Worth 1,000 words: The awful state of American evangelical Christianity after Billy Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is evangelical Christianity in America in 2013. White. Rich. Right-wing. Dishonest. Predatory. Outwardly pious, inwardly corrupt.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/11\/09\/worth-1000-words-the-awful-state-of-american-evangelical-christianity-after-billy-graham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worth 1,000 words: The awful state of American evangelical Christianity after Billy Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is evangelical Christianity in America in 2013. White. Rich. Right-wing. Dishonest. Predatory. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. 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{"id":18894,"date":"2013-11-09T16:18:56","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T21:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=18894"},"modified":"2016-03-31T19:22:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T23:22:45","slug":"worth-1000-words-the-awful-state-of-american-evangelical-christianity-after-billy-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/11\/09\/worth-1000-words-the-awful-state-of-american-evangelical-christianity-after-billy-graham\/","title":{"rendered":"Worth 1,000 words: The awful state of American evangelical Christianity after Billy Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is a picture taken this week at the celebration Franklin Graham held for the 95th birthday of his father, Billy Graham. It is also a parable, a metaphor, an astonishingly revealing snapshot of the sorry state of evangelical Christianity in America in 2013.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Seated in the middle there is Billy Graham, the world-famous evangelist who was, for more than 50 years, the face of white evangelical Christianity in America and the second-most influential Baptist pastor of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

At 95, Graham is frail and in ill health. His image and his legacy have been usurped as political tools used by his son Franklin Graham, who seems desperate to be a political player and kingmaker. Not content with living off the interest of his father\u2019s legacy, Franklin has been burning through the capital.<\/p>\n

Just look at how Franklin has exploited his father here. The famous preacher is silent now, a voiceless prop called upon to lend a sheen of respectability to the likes of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, and Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News lackeys.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Billy Graham looks uncomfortable being dragged out to offer his apparent blessing to a gaggle of dishonest strangers and charlatans that includes two<\/em> racist billionaires. The scowl on the old preacher\u2019s face may reveal his recognition that this<\/em> is what has become of his legacy \u2014 that everything he did and worked for has led only to this, to the empowerment of lying hucksters and the politics of resentful privilege. Perhaps he\u2019s even realizing that something like this was bound to happen \u2014 that the intensely otherworldly focus of his lifelong ministry meant that it couldn\u2019t plant deep roots in earthly soil.<\/p>\n

But just look<\/em> at that horrifying photograph. Soak it in.<\/p>\n

This is evangelical Christianity in America in 2013.<\/p>\n

White. Rich. Right-wing. Dishonest. Predatory. Outwardly pious, inwardly corrupt.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about political tribalism. Jesus simply isn\u2019t in the picture.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"