No separation of church and state for you
Evangelist Billy Graham, who died Wednesday, will lie in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda from Wednesday, Feb. 28, to Thursday, March 1, according to an announcement from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky). Members of the public are invited to pay their respects. Ryan and McConnell will take part in a service upon the arrival of Graham’s casket.
What the hell? Billy Graham wasn’t a government official, he was a conservative religious huckster. What business does he have lying in the Capitol Rotunda as a stiff? What business do McConnell and Ryan have putting him there?
Graham was a personal friend to several presidents, and preached to tens of millions of people in person and myriad others through radio, television and the Internet.
So what? How does that mean he gets a state ceremony as a corpse?
Over nearly a century, he became an icon, an entrepreneur, a pastor and a key architect of American evangelicalism — the largest religious body in America today that makes up a quarter of the American electorate. Graham’s influence on key religious leaders, institutions, political activism and cultural engagement helped shape a large chunk of America.
For the worse, but anyway, so what? People don’t get to lie around dead in the Capitol Rotunda simply because they have “influence.”
Sickening.
Also a big time anti-Semite, as revealed by the Nixon tapes.
Here in the UK where church and state are joined at the crown, the top cleric (Archsongster of Cambry) doesn’t get to enjoy a state send off.
Funny how topsy turvy the US is. Freedom, separation of church and state, family values all seem to have a strange reversal of meaning. Probably explains why everyone less right wing than the late general Franco is called a lefty communist extremist over there.
But apparently he didn’t gays black people as much as hours contemporaries, so any criticism of him in death is in poor taste.
What? I think autocorrect got carried away there.
I know that feeling, Ophelia.
Theoretically I agree.
In practice, I find it to be a battle not worth fighting. Like it or not, Graham is seen as a “spiritual advisor to 12 presidents”, an almost legendary American figure. So while I wouldn’t advocate for him lying in state (or whatever this is), I’m not going to get too bent out of shape about it happening. He is, after all, dead. This is his last hurrah, and it seems unlikely anyone else is going to take over the role.
What do you mean “is seen as”? By whom? According to whom? And why?
Just because a lot of media stupidly gave Billy Graham way too much publicity, that’s no reason for him to be given a state funeral.
Didn’t Mark Knopfler make a song about him? Or similar.
now there’s nothing left for luxuries, nothing left to pay my heating bill
but the good lord will provide – I know he Will!
now I send what I can to the man with the diamond ring
he’s a part of heaven’s plan, and he sure can sing
now it’s all I can afford but the lord has sent me eternity
it’s to save the little children in a poor country
I’ve got my Ticket to Heaven and everlasting life …
From Wikipedia (cites there):
So by lots of people. Not me, and not you, but lots of people.
As for why, I have heard and read that people were impressed his advice was seemingly valued by presidents of both parties and different faiths over so many years. I personally suspect a lot of presidents just didn’t want to deal with the fallout of telling him to get lost.
And I agree he shouldn’t have been given a state funeral. To me it just falls into the wrong-but-not-surprising category, like our “in God we trust” motto or “under a God” in the pledge of allegiance. Getting rid of these token religious baubles is way down on the priority list for me compared to some of the other challenges we face (poverty, healthcare, gun violence).
But “lots of people” isn’t reason enough to make such a huge generalization as “Graham is seen as…an almost legendary American figure.” The whole point is that he’s not some sort of universal idol, and shouldn’t be treated as such.
Whatever your opinion of the man, or the doctrine he espoused, this is a clear violation of our constitution. Additionally – the fact that none of the White House sycophants stopped this disgrace is even more disturbing. I doubt that Trump knows better – but his staff should.
This is just one more nail in the GOP (‘Old’ and obsolete) coffin.