First up:
Billy Graham
Parade Magazine Interview 1981
Snopes.com 2/01/2018
"The evangelical leader said in a 1981 profile that people in his position "can't be closely identified with any particular party or person."
"The hard right has no interest in religion
except to manipulate it."
And we see exactly where that led:
"I hate my opponent.
I don't want what's best for them"
"Sorry Erika."
And this country was nowhere near as "Hard Right" then, as it is now. Ronald Reagan couldnt win a primary in todays political environment, hes just not extreme enough.
"I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form.
It would disturb me
if there was a
wedding
between the religious fundamentalists
and the political right.
The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."
It's not an accident he chose that word.
"Wedding."
Unlike todays MAGA assortment of riff-raff, Billy Graham knew what the scripture taught.
Revelation 19:7
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Christ has one wife.
His church,
not politics.
Anybody who ever
tries to tell you any different?
Is a false teacher,
contradicting the word of God.
PERIOD.
"In this case, the quote is authentic, and taken from the 1 February 1981 cover story in Parade magazine; it was part of Billy Graham's account of conversations with fellow reverend Jerry Falwell, who helmed the conservative politcal group the Moral Majority. Graham said:
"It would be unfortunate if people got the impression all evangelists belong to that group. The majority do not. I don't wish to be identified with them."
(But that is exactly what happened:
"...people got the impression
all evangelists belong to that group."
"The moral majority is neither."
My dad, a deacon at a Southern Baptist Church used to say. I was 16 or so,
I agreed.)
"I'm for morality. But morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak out with such authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists can't be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."
Guy has been rolling over in his grave for years
at the absolute mess we have made of things.
Second up:
Lil Richard
Arsenio Hall Show
1990.
Hall: "...Let me ask you about the music coming off of the radios today, rap music, 2 Live crew, controversy, obscenity, uh, well tell me, talk about the music.
Lil Richard: "I think that those old folk they got in charge, they need to be fired. And I want to tell you something (Looks at the audience) brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, of all races, that, dont take this thing lightly, and you said don't take it for granted because your freedoms are being in jeopardy, they are trying to stop your freedom, Yeah you see, this country was built on freedom of speech, YOU HAVE A RIGHT to sing what you wanna sing, whether its good or bad, you have a right to wear what you wanna wear, whether its pretty or ugly, you have a right to go where you want to go regardless. You understand me? If you wanna buy a pornography tape or whatever, you have a right to do it, Do you understand me?
And if those young guys with 2 live crew, if they wanna sing whatever they're singing, I may not like it, but I aint got to buy it. I may not like it, I aint gotta look at it. I may not buy it, I may not listen to it, but they have a right, to sing it!
You understand me? You have a right to be, you have a right, to worship God, you got the right to be Jewish, Catholic, Seventh day Adventist, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, thats your RIGHT. Cant nobody tell you what type of church you should go in
thats your right! Now let me ask you something, God gave that Listen, I wanna let you know that God gave it to you, and its in the word of God. Your freedoms are being taken! Stand up for it.
"Crazy people are going to ruin this country. See, the people that, these are re these religious fanatics, they are gonna call people that are true Christians religious fanatics but there are some people that are just Devils and call themselves Christians. You understand me? And they want you to stop doing everything.
"They tell you they dont look at no book and up under the mattress there aint nothing but books."
(John 1:47
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him,
and saith of him,
Behold an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile!
(Cunning deceit.)
"They tell you that they dont drink and up under their uh uh bottles everywhere. You understand me?
And you have got to remember
that you got to protect yourself
by studying for yourself,
you dont take what no preacher tell you.
Read for yourself."
AMEN!
Brother Joseph Kim is the only preacher I have ever heard say from a pulpit during a sermon on Sunday:
"Dont take my word for it.
Be a Berean.
Study it for yourself.
Come to your own conclusions
if you think I've got
something wrong."
(Paraphrased)
So Kudos to him for that.
Lil closing note, true story.
When I first moved to these parts 28 years ago or so, I was working on a big construction project. One of the guys I was working with used to do sanitation, worked on a garbage truck. He would empty the trash cans in the truck, it may be hard to believe but back then where we are was a dry county, you had to go across the river to Indiana or to the next county over to purchase any alcohol. (That changed a few years back). On more than one occasion he made comments something to the effect of:
"All these people that wanna keep this a dry county? You should have seen the amount of bottles in their trash every week. Im talking the upper crust, in church every Sunday Holy rollers etc I mean we knew who they were...If you only saw what I saw in their trash cans when I would empty them."
An elderly lady I used to work with
and again this is years ago:
"I'm Presbyterian."
Me: "Whats that?"
Her: "It means you dont have to hide the bottle
when I come over."
Needless to say we got along great :-).
Aint no guile over here.
Say whatever you want
couldnt care less.
And BTW?
Dad loved Lil Richard :-).
and Billy Graham
And so do I.
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