Posted on 06/26/2005 10:07:04 AM PDT by Josh in PA
Clinton Honors Graham at Final Revival
NEW YORK - As his final American revival meeting continued Saturday, a fragile Billy Graham was met onstage by former President Clinton, who honored the evangelist, calling him "a man I love."
Clinton spoke briefly before Graham's sermon and recalled how the man known as America's pastor had refused to preach before a segregated audience in Arkansas decades ago when that state was in a bitter fight over school desegregation.
"I was just a little boy and I'll never forget it," said Clinton, who was joined by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I've loved him ever since. God bless you, friend."
Graham called the Clintons "wonderful friends" and "a great couple," quipping that the former president should become an evangelist and allow "his wife to run the country."
Graham, 86, then launched into a short sermon that was interrupted by applause five times. Organizers estimated 80,000 people had come to the crusade at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens — about 20,000 more than the opening night Friday. The rally ends Sunday.
The evangelist is suffering from fluid on the brain, prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease. He uses the walker due to a pelvic fracture and is largely confined to his home in Montreat, N.C. He had said previously that the rally "will be the last in America, I'm sure."
Despite his many ailments, he spoke strongly for about 15 minutes, in an address meant to appeal to young people. He peppered his speech with pop-culture references from Madonna to Bono to MTV. He wove a parable about bad decision-making from the plot of "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," in which Anakin Skywalker becomes the villain Darth Vader.
"The decisions you make tonight will effect your whole future and your eternal future," he said, before inviting people forward to accept Christ.
Graham's son and successor, the Rev. Franklin Graham, sat nearby, ready to finish the speech in case his father could not. But Franklin Graham was needed only to help his father move onstage.
Seats began filling hours before the event began, as temperatures reached into the 90s. Speakers repeatedly encouraged people in the audience to drink water to avoid fainting. Graham waited to go on in an air-conditioned tent, with aides nearby in case of a medical emergency, and the stage was shaded by a massive canopy.
Graham's pulpit has a movable seat hidden from view, so he can sit if he feels unsteady. He used the seat Saturday only after he finished his sermon.
Graham is considering a request to hold a rally in November in London, but Franklin Graham said his father no longer adjusts well to time zone changes and does not like to be away from his wife, Ruth, who is also in ill health.
Graham has preached to more than 210 million people in 185 countries. He has been sought out by U.S. presidents and leaders worldwide and, more than any other religious figure, has come to represent the American evangelical movement.
Marie St. Louis, 34, who came to the event hours early Saturday with friends and family from her New York church, called the rally "bittersweet" because it was Graham's last in the United States.
"It's sad because he's such a legend," St. Louis said. "When you think of Billy Graham, you think of a lot of things a Christian should be."
They have to become part of everything! Invited or not!
What a contrast between the classy Nixon, who--against his own political interests--declined a political nod from Graham, and the greasy Clintons, who were more than happy to sucker a very old and well meaning man into providing them with naked political candy.
As much as I admire Billy Graham, I am extremely disgusted that he would give such admiration to Clinton, a man who did more than any President to destroy the moral integrity of this great nation.
I want to chalk it up to Graham's advanced age, but I believe his mind remains strong.
That said, I think Graham somehow fails to realize that Hillary and her cohort would just as soon see Graham and his evangelical friends lowered into a bottomless pit.
I understand that Graham must be polite to all Presidents, both current and past. But if he thinks the love and message that is Christ would be promoted under a Hillary government, he is sorely misguided.
Hillary and her party have nothing but distain for the deeply religious, expecially those who feel it incumbent on themselves to speak in public discourse.
Billy Graham can forgive Clinton and Rodham all he wants.
Just don't push her down the throat of evangelical America, and please please please don't give her support in her run for the Presidency.
I want to love and admire Billy Graham as much as I always have (since I was 8 years old), but somehow this latest rambling from the 86-year old preacher leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Tis a shame. BG should have simply thanked Clinton and Rodham for their service to the country, and then moved on to his sermon.
Wow...that's the most knee-jerk comment I've read on Free Republic in some time.
I guess you didn't read the rest of my comment...the part where I said I didn't trust Graham and that I believed he was a socialist.
You need to mature quite a bit.
Just wanted to let you all know what was posted about Billy Graham being a Democrat!
Now it makes sense why Billy wouldn't say anything during the hearings about Clinton during all the things that went on between Monica and Clinton in the White House years!
http://www.democrats.com/node/5139
Billy Graham Is a Democrat
Billy Graham, the ailing 86 year old Christian evangelist, respected as the father of modern-day American evangelism, has scrupulously avoided political labels for fifty years of ministry. He sought to rise above the fray, as God would, so that all could hear his words of universal truth. Evangelicals of all leanings, from Rick Warren, Max Lucado and right-wing radicals James Dobson and Jerry Falwell to Jim Wallis of Sojourners regard him as the seminal figure of their ministries.
Rev. Graham says he may have preached his last sermon to a stadium congregation yesterday. He spoke of salvation and love to 300,000 of the faithful at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena from Thursday through Sunday. He probably has proclaimed his last altar call.
He did a lengthy interview this weekend with NBC's Brian Williams. A few moments ago, The Today Show ran a brief, provocative excerpt in which Mr. Williams asked for Rev. Graham's views on the Presidential election of 2004.
Eyes shining, the revered Rev. Graham firmly fired eight words that will reverberate around Christian evangelical circles for years to come.....
"I have been a Democrat all my life..."
http://heartsoulandhumor.blogspot.com/2004/11/billy-graham-is-democrat.html
That is so sick that Graham would say that!! Where are the feminists to complain about Graham's excusing Clinton's infidelities and indiscretions?!!
That kind of talk (of excusing Clinton for his misconduct with Monica) should have been protested by women for having been portrayed as the aggressors in such a situation of sexual misconduct - and letting Clinton off scott free!
"This has NOTHING to do with Bill Clinton .. this is about Hillary APPEARING TO BE A CHRISTIAN .. but GOD will not be mocked."
Bill is an attention junkie, too. But you make a good point.
"We all know what Hillary thinks about Christians - and for her to make this grandstand play with the ever-forgiving Billy Graham is just Chutzpah to the extreme!"
That's one of our biggest problems as a nation, today. The term, 'forgiveness' is a whip used on Christians. This isn't forgiveness. This is a way of glorifying the wicked.
"Billy Graham does not love their sins (which I'm confident he's aware of), but he does love all sinners - because that's the mission GOD gave him."
Jesus once said that after the church confronts the sinner, and the wrong is not set right, you are to treat that sinner as you would a heathen. So fear not. Billy Graham can make mistakes too. He is, after all, a human being. On the partial birth abortion alone, Jesus would have chased Clinton around on live TV with a whip, shouting hellfire. Jesus would have ended up in jail or the psycho ward, and the old media would be milling out smear campaigns on God's alleged relationship with prostitutes at Gitmo.
"Shameful, shameful stunt."
And made possible by a lack of understanding about confession, contrition, forgiveness, and the true nature of our Savior.
you may be right. parkinson's is also bad, but the mind would not deteriorate as fast.
vaudine
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