When I was twelve, I went to a Billy Graham evangelical healing service

[MoonRiver]

with my parents. They went out of curiosity, having no interest in joining this type of extremist religion at all. They didn't expect their kids in any way to fall for the b.s. Instead, I and my siblings reacted to the show very intensely. At the end, when they were asking for volunteers to walk up on the stage and "be saved" I was crying and pleading with my parents to let me go!

My parents were horrified, but observing the depth of my and my younger siblings' (I think they were just following the leader) emotions, they ALMOST let us go. Instead, they ended up ushering 3 hysterical youngsters out of the auditorium. Later we all processed what had happened and why I reacted as I did. My parents said that this is what occurs in group situations where drama and hysteria take over one's ability to reason. They also mentioned that some people are desperate for help, and when they can't find it through the usual means, i.e. the medical community, they go to these extremist groups.

My point is that people are easily swayed by religious nuts, and Billy Graham is actually one of the more reputable among them. The young, the mentally disturbed, and those going through traumatic life changes such as divorce are particularly vulnerable. We need to offer these folks rational alternatives to what is in essence religious quackery. I think that the growing numbers of fundamentalists spreading across the country is a reaction to an uncaring and non supportive society.

Instead of selling out to special interests, we must demand that our Democratic leaders support basic human needs, including but not limited to food, shelter, mental and physical health care, Social Security. All sellouts to this guiding principle should be brought to task. Either they change or we eliminate them in the primaries with more progressive nominees.

[goodboy]

1. yeah, looks like it didn't take too good, did it? (just kidding)

[MoonRiver]

2. Nope. But if I hadn't had those parents, who knows!

[goodboy]

3. I always wished that I could be called on by Benny Hinn, and then

when he hit my forehead I could look right at him and say, "Ha HA, FUCK YOU!"

[MoonRiver]

4. LOL!

[earthboundmisfit]

8. Or hit him BACK ...

;)

[goodboy]

21. no YOU fall down, Mr Hinn...maybe punch him in his face? kick him a few

times?

[XboxWarrior]

18. Did you say Benny Hinn?

what a guy eh?

[goodboy]

22. yes...that crooked liar.

[arwalden]

5. Thanks For Sharing Your Experience...

... when I was around 8 years old, my aunt dragged me to a Baptist Revival at her church. After a very dramatic presentation preaching (shouting)... the preacher convincing me that I was going to go to hell first thing tomorrow if I didn't come up and get "saved". I was in tears and frightened as well... but still I went to the front of the church to get SAVED in front of everyone. What a spectacle! What a hell of a thing to put a child through. Mental terrorism... coercion... plain and simple.

[MoonRiver]

6. Yeah, it sounds similar to what I experienced.

Glad to know you got through that experience OK. I'm a Christian but I despise the farrightwingnut Christians. They DO NOT represent the teachings of Jesus.

[jdots]

7. In Europe they go to soccer games for mass hysteria

The feeling of belonging is fine till people forget what they feel together about.

[cynatnite]

9. I've gone to these things before

There is a simple explanation for why this happens. With large groups of people like this sometimes the emotion is so much that it spreads throughout the audience. Even when I believed, I never felt that it was the 'spirit of god' or anything like that. People get emotional and with large groups it has a tendency to spread.

[MoonRiver]

10. Yes, but it is quite seductive, especially for the young and/or vulnerable

Those people can't independently discriminate between what is mass hysteria versus true spiritual conviction. That is how cults develop.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. This is kind of what I've been saying all along

Happy people don't hate, because people who hate are really projecting their hatred of thenmselves and their situation onto the outside.

I believe that if Americans felt more financially secure and had a better sense of community, the wingnuts wouldn't have nearly as much appeal.

[MoonRiver]

12. The neocons know that its better to have nonthinking cannonfodder though.

That's why they want US poor and desperate, ready to believe that Big Brother holds all the answers. :scared:

[onager]

13. Oh, THAT over-rated egomaniac...

Every time this blowhard did a TV "crusade" when I was a kid, my parents made me watch him.

The career of Billy Grab'em is nothing but a testament to American gullibility.

Check out several of the good objective biographies of Graham. He got his start when the Hearst newspapers decided the nation needed a good, photogenic anti-Commie Xian crusader.

Graham has always been a whore for power, and his blantant butt-kissing of Nixon temporarily knocked some of the shine off him.

Tricky Dick and Bleating Billy had some interesting recorded conversations in the White House, which exposed Graham's native anti-Semitism. His son Franklin is even more of a bigot and know-nothing.

I think it was Garry Wills who once referred to Graham as "the thinking man's Easter Bunny."

Here's a pretty good article about him, "Charles Atlas With A Halo:"

Moms and dads wondering whether they wanted to cope with the crusade throngs at least could be confident that the kids would not be subjected to a tirade against Roman Catholics or a harangue about American foreign policy.

They knew what to expect: George Beverly Shea crooning "How Great Thou Art," a converted athlete assuring them that "Coach Jesus" would never cut them from the gospel squad, a born-again starlet promising that the biggest thrill was to see one's name not in marquee lights but in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Then Graham's sermon, fueled by incessant pacing, stabbing gestures and machine-gun delivery--clocked by frantic stenographers at 240 words per minute. The sermon would begin with a gaggle of jokes as homegrown as the crops he used to raise on his father's farm.

Hitting his stride, Graham would proceed to tick off a list of the world's problems (with none too much attention to getting the facts exactly straight).

Soon he would come forcefully to the point: Christ and Christ alone offered the only lasting solution to those problems...Graham's crusades resembled a huge homecoming reunion, cheerfully undoctrinal, warmly reassuring.

All that was lacking...was the Chevrolet theme song, "Listen to the Heartbeat of America."

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=181

[Cleita]

14. I find Billy Graham the least offensive of these practitioners also.

If you get a chance. Watch "Carnivale" on HBO if you get it or I'm sure it will be repackaged for regular cable after it finishes its run. The main character is a minister who is really a demon who runs those tent revival meetings. He's trying to build a temple to God, but really his agenda is more nefarious.

The thing that struck me was that the character has a gift of words and can deliver these mind blowing sermons, which pull all the gullible into his web so to speak. He also has a radio show that he preaches on like Rev. Graham used to. I don't know where the writers got the words but I think they plagiarized much of it from real radio sermons of the past that they have been able to use.

Also, my father, a non-catholic, once told me how much he hated accompanying me to church on occasions when school programs demanded it. He was bored to death with the droning Latin of the priests. He said give me a good preacher in a tent revival meeting anytime. At least it's not boring.

[MoonRiver]

15. Not being a connoisseur of religious evangelists,

I'm unable offer any opinion other than that based on simple observation. It seems that Graham has avoided the more extreme excesses associated with religious fanaticism. But I have no doubt he's corrupt or at best totally deluded.

[Cleita]

16. Most of these guys are corrupt.

It's just a business for them. There is a reason that Catholics who enter religious orders have to take a vow of poverty. It's so they don't become corrupt like many of them had become during the Middle Ages. The Vatican is the last remaining institution, which was once the Papal states, vast fuedal lands owned by the church and filled with precious art and gold. Nowadays it belongs to the church not the Pope but I think there is still a lot of corruption surrounding the politics in the Vatican.

[MoonRiver]

17. Interesting. The poverty vow makes more sense to me now.

But it is hard to overcome human nature, including greed.

[Cleita]

19. For sure.

The Catholic Church is no different than others in the sense that dioceses own a lot of wealth and land that is controlled by the bishops.

[TacticalPeek]

20. Marjoe (1972) - the name is from MARy JOEseph, IIRC

This is a very interesting film about this phenomena.


http://imdb.com/title/tt0068924


Marjoe (1972)

Directed by
Sarah Kernochan
Howard Smith

Genre: Documentary (more)

Plot Summary: Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit... (more)

User Comments: Well-done expose (more)

Credited cast:
Marjoe Gortner .... Himself

[Divine Discontent]

23. well

that's their choice to stop you from going up. You wanted to go up and felt like (as you were crying) that God was leading you to getting saved that day. But hey, I wasn't there, but you shared, and I'm giving my opinion of your shared story you posted. I find there to be a far different appearance to a Benny Hinn compared to Billy Graham. He's a very loving appearing man, and as far as I know isn't a gay hater, and seems very Christ like (as much as a human can be).

Thanks for sharing your story! :)

ps - if Benny Hinn ever hit me, I'd hit back. ha

pss - who does JEB think he is???
please get this sticker (or for a Floridian you know) ---

http://www.cafepress.com/impeachjeb

[MoonRiver]

24. Honestly, I think they were embarrassed.

My parents are very rational people, not prone to emotional outbursts. My sudden transformation was just too much for them. Also, at least one of them would have had to go to the stage with me. It was a huge, at least in my memory, auditorium, and we were seated at the very top. No way would they let a 12 year old navigate through that writhing, churning crowd of strangers. And I think neither of them could cope with going to the stage.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

25. I know Billy Graham

He's my dad's patient. I've only met him once or twice but those few times I didn't recognise him at all because he looks like a regular old guy on an outing.

We think he's a bit on the kooky side with the evangelical preaching but in person he's a nice guy, stopping to talk to us (and NOT about religion!).