dagblog - Comments for "Who Could Argue?"

This Wapo piece about Graham

barefooted — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 08:33:16 +0000

This WaPo piece about Graham being laid "in honor" at the Capitol Rotunda is interesting. I didn't know, for example, that:

Graham joined civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and two Capitol Police officers killed while on duty to lie “in honor” at the Rotunda. The designation is different for presidents, statesmen and war heroes, who lie “in state.” In total, 32 people have been granted the honor, starting with Henry Clay, the former House member and senator from Kentucky and secretary of state.

The next paragraph, though, reflects my immediate reaction:

Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the Miller Center for presidential and political history at the University of Virginia, said she thinks honoring someone whose primary service was the conversion of people to a certain faith with a Rotunda ceremony violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

My bold, of course.

(oops, forgot the WaPo link)

If these motherfuckers could

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 08:27:06 +0000

In reply to This Wapo piece about Graham

If these motherfuckers could physically assault the Constitution with an AR-15, they would. Just another lazy day at Trump Ranch, where outrage is as plentiful as prairie dogs and scabies.

Well, your thumbs up review

artappraiser — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 02:00:41 +0000

In reply to Thanks for that, AA. It's

Well, your thumbs up review is worth a lot, too.

Thanks for that, AA. It's

barefooted — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 01:50:41 +0000

In reply to An article that's dealing

Thanks for that, AA. It's spot on.

An article that's dealing

artappraiser — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 01:23:12 +0000

In reply to Who Could Argue?

An article that's dealing with both your points, barefooted and Richard:

Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It.

If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham.

By Stephen Prothero@ Politico.com, February 24, 2018

Sometimes the families reap

barefooted — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 04:04:29 +0000

In reply to You have provided nice links.

Sometimes the families reap other things, too. There's just no way to tell how life screws with us, Dick, until we look backwards and sideways. As for looking at other folks and their screws, maybe we're better off assuming we're better off.

You have provided nice links.

Richard Day — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 02:47:10 +0000

In reply to In case I wasn't clear, Dick:

You have provided nice links.

I just read this:

http://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/billy-graham-has-hovered-over-me-my-whole-life-and-not-just-because-i-share-a-name-with-his-wife-and-daughter.html

My problem with these huuuuuuuuuge Christian enterprises is that the families involved end up reaping all these monies.

Successful folks make a lot of money.

But Jeeeesus H. Christ, when they make money selling themselves as Christians...

It pisses me off.

Maybe, I have some lizzard brain (id as Freud might put it) that makes me jealous of those rich folks.

MAYBE.

In case I wasn't clear, Dick:

barefooted — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 22:04:27 +0000

In reply to I thank you too.

In case I wasn't clear, Dick: I can't abide Franklin Graham. He is all you say and more. I guess I wanted to say that while he's a prick the people (in my anecdotal and limited experience) that work towards the ends he espouses for the purpose of money, power and god-knows-what-else actually are worth our respect. Not really sure why I wrote the piece to be honest with you, but the elder Graham's death made me look backwards a bit even as I realize the present is pretty screwed up. ;-) Just don't let yourself forget that good people are out there, okay?

My friend and his family

barefooted — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 21:53:30 +0000

In reply to I was fortunate enough to

My friend and his family (including his parents for whom I worked) consider themselves old-school Southern Baptists. I vehemently oppose a large majority of the teachings offered by that particular Protestant group, but they have a deep belief that goes beyond evangelicalism (though I suppose that depends on your definition of it). In spite of my cynicism, though, I tried to measure the good works that they did, and the lives they tried to lead against other beliefs that appalled me. For example: women should be subservient to their husbands in the home ... homosexuality is a sin against God ... etc. Funny how that sort of thing ends up all topsy-turvy in the real world, even for the most devout; his younger brother came out as gay and divided the family while his oldest brother was married to a woman who dared anyone to call her subservient - and proved why they couldn't every day.

There's a lot of evil in the world, even or often under the name of goodness, but sometimes you have to dig out the little sparks to keep some hope up.

Indeed.

I was a Bishop Sheen fan as a

artappraiser — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 19:28:21 +0000

In reply to I thank you too.

I was a Bishop Sheen fan as a kid.

Oh my to remind of that! For me, just like with barefooted, I ending up watching Sheen because my mom was a fan (she would later change a great deal on that front, but that's neither here nor there.)

But unlike barefooted, or you--you must be a few years older than me to have been able to fully understood what he said and what he was about--I remembering thinking of him as: sort of like Dracula! Hushed and spooky, wearing a black cape and speaking softly and enticingly from a dark interior with soft lighting! Oooh, something important and scary going on, be quiet, like church.

More seriously, later I realized she liked him because he was always taking a moderate "good pastor" view as opposed to the influence of loony tunes commie fighting ultra right going on in the Catholic church at the time. Great fears that the commies were trying to kill the church, he wasn't like that, he was about how to blend living the faith with modern life. God wasn't dead, he would help you figure it all out and be a good person.