Some thoughts on Billy Graham
So last Friday and went out to Queens Corona park to see Billy Graham, arguably the most influential evangelist of our time, lead his last crusade. It was a very interesting experience, and I’m glad I went. A few thoughts:
~The first thing I noticed was the incredible diversity that was present at this gathering. I was sitting in between the section dedicated to folks who needed Cantonese translators and the section for folks who needed Arabic translators. I saw skater punks, goths, middle-aged white men in checkered shirts and beards, elderly Chinese men in business suits, black women with crazy hats and fancy dresses, college kids, young Latinos in hip-hop wear, and countless others. Looking out across the vast sea of faces, I found myself thinking that this must be what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like - thousands and thousands of people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and languages all being nice to each other and being pleased as peaches to be gathered in the same place.
~I’ve seen a few religious luminaries in person - Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, etc, and they universally have a certain glow about them: something gentle, strong, and compassionate that tells you that these are men of God. I have never met a great religious leader whom I would classify as a weird. The same cannot, however, be said for their entourages. Billy Graham is no different.
When Billy Graham spoke, he preached a very simple message of love and repentance. His basic theme was that God wants to be in a relationship with us, and if we allow God into our lives we will find purpose, peace, and happiness. He stayed away from theology, he stayed away politics, and he stayed away from comparing his religion to the religion of others.
His entourage, however, was a little different. His nephew, Mel Graham, stood up to give his testimony and it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. His nephew is a real estate developer who specializes in golf courses and who fell in with the wrong crowd and eventually found Christ after being arrested for drunk driving. It sounded more like a manufacturing recitation than a heart-felt witnessing, and seemed to be constructed by stringing together various evangelical buzzwords and catch phrases. I was disappointed.
Also, Billy Graham didn’t want to call this gathering a “crusade” because he thought it would be insensitive to Muslims. He wanted to call it a “revival” instead. His handlers, though, insisted that it be called a “crusade” since that’s what they’ve been calling them since he started in the 40s, and they wanted to cash in on the “last installment in a series” angle.
~There were, of course, a few protestors. There were about eight people carrying signs saying “Billy Graham leads to hell,” and “God kills, repent now.” There were about a dozen people carrying signs that said, “God Hates Fags.” I’ve been confronted with people being hateful in the name of Christ before, and although I knew they were out there, I was sad to see them in person. At the same time, however, there were SIXTY THOUSAND people who were gathered to hear Billy Graham speak and only TWELVE who gathered to deliver a message of hate towards homosexuals. Billy Graham, whose leadership assembled those 60,000 people, does not support the “God hates fags” rhetoric, by the way.
So I was sad to see them, but not all that sad. I mean, every group has it’s collection of hate-filled extremists no matter how positive the original message. Islam’s certainly got them, so does the environmental lobby, and so does the democratic party. I’m just glad our ratio was so low.
What DID make me sad, though, is that sign wavers were the people that my friends focused in on and talked about all the way home, and the first picture of the crusade that I found online was a picture of these guys. Dudes! 60,000 people gather in New York city to talk about love, hope, and compassion and those 12 are the ones who get their pictures in the news? I hate our media.
~The “Billy Graham Leads to Hell” crew, by the way, were upset at Billy Graham for not being a fundamentalist and they cited the fact that his message has changed somewhat over the course of his career as evidence that he is a false teacher. So he started off as a fundy, and now he’s a moderate. So what? Heaven forbid that a man gain any wisdom in sixty years of ministry, or that an 86 year old preacher could know anything that he didn’t know when he was 24. Thank God there were only eight of them.
~There was an absolutely killer salsa/funk band from Austin that opened for Billy Graham called Salvador. Yes, you heard that right: salsa/funk. They were incredible! I danced my little ass off and had a great time. The crowd loved it. He was followed by a guy named Steven Curtis Chapman who’s a much more conventional acoustic guitar-led rock/folk act. He was ok, but nowhere near as cool as Salvadore. Now I’ve heard of Steven Curtis Chapman, but I’d never heard of Salvadore before, which makes sense since Chapman’s been around for a while. Still, a middle-aged Southerner strumming a guitar and singing praise songs is everything I think is wrong with contemporary Christian music, while eight Hispanic guys from Texas bringing down the funk is everything that contemporary Christian music should aspire to. This is the thesis that I’m building my career on.
~There were so many diverse and interesting people in attendance that after the event I ditched my friends and stuck around to talk to some new people. I wandered around and met all kinds of folks, but the most interesting were probably a group of three or four dozen people who came down from an agricultural commune near Albany. They take the ancient Apostolic tradition very seriously, and so they chose to live together without personal wealth or even personal property. They live together, they eat together, they celebrate together, they worship together, etc. About ten of them had brought instruments and they were playing some lively dance tunes while about twenty of them were doing circle and folk dances.
Now I’m a big fan of community dancing and community music - it’s something which our culture has kind of forgotten about. I’m also a big proponent of using meals as a vehicle for fellowship and having regular worship with the people you live with - this is the basic idea behind monks and nuns. These guys, however, rather than taking their passion for religious community and joining a monastic order decided to build a commune. Oh, and they use the name “Yeshua” for Christ instead of “Jesus,” a practice which I wholeheartedly endorse.
If only these guys had a community in NYC, I’d seriously consider joining it. They were very nice and didn’t proselytize to me, which makes me think that they really are a super cool group of people who have transcended mainstream Christianity. They also might be a whacko religious cult. It’s so hard to tell sometimes.
~Final thought upon exiting: after 60,000 people assembled in a public park to dance, pray, and cheer, there was hardly any litter on the ground. At other public events, such as River to River Concerts, Central Park Summer Stage, the Hudson Blues Festival, etc, I’m always amazed at how much shit people leave on the ground. These Christians, however, almost universally decided to use the trashcans. I don’t want to read too much into this, but I do believe that you can judge a tree by looking at its fruits.
~The first thing I noticed was the incredible diversity that was present at this gathering. I was sitting in between the section dedicated to folks who needed Cantonese translators and the section for folks who needed Arabic translators. I saw skater punks, goths, middle-aged white men in checkered shirts and beards, elderly Chinese men in business suits, black women with crazy hats and fancy dresses, college kids, young Latinos in hip-hop wear, and countless others. Looking out across the vast sea of faces, I found myself thinking that this must be what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like - thousands and thousands of people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and languages all being nice to each other and being pleased as peaches to be gathered in the same place.
~I’ve seen a few religious luminaries in person - Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, etc, and they universally have a certain glow about them: something gentle, strong, and compassionate that tells you that these are men of God. I have never met a great religious leader whom I would classify as a weird. The same cannot, however, be said for their entourages. Billy Graham is no different.
When Billy Graham spoke, he preached a very simple message of love and repentance. His basic theme was that God wants to be in a relationship with us, and if we allow God into our lives we will find purpose, peace, and happiness. He stayed away from theology, he stayed away politics, and he stayed away from comparing his religion to the religion of others.
His entourage, however, was a little different. His nephew, Mel Graham, stood up to give his testimony and it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. His nephew is a real estate developer who specializes in golf courses and who fell in with the wrong crowd and eventually found Christ after being arrested for drunk driving. It sounded more like a manufacturing recitation than a heart-felt witnessing, and seemed to be constructed by stringing together various evangelical buzzwords and catch phrases. I was disappointed.
Also, Billy Graham didn’t want to call this gathering a “crusade” because he thought it would be insensitive to Muslims. He wanted to call it a “revival” instead. His handlers, though, insisted that it be called a “crusade” since that’s what they’ve been calling them since he started in the 40s, and they wanted to cash in on the “last installment in a series” angle.
~There were, of course, a few protestors. There were about eight people carrying signs saying “Billy Graham leads to hell,” and “God kills, repent now.” There were about a dozen people carrying signs that said, “God Hates Fags.” I’ve been confronted with people being hateful in the name of Christ before, and although I knew they were out there, I was sad to see them in person. At the same time, however, there were SIXTY THOUSAND people who were gathered to hear Billy Graham speak and only TWELVE who gathered to deliver a message of hate towards homosexuals. Billy Graham, whose leadership assembled those 60,000 people, does not support the “God hates fags” rhetoric, by the way.
So I was sad to see them, but not all that sad. I mean, every group has it’s collection of hate-filled extremists no matter how positive the original message. Islam’s certainly got them, so does the environmental lobby, and so does the democratic party. I’m just glad our ratio was so low.
What DID make me sad, though, is that sign wavers were the people that my friends focused in on and talked about all the way home, and the first picture of the crusade that I found online was a picture of these guys. Dudes! 60,000 people gather in New York city to talk about love, hope, and compassion and those 12 are the ones who get their pictures in the news? I hate our media.
~The “Billy Graham Leads to Hell” crew, by the way, were upset at Billy Graham for not being a fundamentalist and they cited the fact that his message has changed somewhat over the course of his career as evidence that he is a false teacher. So he started off as a fundy, and now he’s a moderate. So what? Heaven forbid that a man gain any wisdom in sixty years of ministry, or that an 86 year old preacher could know anything that he didn’t know when he was 24. Thank God there were only eight of them.
~There was an absolutely killer salsa/funk band from Austin that opened for Billy Graham called Salvador. Yes, you heard that right: salsa/funk. They were incredible! I danced my little ass off and had a great time. The crowd loved it. He was followed by a guy named Steven Curtis Chapman who’s a much more conventional acoustic guitar-led rock/folk act. He was ok, but nowhere near as cool as Salvadore. Now I’ve heard of Steven Curtis Chapman, but I’d never heard of Salvadore before, which makes sense since Chapman’s been around for a while. Still, a middle-aged Southerner strumming a guitar and singing praise songs is everything I think is wrong with contemporary Christian music, while eight Hispanic guys from Texas bringing down the funk is everything that contemporary Christian music should aspire to. This is the thesis that I’m building my career on.
~There were so many diverse and interesting people in attendance that after the event I ditched my friends and stuck around to talk to some new people. I wandered around and met all kinds of folks, but the most interesting were probably a group of three or four dozen people who came down from an agricultural commune near Albany. They take the ancient Apostolic tradition very seriously, and so they chose to live together without personal wealth or even personal property. They live together, they eat together, they celebrate together, they worship together, etc. About ten of them had brought instruments and they were playing some lively dance tunes while about twenty of them were doing circle and folk dances.
Now I’m a big fan of community dancing and community music - it’s something which our culture has kind of forgotten about. I’m also a big proponent of using meals as a vehicle for fellowship and having regular worship with the people you live with - this is the basic idea behind monks and nuns. These guys, however, rather than taking their passion for religious community and joining a monastic order decided to build a commune. Oh, and they use the name “Yeshua” for Christ instead of “Jesus,” a practice which I wholeheartedly endorse.
If only these guys had a community in NYC, I’d seriously consider joining it. They were very nice and didn’t proselytize to me, which makes me think that they really are a super cool group of people who have transcended mainstream Christianity. They also might be a whacko religious cult. It’s so hard to tell sometimes.
~Final thought upon exiting: after 60,000 people assembled in a public park to dance, pray, and cheer, there was hardly any litter on the ground. At other public events, such as River to River Concerts, Central Park Summer Stage, the Hudson Blues Festival, etc, I’m always amazed at how much shit people leave on the ground. These Christians, however, almost universally decided to use the trashcans. I don’t want to read too much into this, but I do believe that you can judge a tree by looking at its fruits.