New Book Praises Billy Graham

January 10, 2013 by 9 Comments

All the living presidents, including Clinton and Obama, contributed to a new book that showers Billy Graham with praise from more than 100 prominent Americans. Bill Clinton also heaps accolades on the nation’s most famous evangelist:

It was Graham who visited the Clintons in the White House during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the former president alludes to as much in his tribute.

“This extraordinary kindness and concern has remained constant throughout the more than quarter century I’ve known Billy Graham. It remained true when he visited Hillary and me in the White House, just as he visited other presidents before and after me. And whether he was speaking to our nation after the terrible tragedy in Oklahoma City or speaking to me privately in the Oval Office, he embodied St. Paul’s maxim that of all the virtues, faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love. It can bring redemption, healing, and new beginnings.”

Too bad Richard Nixon isn’t still around to write a chapter that praises Graham for hating Jews as much as he did.

Filed Under: Religious Frauds 9 Comments
About Ed Brayton

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

  • http://rationaldreaming.com tacitus

    What? Did he die?

  • http://rationaldreaming.com tacitus

    Yawn. All successful pastors are capable of being extremely personable, thoughtful, and kind on a one-to-one level. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in the job for very long.

    Doesn’t stop them from having unacceptable prejudices and despicable views, though.

  • busterggi

    I’m sure many close friends thought you-know-you (I refuse to Godmwin so soon) was charming also.

    And they both hated Jews so they would have gotten along fabulously.

  • hexidecima

    Graham is as far from loving as his supposed god is. Neither come close to the descritpion of love in the holy book that is read by one and supposedly wrote by the other.

  • Didaktylos

    He was an ex-brush salesman who found the evangelical con-game so much more lucrative.

  • tbp1

    Billy Graham is a lot like Mother Teresa. HIs carefully-crafted public persona has been so successfully marketed, and so many people have bought into it, that almost no politician—or other public figure, for that matter—will dare to criticize him. I doubt that very many of the Presidential accolades are particularly sincere, although of course I have no way of proving it.

  • thebookofdave

    Billy Graham is the Vicar of POTUS (not officially, but spiritually, so there’s no actual church-state conflict). I wish him the best of health, so we don’t get to see what an invigorated US pope is like anytime soon.

  • http://www.facebook.com/den.wilson d.c.wilson

    Thebookofdave:

    Rick Warren is patiently waiting in the wings for Graham to kick it.

  • http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

    @8:

    Mr. Warren may be doin’ a little imprecatory prayin’ at the moment.