Apparently, the Reverend Billy Graham has passed away at age 99. A truly long, and full, life by any measure. People can disagree about whether he had a net positive or net negative impact on our society, but one thing's for sure: the famous (at one time, the most famous) evangelist had an impact, love him or hate him.
I remember in my youth in the late 1960s he was a fixture on television (at least, the TV that my grandmother Betty -- the hillbilly mother of my mom -- watched constantly ;-). Presidents used to consult with him on a regular basis and he was, in a way, one of several pillars of America's "moral conscience" (whether for good or ill) in that era.
Postmodernism, as it's done to most every "traditional" institution in American life, diminished his influence for a time, and confined it more to the Bible Belt than anywhere else, which is where Graham originally arose, but he never went completely away and his son, Franklin Graham, is a major player in the "political evangelist" world in the US currently.
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
I remember in my youth in the late 1960s he was a fixture on television (at least, the TV that my grandmother Betty -- the hillbilly mother of my mom -- watched constantly ;-). Presidents used to consult with him on a regular basis and he was, in a way, one of several pillars of America's "moral conscience" (whether for good or ill) in that era.
Postmodernism, as it's done to most every "traditional" institution in American life, diminished his influence for a time, and confined it more to the Bible Belt than anywhere else, which is where Graham originally arose, but he never went completely away and his son, Franklin Graham, is a major player in the "political evangelist" world in the US currently.
"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
