Dear Editor
Twenty five years ago, when Billy Graham said that Christians courting the politicians would end up by being used by them; could he have known the extent they would be involved and how it would weaken the gospel message he so lovingly preached (and still does.) There seemed to be a need to prove this country started as a Christian nation, with “prayer in schools” and the “Ten Commandments on the walls.” There were books being written by authors who quoted each other in their footnotes, making the “fathers” into Christian heroes — but their autobiographies tell different stories. What did the black slave and his Indian counterpart think of their rhetoric and religiosity. I well remember the decade of the 1930s when there were an average of one lynching a week in the Bible Belt south — some within sight of churches and schools — with the commandment and prayer. There are our Democratic politicians who cheat on their wives, Bill Clinton and John Edwards, being two sorry examples. The Republican politicians at least have the decency to hold the Bible in one hand while caressing their paramours with the other (while on the Appalachian Trail, no less.)
We need to get Billie’s message back. Some pastors proudly stand up in their pulpits and tell people how to vote. Breaking the law (to the admiration of some of their members.)
They need to turn their pulpits over to someone who will preach the same gospel message of the Reverend Graham — how to obtain eternal life.
Allen Smith
Girard
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Dear Editor
Twenty five years ago, when Billy Graham said that Christians courting the politicians would end up by being used by them; could he have known the extent they would be involved and how it would weaken the gospel message he so lovingly preached (and still does.) There seemed to be a need to prove this country started as a Christian nation, with “prayer in schools” and the “Ten Commandments on the walls.” There were books being written by authors who quoted each other in their footnotes, making the “fathers” into Christian heroes — but their autobiographies tell different stories. What did the black slave and his Indian counterpart think of their rhetoric and religiosity. I well remember the decade of the 1930s when there were an average of one lynching a week in the Bible Belt south — some within sight of churches and schools — with the commandment and prayer. There are our Democratic politicians who cheat on their wives, Bill Clinton and John Edwards, being two sorry examples. The Republican politicians at least have the decency to hold the Bible in one hand while caressing their paramours with the other (while on the Appalachian Trail, no less.)
We need to get Billie’s message back. Some pastors proudly stand up in their pulpits and tell people how to vote. Breaking the law (to the admiration of some of their members.)
They need to turn their pulpits over to someone who will preach the same gospel message of the Reverend Graham — how to obtain eternal life.
Allen Smith
Girard
