Billy Graham’s Son Dismayed That There Was A Jesus Deficit In Tucson Memorial
enlarge Poor, poor Christians! All that scoffing and persecution! Of course, persecution is nothing that Native Americans would understand: In a speech on Tuesday at John Brown University, a private Christian college in Siloam Springs, Ark., the son of the revered evangelist Billy Graham voiced “dismay” at the way the Tucson memorial service was conducted, arguing that it was not as explicitly religious — mainly “Christian” — as those following the Oklahoma City bombing and the 9/11 attacks. Graham was particularly upset that the Tucson memorial featured a Native American who called upon “father sky and mother earth.” “There was no call for the name of God to put his loving arms around the people who were hurting, the people that were suffering,” Graham said. “Why? Why did they take God out of it? Why did they leave him out? “Because the world scoffs at the name of Jesus Christ,” Graham said, his voice rising in anger. “They scoff when you say he’s the son of God.” Graham went on to say that the scoffing and persecution against Christians is only going to get worse. Initial reports of Graham’s speech indicated that he may have been including Obama in his critique, though a review of the video shows that Graham says he “felt sorry” for the president “because I knew he was uncomfortable in that situation.” Graham was referring to the pep rally atmosphere and the prayers by the Native American, an associate professor of medicine at the University, Carlos Gonzales, who is a Pascua Yaqui Indian and fifth generation Arizonan. (Graham called him a native of “the Yuppie tribe or something, I didn’t quite get it.”)
The rest is here:
Billy Graham’s Son Dismayed That There Was A Jesus Deficit In Tucson Memorial
Posted by
on January 22, 2011. Filed under