Today the body of Christian evangelist Billy Graham was marched into the US Capitol Rotunda by members of the US armed forces (Graham was never in the military) to lie in honor.
Graham is the first member of the clergy to be given this honor. This is a victory for the Bible promoting theocrats who work tirelessly to smash the Jeffersonian wall of separation of church and state in order to turn the US into a Bible-based theocracy.
For people who want to live in a secular nation free of religious intrusions into their lives and free of the religious violence produced by mixing religion and government, Billy Graham was a real threat and worked to destroy the principle found in the US Constitution separating religion from government. As this article points out, Graham laid the groundwork for the religious right.
The religious right that is today elevating themselves above the law through “religious liberty” laws and government policies that cause religious beliefs/superstitions to take precedence over the law of the land. Graham paved the way for Christian theocrats like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and others.
Billy Graham also made possible the dangerous Christian Zionist movement and such Christian Zionist zealots as John Hagee of Christians United For Israel. The millions of Christian Zionists in the US work with the Israel lobby to pressure US politicians from both parties to put Israel’s interests above all else.
Christian Zionists share Billy Graham’s superstition based belief that the Jews are God’s chosen people “above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6 which was written by the ancient Jews), and that Israel produced Jesus so Christians owe Israel for their savior. Graham said, “The Jews are God’s chosen people. We cannot place ourselves in opposition without detriment to ourselves.” (In his “God letter” Albert Einstein wrote that there is nothing “chosen” about the Jews.)
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If we want to counter, and eventually end, this religious threat to the separation of church and state and all the harm it brings, we need to promote the antidote – Deism. It was Deistic ideals and beliefs that inspired many of America’s key founders to separate religion from government at the birth of the American Republic. Professor Joseph Campbell made this clear when he wrote:
The United States of America is the first nation in the world that was ever established on the basis of reason instead of simply warfare. There were eighteenth-century deists, these gentlemen [who founded the United States]. Over here [on the one dollar bill] we read, ‘In God We Trust.’ But that is not the god of the Bible. These men did not believe in a Fall. They did not think the mind of man was cut off from God.
The mind of man, cleansed of secondary and merely temporal concerns, beholds with the radiance of a cleansed mirror a reflection of the rational mind of God. Reason puts you in touch with God. Consequently, for these men, there is no special revelation anywhere, and none is needed, because the mind of man cleared of its fallibilities is sufficiently capable of the knowledge of God.
All people in the world are thus capable because all people in the world are capable of reason. All men are capable of reason. That is the fundamental principle of democracy. Because everybody’s mind is capable of true knowledge, you don’t have to have a special authority, or a special revelation telling you that this is the way things should be.
Joseph Campbell had a profound understanding of Deism. It is evident by what he wrote, why the clergy hate Deism and our innate God-given reason. They hate them because Deism and reason show everyone that there is no “special revelation” that we need the clergy to explain to us.
Deism empowers people with this realization that our reason puts us in touch with The Supreme Intelligence/God, not religion. Billy Graham must have been aware of this since he openly admitted there is no reason that aligns with our innate God-given reason to believe the Bible is the Word of God.
Bob Johnson is a freelance writer in the Tampa area of Florida. He was raised Roman Catholic, but after a stint in Marine Corps infantry and reading Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason he became a Deist.
In 1993 he founded the World Union of Deists, and in 1996 he launched the first website devoted to Deism. He is the author of God Gave Us Reason, Not Religion, Deism: A Revolution in Religion, A Revolution in You and An Answer to C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. He has also written the introduction to Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition and Principles of Nature by Elihu Palmer.
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But, but, but . . . government is the new religion and simply another form of herd management. Check out “their” buildings of worship and all the evidence contained within them such as idols and symbols.
Deism is nothing more than Jesuit Theatre similarly to “God’s Chosen People” ™. If you have ever conducted business with Judiacs, then you will know that God in this case is Satan or Lucifer.
Most religions require your belief to sustain them but government in particular has soldiers and police to force you to believe in it. Soldiers and police are simply the enforcement arm of the new religion which is a herd management strategy called government. We’ve been lied to about everything since the day we were born.
My wifes father was Gordon Ginn, longtime Baptist preacher, activist and author of a few books. He told his family in confidence of the time he went to meet Graham in a hotel and witnessed a prostitute coming out of his room. She never told me the story until after reading this article. He was quite shaken at the experience.
To the general public, there would be no shock value as these guys are constantly busted, but to someone who devoted their life to icons like Graham, it was life changing.
liberty, you are wrong. Not only were people forced, it was the very people christianity claimed dominion over that were starved, converted forcibly, and killed by the millions. And pedophiles are overwhelmingly from Christianity. Your comment stands as evidence of what happens to a persons mind. And I see more and more like you all the time. Thus , it is a problem.
What values does a christian have that does not exist in all people ?
so true…the biggest deceit of xtianity is it’s pernicious invention of ownership of the concept of morality. with the crazy garden of eden myth defending it’s utterly foul lie of fallen man. instead, the issue is rather about rule of law in collectives. similar to how ducks maintain safe distance between themselves as they scrounge the shorelines for tidbits of food. otherwise know as the tragedy of the commons. all it takes to disrupt the peace of a community is only a few members, using 1% or less, over-reaching their bounds and breaking the by-laws. such anti-social behavior has not a damned thing to do with the xtian concept of morals. rather, poor socializing skills. e.g., jeffrey-boy bozos is well know to tear his employees a new assholes, at the drop of a hat. he obviously enjoys doing so. is this guy a sociopath? you betcha. as are most evangelizing xtians. imposing their world views on the 99% other, they term as fallen. amy chau’s book, “the triple package” comes to mind. sociopaths have these 3 traits, a superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control.
What values does a christian have that does not exist in all people ? It is very telling that every war we have waged on innocent people comes with the Christian exceptionalism message right out front.
Crusade is their values. Death is their product, and exceptionalism is their reasoning. What hypocrisy puts a man on a spike and claims to come in peace ? If not for the support of the christians, we would not have been at war these past 3 decades, with millions dead and suffering. They are not the last to support illegal war, they are first.
Well, Santa and Rudolph have been around a whole lot longer than the manger. See, that’s how history gets changed by force. Millions and millions of peaceful people were forced at sword or gunpoint to convert.
Every country had winter solstice before the soldiers came. All that aside. Beliefs are not the issue, unless said beliefs are gunning to self fulfill a prophecy of end times, which is what they are doing. The policy of modern evangelicals is to destroy the earth. Ask Pruitt.
To be a veteran in a long line of veterans going back to the very men who conversed on the idea of a truly free land with a populace that used their own individual reason to elect, and not that of any group or lobby to override their own good judgement, is to be appalled at what is happening in front of our eyes here today.
It is in any reasonable sight, a replacement of what was, and what was intended. Our forefathers knew and withheld the very “facts” of the Bible, in consideration, that they would be uncovered in the eyes of the people, as a fraud, and that knowledge of withdrawal from cults came in stages. Such that Catholics awoken became protestants, and protestants awoken became informed and wise to the fraud. And we see this today in North Koreans becoming evangelists and evangelists becoming governors.
But it has not been a future as predicted. Instead it has become one of idiocy and superstition based on protestant progression from the Catholic cult of death and genocide no person can deny. And the pedophiles and frauds continue to exert themselves politically so as to inject their silly faith into governance. And while the call and scare is put out to beware of Sharia law, the Christian law is entrenched as if by deceit. And let me remind you that christian law is the law of death and genocide and unfair judgement. The one America escaped from and seeks to be rid of. That their teacher on a stick is a death symbol made to warn those who approach the village. And it is born of fraud and is made up and even the bishops and popes know this and admit it in privacy.
To Give Graham a military funeral is to dishonor all those who fought and died for the cause of all I have spoken, and all under the watch of one who is known as a charlatan and a taker of deferments to avoid war himself. And Trump has fooled the superstitious into taking this cause, and even harming themselves. It is Hope alone that propels them, and any who offer that hope, they will hitch their wagon. Even if it be a man who has earned nothing of the sort, and in fact is the opposite. Such is the plague of the Catholic cult. And they will deny they are Catholic, but are known as unwilling spies, because they follow the book of the Catholic and they will never deny it. It is Roman treachery and it has been known since the founding.
They came and built their churches on our sacred ground on top of the very buildings, they took our springs and claimed them their own, and they took our children and forced them against us. They did the same in America with the indigenous peoples who sought peace and were wiser by miles. Still are. They took their book and interpreted their will in finance by way of ethics, and colored their own way into law. And all this they did on top pf a fraud even a murderous fiend would find appalling. They stole a set of books and added names and places to erase the history of noble and good ancestors to their own gain of material means. And the proof of this is still here and will never leave, and it’s use as a weapon , is not desired but is possible. Rather it be used as a tool of knowledge than dispersement of superstition. But you press upon the door. And you allow this fraud. You need to stop and think of what you are doing, and know yourself and where you are, and what you are doing. And where did they get that book ? From what men ?
The elders do not dispense hope as candy to the soul. They do not use it to urge a financial gain for themselves. They do not approach you to hitch history to the wagon of wisdom. They do not offer perfection and eternal life as a ruse for ten percent. They tell you to get off your ass and think for yourself. To gauge and discern. To look and see and be honest with the valuation of the product. To honestly observe the fruit. Drink the wine of honesty and look around you. Do you see the fruit of the book from the Catholics as a real thing.
Who are you that says, I am not a Catholic, but seeks to profit from their book which was stolen and manipulated for their own purpose ? The prophecy is NOT all shall die but the chosen, the prophecy is , not one or two or three shall be left behind. Is this not the creed of those who take up arms in your defense while you enjoy wine and biscuits ? Isn’t this what we honor when a soldier brings his brother back ? The Graham funeral is a ruse beyond fraud, it is an obscenity.
http://www.jacksonville.com/article/20090419/NEWS/801235809
The Florida Times-Union
Charlie Liteky: ‘He was our quarterback, and quarterbacks save the world’
By Matt Soergel
Posted Apr 19, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Captain Chaplain Charlie Angelo Liteky was born in Washington February 14, 1931, but was raised mainly in Jacksonville, Florida. As the above inspiring article about him documents, he was a quarterback on the Robert E. Lee High School Football team in his junior year 1948. About 20 years later he was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of 23 wounded colleagues in Viet Nam. At the time he felt he was fighting a “just” cause. However, he was an extremely intelligent American Hero who continually questioned his own conscience and events around him as his life progressed. In about another two decades he reversed his devotion to country and returned his Medal of Honor in disgust of the evil criminal acts of the country he fought so valiantly for earlier. He spent two stints in federal prison and gave up a lifetime pension for demonstrating against the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia where they trained the criminals who tortured and murdered innocent children and civilians in South America. He gave a very moving speech in 2003 to the Gulf War Veterans in Iraq. He died last year in San Francisco at age 85. He was a true American Hero in every sense and meaning of that word. Every high school should have a class to study and learn from his
Every high school should have a class to study and learn from his evolution through life as a Catholic Priest who even questioned his own faith. His life is well documented from the NY Times to the hunger strike, and jail terms. I urge everyone to read about him and learn from this genius level intelligence true American Hero who is an inspiration to all who seek enlightenment and truth in the full spirit of the Founders of this once great country which is moving straight down the tubes today.
thx for the link about charlie liteky,. he’s a hero who practiced what he preached and put his money where his mouth was, dumping both the medal of honor and its bloodmoney propaganda payoff allowance of $1100/ month. and his wife agreed with actions, so she paid dearly, too. (at 67, i’m still too chickenshit to embrace the possibility of jail by breaking civil law to state my beliefs. i don’t want to endure the pain&suffering likely one experiences in the sordid prison underclass culture.)
in fact, the state endorsed media-backed religion is secular christianity, the essence of the christian tenet, “do unto others as you want them to do to you.” without the belief in yahweh as the creator and jesus christ his virgin-birthed sinless son and then the weird life-giving ether/ breath of the holy spirit. and then, as a logical follow-on, god help us all, altruism as practiced in state run welfare programs. utter nonsense. and truly destructive to any society, that its members should not be required to pay their own way. anyway, do unto other and give to the poor w/o account have not one shred of w/o scientific evidence that they are fundamental laws of nature. in fact, just the opposite, it seems. but isn’t that the defining mark of all religions? the ready making of mythical claims as fundamental truths? all the while the state refuses to pursue scientific method to answer the question as to the merit of these beliefs. and also to fund large scale scientific studies to catalogue the defining differences between human races. i’d suggest starting with their brain organs. since that structure contains the resource for how hominids reason. let’s end this unfounded belief — this state sponsored religion — once and for all time that “all men are created equal.”
The Schofield Reference Bible somehow convinced Americans to become sheep dipped Zionists. The Hagee types’ nonsense is just regurgitation . Though it does seem all roads that once lead to and from Rome now cross ocean doesn’t mean to go marching as to war. The words used by some peace lovers well; teach your children well.
How much difference is there between scofield and KJV or any other Catholic accepted version ? Not enough for contention.
Bob, take your ignorance elsewhere. You are a lost fool. Complaining about Billy Graham’s body in the Capitol rotunda? You stupid fool. Hey, moron, do you even understand Christ?
There is NO Constitutional separation of Church & State, but you knew that already, you buffoon. The US Government commissioned & paid for the printing of Bibles. The Constitution forbids a STATE CHURCH like in 16th century Britain, but NOT the free expression of the majority that loves & fears God, and has found that Christianity FREES men to become all they can be, and never required anyone to become Christian, but that if the majority of the populace wanted to express themselves as a God-fearing Christian nation, as long as it did not compel the citizenry to be that, then it is fine.
People like you are stupid and lost.
You have no problem with the pedophile FILTH giving each other the Congressional Medal of Honor (or Freedom) or whatever it is, but if a national treasure (not to you i get it) dies and we want to honor his life, WE WILL. YYou are empty dead vessels. You will be the slaves of islam someday, probably get beheaded, but hey, Ol Bob kept harmless CHristianity out of our nation! Because of dumbasses like you, someday your grandkids will probably live under Shariah Law, the horrible threat of violence and death and insanity, because peace-loving Christians, who never forced anyone to do anything (on the basis of Christianity), will have been pushed out & shamed.
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