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cleanhippie

(19,705 posts)
Thu Jun 6, 2013, 11:39 AM Jun 2013

Billy Graham's Oklahoma 'Rapid Response Team' preys on fears of victims to gain new converts

What could have been an amazing show of unbridled charity by the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team in their efforts to help the victims of the 20 May 2013 Oklahoma tornado, quickly turned into a disaster of its own. In a show of extremely bad form, the group decided to keep with their tradition of sending chaplains along for the ride. Their job description includes comforting and converting to Christianity those who have fallen victim to natural disasters through the use of fear tactics that are, in a word, deplorable.

Basically, their plan involved telling the unfortunate and already emotionally spent people in Oklahoma that if they don't accept Christ and die the next time a tornado hits, they will burn in hell for ever and ever and ever. According to reports, a couple hundred people gathered for shelter inside the Emmaus Baptist Church, which was also the base of operations for the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains, as well as another operation that is affiliated with the ministry called 'Samaritan’s Purse.'

The Billy Graham website posted the following:

“One was a family of four, along with the husband’s best friend. Michael Glassey, an RRT crisis-trained chaplain from Riverside, Calif., talked with them, asking if they knew Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, which they responded “no.” Michael explained how much God loved them and how Jesus came to earth to die for their sins.

“I asked each one separately if they wanted to receive Christ as their personal Savior so that if this ever happened again they would have the assurance of going to Heaven, and that they could also experience a new beginning that very moment,” Michael said.“They all said, ‘yes,’ and each received Christ into their hearts,” he said. “God sheltered them, then He saved them.”


Playing on the fears of those who are already in an extremely vulnerable state as a means for religious conversion is beyond 'bad form.' It's an abusive attack on their compromised ability to make a rational decision. This speaks nothing to the emotional turmoil caused by the cognitive dissonance that invariably comes when one is told that the same God who loves them also controls the situation that caused them such pain, but if they don't worship this God, he will cause them to endure an eternity worse beyond compare.

The Billy Graham organization, as well as any organization who uses the emotional turmoil caused by natural disasters, should be duly ashamed of themselves.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/110402/billy-grahams-oklahoma-rapid-response-team-plas-on-fears-of-victims-to-gain-new-converts/


The last sentence stuck out to me.

The Billy Graham organization, as well as any organization who uses the emotional turmoil caused by natural disasters, should be duly ashamed of themselves.


Isn't when a person is having "emotional turmoil" THE time a believer usually offers their beliefs as a coping mechanism? I mean, this is not just BGM and similar religious groups that do this, is it? Don't most believers offer their beliefs as a way to console someone?
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Billy Graham's Oklahoma 'Rapid Response Team' preys on fears of victims to gain new converts (Original Post) cleanhippie Jun 2013 OP
The evangelical media Christians like TBN, Graham, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson have been Lint Head Jun 2013 #1
Billy Graham edhopper Jun 2013 #2
This behavior is typical of many of these groups. longship Jun 2013 #3
There's been some progress over the years. In NT times, disasters were dimbear Jun 2013 #4

Lint Head

(15,064 posts)
1. The evangelical media Christians like TBN, Graham, Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson have been
Thu Jun 6, 2013, 12:09 PM
Jun 2013

preying on the fears of the unfortunate and ignorant ever since they existed. They use fear and distort the words of the Bible to line their pockets with billions of dollars that helps no one. It is criminal how they have promoted the idea that you can buy your way into heaven by "seeding" their Christian witness and that a "prayer cloth" will make your prayers stronger so God pays attention. It is despicable that a natural tragedy would be used by people feigning Christian Charity. Even the Bible says one should not use charity to self aggrandize or in any way should one brag or use the opportunity for their own reasons. They are told to be "fishers of men" but a tragedy is not that opportunity. As a matter of fact it is the time to demonstrate humility and to give and help openly without expecting a return whether it is spiritual or monetary.

It's also sad that people who will donate money to starving and poor human beings when the Catholic Church's net worth is 500 Billion. If they gave away half of that to help human kind they could make a major dent in world hunger, disease and more and still be worth 250 Billion dollars. These numbers come from the Catholic Church's own public filing of finances.

edhopper

(33,213 posts)
2. Billy Graham
Thu Jun 6, 2013, 12:26 PM
Jun 2013

is a power hungry, anti-Semitic asshole who does not deserve the reverence people, and especially the media, give him.

longship

(40,416 posts)
3. This behavior is typical of many of these groups.
Thu Jun 6, 2013, 12:45 PM
Jun 2013

They say they want to help, but their top mission is converts.

By any measure, it's despicable behavior.

dimbear

(6,271 posts)
4. There's been some progress over the years. In NT times, disasters were
Thu Jun 6, 2013, 03:48 PM
Jun 2013

explained by a single word: "repent." (Look up the tower of Siloam.) Now we have a fuller explanation: "pay your tithe."



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