Posted on 11/07/2008 10:33:16 AM PST by Alex Murphy
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Billy Graham's work as a pastor to presidents is coming to an end, but he is praying for Barack Obama as the nation's next leader begins his work, Graham's son said Friday on the aging evangelist's 90th birthday. Franklin Graham said in an interview that his father's mind remains sharp even as his body continues to fail. But the preacher who has counseled every president beginning with Eisenhower is not in line to mentor Obama.
"My father feels like his time and day for that is over," Franklin Graham said. "But he would certainly like to meet (Obama) and pray with him."
Graham's views of the world are still respected in White House circles. Republican presidential candidate John McCain visited Graham at his mountainside home during the campaign, and Obama tried to meet Graham but wasn't able to do so because of the preacher's poor health.
Though never partisan in his preaching, Billy Graham is a registered Democrat. His son expressed concern about Obama's views on abortion and gay marriage—an issue Franklin Graham raised in a meeting with the Illinois senator—saying that he and is father are conservatives who believe the Bible speaks clearly on those issues.
"President-elect Obama heard our position," Franklin Graham said. "And I told him that this was very difficult for us and hard for us. It's a moral issue that we just can't back down on."
"But he's our president-elect, and those positions that he holds that are contrary to Biblical teaching, I hope that God will change his heart," said Graham, who now heads the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
About 160 of Graham's close family and friends celebrated his birthday with an intimate gathering Friday at his home in Montreat, featuring fried chicken, barbecue and sweet tea. His ministry had received some 100,000 greetings—including a video from President Bush—from people who told stories about how he changed their lives. Graham's son said they would be bound so that someone could read a few dozen letters to him each day.
Encouragement is partly what Graham needs. He still struggles with the loss of his wife, Ruth, who died last year, and notes his father has more friends in heaven than on earth.
An avid consumer of news, Billy Graham still listens to television—he has macular degeneration and has can't read more than the headlines of a newspaper—and follows the events of the day. He spends much of his day napping and resting, and Franklin visits on Sundays to try and coax him to make the 100-yard walk to the barn next to the mountainside home in Montreat.
Graham's health is fragile. He was hospitalized overnight last month after falling over his dog while trying to pet it. He had elective surgery earlier this year to update a shunt that controls excess fluid on his brain. The shunt was first installed in 2000 and drains fluid from through a small tube, relieving excess pressure that can cause symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease.
Graham was hospitalized last year for nearly two weeks after experiencing intestinal bleeding, and he has also had prostate cancer. But Graham has still outlived doctors' expectations and some of the doctors themselves.
"He could catch a cold and his life could come to an end," Franklin Graham said. "At his age, any little thing could be a serious event. We realize that."
His days at 90 are a stark contrast to Graham's days as a globe-trotting evangelist—a ministry that put him behind the pulpit to speak with 215 million people in more than 185 countries and placed him in the confidence of some of the world's most powerful people.
Graham still writes and remains engaged in the planning and direction of the ministry he founded. This week, his booming voice will once again cross borders as a message dubbed in Portuguese will be broadcast in Brazil as part of an effort to bring some 1 million new believes into the fold this weekend.
But privately, he has been working on a book about aging, trying to put his late-life lessons into context for those soon to follow him.
"He's always been ready to die," Franklin Graham said. "But nobody's prepared him for getting old."
Related thread: A Tribute to Billy Graham at 90 [today is Billy Graham's birthday]
Is Obama beyond redemption?
That’s OK. The right Reverend Wright is ready to step up.
BO is not a Christian.
Franklin, does your dad do exorcisms?
NO sweat.
Rev. Wright has his eye on THAT position.
Mullah Omar will probably be glad to oblige.
Obama was "once" a muslim.
Why do all the extremist muslim leaders applaude Obama winning? If they really thought he were a Christian, there would be a fatwah on him.
If he was converted from Islam to Christianity, the hate of him would be stronger than their hate of Bush.
To have a converted mooselimb to Christian as president of the Great Satan would be above any insult. Instead they cheer.
I’ve wondered the same thing. I guess they made an exception for “That One” in the Koran.
I left off the fact that they already know he is a mooslim since they already know his real BC states he was born in Kenya and is still as citizen of Kenya.
The Bible tells us the Antichrist is cast into the lake of fire.
Do I think BO is the AC? A few weeks ago I would have laughed it off and said no. But as I watch whats happening today, I really begin to wonder.
If he's not, he's setting the stage for the real AC to come and "save the world". But the messianic reverence some have, and which he encourages, scares me. Its ALMOST supernatural.
Here's someone who comes out of nowhere and in a short time captures the WORLD's stage. Its almost as if every step for him has been orchestrated.
Ever notice that virtually every picture of him, is of that arrogant smugness, with his chin in the air like Mussolini?
A week or 2 ago, while in prayer, I felt that God was telling me that BO would be elected, and to prepare. That now end times events would accelerate exponentially.
In prayer I asked how I should prepare. I felt "wait upon the Lord" and "I'll let you know in time".
Al-Takeyyah (ahl-tah-KAY-uh) is the Islamic principle of lying for the sake of Allah. Falsehoods told to prevent denigration of Islam, to protect oneself, or to promote the cause of Islam are sanctioned by the Qur'an, including lying under penalty of perjury in testimony before the United States Congress, lying or making distorted statements to the media such as claiming that Islam is a religion of peace, and deceiving fellow Muslims when the one lying has deemed them to be apostates.
I've thought the very same thing.
Mussolini was once called "the great jawbone" by a WWII-era American film narrator.
Obama has his Mullah.... No need for a preacher.
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