Friday, November 7, 2014

That Old--Time Cottage Industry Religion

The Daily Breeze's daily birthdays list is headed by Rev. Billy Graham who turns 96 today.  Given the number of medical events during his life, this is rather surprising -- pneumonia, broken hips, prostate cancer and then aged 74, he developed Parkinson's disease.  Additionally he is plagued by vision and hearing loss, but think how old he is!  No one would agree that 96 is a piece of cake...

He and his late wife Ruth had five children and apparently all of them married and procreated with some vigor as he has a great number of grandchildren AND great-grandchildren. All of the five original children are in the religion business, busily drumming up converts and money for various charitable institutions.  I would assume that the leadership reins are being handed down a generation with some gusto.  It is very much a family business. 

Despite being a registered Democrat, he and Nixon were close friends; later on he stumped for Mitt Romney.  Harry Truman didn't like him and considered him something of a phony (which amused me as  I regard ALL gentlemen engaged in converting sinners into saints  much the same.) 

Wikipedia is a good source for a full documentation of his career and I recommend it.  It is 'way too long to try to condense it here. 

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