territories.” (1) My question is this: To what end? Rev. Graham has […]
Billy Graham – Echoes in the Shadows
This was written by Bill C. Davis. WN: Billy Graham has been the most known representative Evangelical for the last half of the twentieth century. No one has emerged in the twenty-first to take his place. This is why in my novel he appeared as THE representative Evangelical. As such, he most represents the tragedy […]
Constantine in Canada – Ron Dart – with Vancouver letter re: Franklin Graham
February 27, 2017 Constantine in Canada: The Conservative Evangelicals Ron S. Dart WN: Years ago, I wrote an editorial in The Mennonite, a U.S.-based periodical, about evangelism being carried out – without the Gospel. The Editor later informed me that he had never received so many angry Letters to the Editor attacking my article in his […]
Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. In an interview with Religion […]
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Book Review of: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. In an interview with Religion […]
Extensive Commentary On: What white Christian support for Trump reveals about systemic racism
By Robert P. Jones | November 12, 2020 WN: Beyond tragic the pullquote to the right, this means four-fifths of American white evangelical Christians subscribe to “heresy” (an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth—Merriam-Webster). And this not limited to America! And many religious white non-evangelicals (Catholics, mainline Protestants, other faith members, etc.) also are […]
Interaction With “The CIA: 70 Years of Organized Crime”
September 22, 2017 by Douglas Valentine – Lars Schall photo above by Tom Thai | CC BY 2.0 WN: Welcome to America the Beautiful. As kids, my brothers and I loved the highlighted song, as sung by George Beverly Shea–who performed in front of more people than any other singer in history. We played it […]
On A letter from Hell
By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist photo above: pxhere.com WN: It is interesting that the photo chosen for the article highlighted below (not shown above) is along the lines of what Larry Dixon wrote (The Other Side of the Good News: Contemporary Challenges to Jesus’ teaching on hell 1 in apparent approval of an instance of […]
They Went to Bible College to Deepen Their Faith.
Becca Andrews September 30, 2021 photo above: yelp.com WN: The article highlighted below begins with Megan Wohlers telling her story of abuse, and ends with these understated words from her: And that’s not how Jesus would have acted. I added October 24, 2021 almost an identical story, only from Jerry Falwell’s (Founder) Liberty University. His […]
Almost Everything Biden Said About Ending the Afghanistan War Was a Lie
April 27, 2021 by Sonali Kolhatkar image above: Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair chart below: The Washington Post, Fatal Force WN: Ethicist A. J. Coates writes in The Ethics of War: The moral prohibition of lying, for example, makes good sense in the context of personal relations, but no sense at all in affairs of […]
Of Course a US President Can Murder Somebody Without Legal Jeopardy—Ain’t That Great!
Of Course a US President Can Murder Somebody Without Legal Jeopardy—Ain’t That Great! Published on Saturday, October 26, 2019 by Common Dreams “Once the foundation is there, and the people and Congress acquiesce, mission creep soon extends the immunity and impunity to other areas.” by Kary Love photo above: If the president does it, is […]
New Pro-Life Movement: ‘No’ to Trump; ‘yes’ to atheists
New Pro-Life Movement: ‘No’ to Trump; ‘yes’ to atheists Jan 17, 2019 by Peter Feuerherd Justice People photo above: Aimee Murphy, executive director of Rehumanize International, tells a group of pro-life activists at the 2018 March for Life Jan. 19 in Washington that it’s important for people to know that being pro-life means being against […]
Millennial Evangelicals Diverge from Their Parents’ Beliefs
The separation of families at the border, climate change, and various progressive causes have galvanized young Christians. By Eliza Griswold August 27, 2018 WN: I have a white Canadian Evangelical friend who expresses being fed up with white Evangelical-bashing — in particular towards white Evangelicals south of the border1. I argue on the contrary that […]
How Martin Luther Paved the Way for Donald Trump
To understand why evangelicals support the president, look to the first Protestant. By Michael Massing April 19, 2018 illustration above by Sabine Formane WN: This article draws a fascinating direct line from Martin Luther in the early 16th century to Donald Trump in the 21st. There is likewise a fascinating/tragic direct line to be drawn […]
The Last Temptation
How evangelicals, once culturally confident, became an anxious minority seeking political protection from the least traditionally religious president in living memory Michael Gerson April 2018 Issue Politics WN: This is a greatly informed, wise and even hopeful assessment of what has happened to white Evangelicals in America since their embrace of Trump (81% voted for […]
“Fox Evangelicals” Embrace Trump’s White Nationalism
Wednesday, 27 December 2017 07:36 BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT photo: Alan / Flickr [su_pullquote align=”right”]”But you will recognize them by their fruits.” – Jesus[/su_pullquote] WN: We know that the ultimate “fruit” is Love. From my Home page: Personal Mantra The Gospels indicate that the test case for love of God is love of […]
The Fundamentalists Holding Us Back from a Climate Change Solution
The evangelical Christian movement has been at war with environmentalism for decades—but the stakes have never been higher. By ALLIE CONTI illustrated by LIA KANTROWITZ Aug 20 2017, 7:15pm WN: It is truly tragic to see US politics swayed by a minority of religious climate change deniers – out of all proportion to their numbers. […]
White Supremacy Is Anti-Gospel. I’m Glad the Southern Baptist Convention Agrees
WN: I copied the entire article below. It is about an historic decision by the Southern Baptist Convention. Russell Moore has been the head of the (SBC) Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission since 2013. As you can see from the links, he has been an amazing voice within those ranks for actually […]
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them – Jesus
WN: Across the United States, there has been massive support by conservative Evangelical Christians for Donald Trump. For instance, before election, he was fêted by 1,000 Evangelical leaders in New York City who embraced him as a great Christian leader. At his inauguration, Franklin Graham (Billy Graham’s son) ad libbed that God’s blessing was on […]
If Being a Christian Means XYZ, then I am not a Christian.
February 15, 2017 by Kimberly Stover WN: I have copied the entire posting below, with a link at the end for where you may see the original, become a “Follower” of the author, etc. Billy Graham was definitely right on in the citation below from 1981. Would that he too had stayed away form the […]
An Open Letter to Michelle Obama, October 13, 2016
WN: A friend reminded me, in response to that below, that none of us in the first world is untainted vis à vis violence. And with that taintedness is a bending at least towards hypocrisy and Pharisaism – which my friend also reminded me about. So with that mea culpa, please read on.: Dear […]
Jesus, Evangelicals, and American Empire
image above: thenile.com.au WN: “Empire” by nature is gargantuan evil. There is none known to history that has not been such. Most American Evangelicals and conservative Roman Catholics amongst other religious instinctively oppose thinking the United States is precisely such an Empire. Billy Graham and a host of lesser religious routinely prayed for Empire victory […]
Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America
Barry Hankins, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008, 272 pp. An excerpt: Barry Hankins allows irenically that Schaeffer’s “arguments have not stood the test of time in terms of their historical veracity or philosophical soundness. He was not the scholar, philosopher, or great theologian that his publishers liked to claim on his book jackets (p. xv).” In […]
Chapter Sixty-Three
In 2007 I first published Chrysalis Crucible, a coming-of-age novel about young Andy Norton who goes off to West Berlin in the early seventies to evangelize – with all the answers. You can find a page about it on this website. I’ve republished it (2015) as Kindle eBook and Amazon print-on-demand. Andy discovers in West […]
Chapter Forty-Eight
In 2007 I first published Chrysalis Crucible, a coming-of-age novel about young Andy Norton who goes off to West Berlin in the early seventies to evangelize – with all the answers. You can find a page about it on this website. I’ve republished it (2015) as Kindle eBook and Amazon print-on-demand. Andy discovers in West […]