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Christopher Hitchens Thought Evangelist Billy Graham was a Con-Artist

christopher hitchens
Christopher Hitchens

The late Christopher Hitchens shares his thoughts on Evangelist Billy Graham.

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Books by Christopher Hitchens

 

29 Comments

  1. Troy

    Hmm I doubt if Billy Graham was insincere. While a $25 million in assets at his death sounds like a lot, he really could have made so much more if he wasn’t transparent. As far as we know there hasn’t been any sex scandals either. Usually if you follow the sex and money you find the true motivation.
    I am not a fan of course. I never found his preaching the least bit compelling. It is just tent revival style scare tactics and regurgitated parables. I saw an essay by a pastor that said he learned his trade by “faking it til you make it” method of copying Billy Graham’s published sermons and then eventually he got the gist of it and could do it on his own. While it was meant to be complimentary I feel it condemns it for the paint by numbers charade that it was.

    • Avatar
      Joseph Cohen

      Would you rather sugarcoat things or tell people the hard truth about sinners going to Hell? Billy, while he admitted he never liked to preach about Hell (the ultimate way to do a scare tactic revival if you ask me and many other people), did so but only occasionally. However, his main message was the love of God, that He sees us as valuable creatures and wants to save us from our sins and bring us to Paradise with Him for eternity, if we repent and trust in Jesus.

      • Bruce Gerencser

        Threatening people with Hell and eternal torture is psychological abuse. The good news is that there is no Hell (or Heaven). The bad news is that preachers such as Graham continue to use Hell/Heaven to manipulate people and coerce them into joining the one truth faith.

        • Avatar
          Joseph Cohen

          Billy Graham manipulates people? As Christopher Hitchens said, “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.” Prove that there’s no Heaven and Hell. You make the claim, you back it up with evidence. It’s not psychological abuse, that person is assured that when they accept Jesus Christ, they are totally 100% safe from Hell and are on their way to Heaven when they die and the Word of God assures them that they will be perfectly fine, and that there will be justice for unrepentant sinners like Hitler and Stalin.

          • Bruce Gerencser

            That’s not how it works, Joseph. You are the one making positive claims: Heaven and Hell exist, dead people come back to life. It is up to you to provide empirical evidence — not Bible verses or personal testimonies — for your claims.

            You have said your piece. Time to move on.

        • Avatar
          Joseph Cohen

          If the Bible is the Word of God, and I believe that it is, then Jesus teaches that Heaven and Hell exist, and He’s all-knowing and cannot lie, so therefore they exist. The resurrection is a fact and so it’s reasonable to believe that the same God who rose Jesus inspired the NT writings, which record Jesus (all-knowing and cannot lie) saying that the entire OT is true.

          • Avatar
            Astreja

            Joseph, no one has ever demonstrated to my satisfaction that the god of the Bible exists. Therefore, in my opinion the Bible cannot be “the Word of God.”

            There is no credible evidence that there ever existed a historical Jesus who said the words attributed to him in the Bible. Therefore, Bible Jesus is most likely a fictional character, and the words of a fictional character have no value in and of themselves.

            As for the statement “The resurrection is a fact…”

            …Heeheeheeheehee! Good one. Do you believe in Talking Snakes™ too?

  2. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    I don’t know if I would characterize Billy Graham as evil, but I do not agree with his fear-mongering message. And he certainly went out of his way to cost up to our presidents in order to make his voice heard.

    • Avatar
      Joseph Cohen

      It’s not a message of fear, it’s a message of love. Billy Graham preached that we are all valuable in the eyes of God and that even though we are sinners, God still loves us and sent Jesus to live a perfect life in our place and take the punishment that we deserve to fulfill His justice on sin. We just need to repent and trust in Jesus. That’s love, mercy, grace and justice. God is offering us Paradise with Him if we accept Jesus. That’s what Billy Graham faithfully preached until God called him home.

      • Avatar
        Astreja

        Joseph, all your alleged god has to do to save everyone from Hell is get rid of Hell.

        And the business about Jesus dying for our “sins” is absolutely disgusting. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never done anything that would justify a death penalty, let alone an eternal one. The idea of someone dying in my place is absolutely horrifying, and I reject substitutionary atonement as immoral.

        As for Jesus and his “perfect life,” you didn’t get the memo, did you? He dissed his mother, destroyed other people’s property and told his followers to commit Grand Theft Ass and Colt. This is obviously some strange new definition of “perfect” that I wasn’t previously aware of.

        • Avatar
          Joseph Cohen

          Jesus didn’t deserve to die, that’s right, but God cannot dismiss our sins without a price to be paid. Sin has to be punished and God recognizes that we are repentant and He pays the price for sin Himself on the cross. Jesus never dissed His mother, if you’re talking about when He cleansed the Temple, He did nothing wrong destroying that stuff, they turned the house of God into a house of merchandise. Sin is an infinite offense towards the infinite goodness of God and demands an infinite penalty, which is eternity in Hell, just like how murder demands the death penalty, sin is an eternal offense that requires an eternal penalty. If God got rid of Hell, then He’d be letting unrepentant sinners go off scott-free and He can’t allow that. He offers us Heaven and we have the free will to accept it or not. Read more about penal substitution.

          • Avatar
            GeoffT

            We none of us have free will of the type you describe. Notwithstanding debate on the subject of libertarian free will versus compatabilism, the fact is that what we believe is not, and never really can be, a choice. No matter how hard I try I don’t believe any god exists. I’m not convinced there was an actual person on whom the character Jesus was based, but I’m nearly certain that the Jesus of the bible didn’t exist. No nativity, no temple preaching, no miracles, and no resurrection (I’m unsure on crucifixion, as I am for existence). A god that is smart enough to create the universe surely understands that salvation based on belief is pretty crazy, and I remain baffled by the mindset that continues to cling to this primitive, superstitious, nonsense.

          • Avatar
            Astreja

            Why must “sin” be punished, Joseph? What compulsion or restriction has your alleged god put upon itself?

            From the point of view of true compassion, it is better to let all sinners go free. To condemn even one of them to eternal torment and not rescue them from their suffering would make your god infinitely evil. Why do you worship an infinitely evil god, Joseph?

            As for me, I reject “salvation” unconditionally. Not going to play such an abhorrent, silly-ass game with your imaginary friend.

  3. Justine Valinotti

    If someone proclaims him- or her-self to be a man or woman of God and gets cozy with those in power, either the ones in power are pimps, or the self-proclaimed men or women of God are prostitutes.

    • Avatar
      Joseph Cohen

      If someone makes a claim without offering proper evidence to back it up, then I find it very hard to believe them. There are so many good people in history who’ve done so much for mankind while being in the company of powerful men. Lincoln was one of those people: he was a Christian and did so many good things and was in the company of powerful men. Billy proclaimed that he was a humble servant of God, that’s not the same as arrogance or anything like that. There’s no evidence that Billy Graham was an evil man.

        • Avatar
          Joseph Cohen

          I did, Christopher didn’t provide any evidence that Billy was evil. Billy Graham was not hostile towards Jews, he loved them just as God does. He didn’t appreciate their actions towards the country. We have the testimonies of people like the Presidents, different religious leaders like Martin Luther King, political activists and close friends and family who have nothing but kind and great things to say about Reverend Graham, yet you take the words of one man who had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

      • Bruce Gerencser

        You are the one making a positive claim: the existence of a literal Heaven and Hell. Since you are the one making the claim, it’s up to you to provide evidence for your claim. As of today, I’ve seen no evidence for the existence of Heaven or Hell. Saying, the Bible says doesn’t count. Just words in a book, not evidence.

        I will await your evidence, Joseph. If none is forthcoming, it’s time for you to move on.

        • Avatar
          Joseph Cohen

          I’ve only just found your comments again. If you want evidence for Christianity, you have to look at the resurrection. The Apostles Paul said that without the resurrection, Christianity is a dead faith. George Lyttleton wrote a book looking at Paul’s conversion, which is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for Christianity. I’ll also recommend the YouTube channel InspiringPhilosophy and Erik Manning. If the resurrection is true, then Christianity is true, then Jesus is God (He’s all-knowing and cannot lie), and He says that Heaven and Hell exist.

          • Avatar
            GeoffT

            You’ve ignored Bruce by quoting the bible for your beliefs. The bible is not a source of its own reliability: that is circular.

            Incidentally, the resurrection didn’t happen.

          • Avatar
            Astreja

            Joseph, there is no credible evidence that people can come back from the dead. None. The wittering of Paul of Tarsus does not count as evidence and is accordingly dismissed.

            I believe that Christianity is false, that any historical Jesus is now quite thoroughly dead and has been in that state for nearly 2000 years, that “God” is a fiction, and that both heaven and hell are mythical.

            Want to convince me to the contrary? You have to meet my standards for evidence. For starters, ask your hypothetical god to put in a personal appearance, in physical form, in my office. If it actually exists, it will understand why I need that particular level of evidence, and why that requirement is not negotiable.

            And if the best response you can give to the above is along the lines of “God is not a vending machine” or “Thou shalt not test the Lord,” don’t bother.

          • Bruce Gerencser

            Yes, without the resurrection, Christianity is a dead faith. Your point?

            Jesus Fucking Christ, Joseph you think me reading a book or watching an apologist’s podcast will change my mind about Jesus? Please, give me a bit of credit. I have thoroughly examined the claims of Christianity. I find them intellectually lacking. As an Evangelical pastor, I spent thousands of hours reading and studying the Bible. Do you really think I am lacking knowledge on Jesus’ resurrection? What do you think you could possibly say that would change my mind about the Bible/Christianity/the dead Jesus? Hint, the answer is n-o-t-h-i-n-g. Sorry, dude, that ship has sailed.

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