Billy Graham Statue in Capitol Building

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I saw a Bubba carrying an anti-Obamacare placard with no teeth. Seemed like the dude could have used Obamacare for some dental work

Thats the very thing I am objecting to. Reacting to bigotry WITH bigotry- against Southern Whites or whatever group.

Billy Graham was contemporary with my lifetime. But since Im so old - he is now a part of the past as well. So it hard to judge him by...'today's standards'. Further- precisely because I was never a fan of him - thats why I guard against being prejudiced against him. He meant alot to many sub cultures of the country (redneck white whites AND Blacks revere him). So why not have a statue in the Capitol Rotunda of him?

He did demand desegregating his southern audiences for his big sermons in the Sixties. So he was on the right side of the Black civil rights movement. Though not an activist for that particular cause.

And Billy Graham DID evolve over time. He was judemental against helping the poor (because of his own dirt poor background), but mellowed and became more liberal about that as he matured.

So I give him credit for that.

But that sermon you mention - in the Nineties- in which he waffles, but basically says AIDs is god's punishment for homosexuals. Maybe that was going too far- even by 1990s standards. I dont ask a southern preacher to endorse the gay lifestyle. But as Richard Pryor once said when asked if God punishes people with diseases:"God doesnt operate that way".

Every person is complex. When we honor anyone with a statue its our mythic image of the person, and not really the real person. It can be complex to assess.

at least it is not a statue of billy graham's obnoxious son.

I get what you’re saying but I still don’t think that the Capitol Building is the right place for a statue of a purely religious figure for reasons I’ve already stated. He could be elsewhere.

The Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art irritates me every time I see it.

I grew up in this subculture and was friends with many Bubbas, so I’m comfortable satirizing it. i was primarily thinking of specific extreme examples, though, and not a demographic as a whole. I knew a couple of people who shot squirrels from their back porch.

he was a man of his times. A lot of prejudice against gay people during the AIDS crisis. I saw openly homophobic discrimination against a friend of mine in university who is gay.

What did Billy Graham actually do for the state of North Carolina?

Like I said....if he found a way to fix up many of the shacks in the Appalachians, then I might advocate a statue for him.

But he was a preacher and a guy who made millions off his preaching. Did his preaching have a demonstrable impact upon the lifestyle of the average poor person in North Carolina?

Not everyone in North Carolina is happy about it. I can SO relate to this guy.

https://amp.charlotteobserver.com/opini ... 36882.html

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/ ... ycock.html

Franklin Graham is playing a role in this. He runs the BGEA.

Here’s a quote from the BGEA website:

https://billygraham.org/story/nc-commit ... am-statue/

It’s concerning in my opinion. The statue is meant to have a proselytizing effect on people, and it’s in the Capitol Building, not some religious locale.

A lot of the statues in government buildings were placed there on the whims of some local powerbroker who wanted to honour them. This is no different to the UK or Australian government buildings.

Therefore there's no precedence for having public opinion choose a candidate. Perhaps an example should be made and people need to stop giving executive powers to self-interested power brokers.