Watchu Talkin' Bout Anne?

November 13, 2006

This is my second time this week writing a blog about "Christian" conservatism. I hadn't planned on writing another blog on the subject, but upon checking my e-mail this morning, I found a message from a college friend that contained the following:

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her, "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding 9/11) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of all and say, God, we're sorry we have treated you this way and we invite you now to come into our national life. We put our trust in you. We have our trust in God on our coins, we need to practice it."

The e-mail then went on to say several other things that were not said by Anne Graham, but are the sentiments of many people..

In light of recent events... terrorists attacks, school shootings, etc, I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not steal," and "love your neighbor as yourself." And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Oh, where do I start? How about from the Graham legacy? I know that many Christians and non-Christians alike are very impressed by Billy Graham and his family. I too, used to think he was one of God's greatest messengers. Well, then I learned a bit more about him and who he was. You see, during the times of Jim Crow and segregation, someone asked Billy Graham if he would preach at locations where the crowd was segregated. Billy Graham said that segregation was the law of the land and he would not fight it, until he "integrated" his crusades in 1953. Even then, when organizers refused to allow the integrated crusades, Graham gave in to their prejudice, citing the supposed advice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as his reason. After the 1963 March on Washington, Graham infamously said, "Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children." As an African-American woman, I find this sort of attitude appalling, and I don't think that it was excusable because it was acceptable at the time. Graham did write against racism, but actions speak much louder than words. So, I suppose I don't hold Billy Graham, or his children, in the same regard as many others.

Now to Anne Graham's statements: The reporter asked, "How could God let something like 9/11 happen?" First of all, I think it's important that we remind ourselves who was responsible for 9/11. It was not God. It was an act of terrorism performed by evil men. It was also a brutal act that was born out of the anger that many people, all around the world, feel for America. Even though murder is never to be condoned, I encourage people to look into what creates a terrorist. What makes thousands of people hate another group of people so much that they'd fly a plane into a building? What could've possibly been done to them to make them turn into these evil beings? Although, it would soothe our souls to say "some people are just evil," this is not the complete story. Yes, some people are just evil and perform evil acts. However, behind their acts there is a trail. It's a trail of mistreatment, theft, and murder that unfortunately leads right back to America's front doorstep. As a child, my mother taught me that you can only mistreat people for so long before they retaliate. That's what 9/11 was. It was an unexcusable retaliation, but a retaliation nonetheless.

Anne replied that she believes God is deeply angered by 9/11. I believe this to be true. However, I don't think God is angered by the loss of life. You see, God is eternal, and therefore, death has no finality for Him. The Bible says that to be, "absent from the body" is to be "at home with the Lord." What I do believe God is angered by is the fact that Americans have shown so little regard for human life and that this disregard helped create these terrorists. I think the fact that humans have no regard for the lives of other humans is what angers God the most.

Then Anne began to talk about how Americans have asked God to leave our schools, governments, and businesses, and marketplaces. This sort of rhetoric is just another version of the belief that God has "allowed" bad things to happen to America because of our rejection of Him. Remember after 9/11 when Jerry Falwell said abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians had a hand in 9/11 because "God will not be mocked?" So, his train of thought leads him to believe that God hates the murder of fetuses so much that he allowed thousands of other people to be murdered to get back at us. And He hates gay people because of who they love (even though He is the epitome of love), that He allowed thousands of innocent people to perish because of their love. This is ridiculous for many reasons; one of the main reasons being that God does not have an issue with allowing governments to run themselves any way they see fit. In Matthew 22, those pesky Pharisees (who sound like the people many conservatives have modeled themselves after) were trying to trick Jesus once again. They asked if Jewish people should pay taxes and pledge their allegiance to Caesar. Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." It doesn't sound like Jesus had much of an issue with religion being kept out of government to me. It sounds like His issue was with people denying God what is rightfully His.

We never told God to get "out" of our schools or governments. God was never in them. Some people love to go on and on about how this nation was founded on Christian principles by Christian men. That's not historically sound. Men who owned slaves founded this nation. Does that sound Christ-like to you? This nation was founded by men who ordered the slaughter of millions of Native Americans who rightfully lived on this land. Genocide is a Christian principle now? This nation was not founded on Christian principles; it was founded on capitalism. It was founded on making money in any way possible, even if it meant holding human beings in enslavement, stealing land from others, and killing those who got in your way. Then, in defense of their actions, they tried to bring God into the situation. There are people who get angry over the fact that some people don't want "under God" to be in the Pledge of Allegiance. Perhaps they should know the origins of that phrase. The Pledge did not include those two words until the 1950s when McCarthyism was the law of the land. It was some people's way of battling the demon of communism. It was not about God at all. Therefore, why not take it out? I doubt that God needs false praise or allegiance. I also doubt that the words on the coins of a capitalist country mean much of anything.

In addition to that, one of the few things that this country was truly founded on was religious freedom. People were running away from countries where they were being told how to pray, when to pray, who to pray to, and how to serve their God. They ran from that and helped found this political institution called the United States of America, and most people revere them for that. However, now people seek to religiously persecute others. Corporate prayer in schools is wrong. First of all, everyone who attends public school isn't a Christian, and shouldn't have to be a Christian (religious freedom, remember?). Not only is it wrong for us to try and force our God on them, it would be wrong of them to try and force their God on us. We do not reside in a theocracy; we reside in a republic. If Christians were allowed to perform corporate prayer in schools, then, under the freedom that our Constitution affords us, everyone else should be able to perform corporate prayer in schools. As a Christian woman, if I had children, I'd much rather pray with them before they left home, then have them be forced to bow down to a god I don't believe in.

Anne then goes onto say, " And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life." First of all, God is not a gentleman. God is God! Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?" Sorry Anne, God is not Cary Grant. He's not a man, and because of that, He also does not lie or go back on His promises. God says, in many places in the Bible that He will be with us "to the ends of the Earth!" Anne, you said that God has "quietly backed out." That would make God a liar and a promise breaker? You're saying that He's left us even though He said he would "never leave nor forsake" us? I consider that to be sacrilege.

Then she asks how we can expect God to give us His blessings and protection if we ask that He leave us alone? While God does give us free will, He gives that option to us to determine what we will do, not what He will do. I don't really believe that God is into following the instructions of human beings. Also, God is a merciful Master. You see, that's the beauty of the principle of "grace." It's unmerited favor, and God is full of it. Again, God is NOT a man. He does NOT hold grudges. He doesn't get angry and say, "well forget you! You don't want me here? Fine! Peace! I'm out!" No, that's not God. That's man. God isn't going anywhere. We may feel that He is not present at times, but we must rest assured of the fact that He is.

Next, the person who wrote this e-mail delved into Madeleine Murray O'Hare, who was one of the people at the head of the anti-prayer movement. The note politely mentions that she was murdered. Why does it do that? Because there are people who think that God is vindictive. You mess with Him, He's gonna have somebody kill you. Sweetheart, this is God, not Tony Soprano! Christianity is not a mob! God doesn't order hits. And what the hell does prayer not being allowed in schools have to do with school shootings or terrorist acts? What? If Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had entered Columbine and found the students praying, they wouldn't have shot all those people? I think not. And the 9/11 terrorists weren't even American!!! So the lack of prayer in schools didn't really effect that situation much.

The message then goes onto say how we stopped reading the Bible in school, which taught children not to kill or steal, but to love. Well, I don't see the point in reading the Bible in school with all it's loving language while we teach the history of a country that has committed some of the worst crimes against humanity in all of human history.

Then we move on to poor Dr. Spock. Now, I am a firm believer in the "spare the rod, spoil the child," doctrine. Oh yes. I believe in spankings, whoopings, or whatever you choose to call them! And yes, I believe we've got almost a whole generation of unruly children running around because their parents act like a spanking will kill them or damage them for life. But you know what? I'm almost certain Hitler received, and he didn't turn out to be the nicest person, did he? A lack of spankings is not going to make or break your child's ability to be a responsible and loving person. And WHY must they mention that Spock's son committed suicide? I find it hard to believe that God relishes in other people's sadness.

Our children act the way they act because they mimic our behavior. They see adults who don't care about the lives of others, and that's how they act. They see that it's acceptable to treat humans like animals, and that's how they treat others. If they see that adults only care about themselves and their own interests, that's what they will mimic. It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that they can't pray in school. You can pray all day, but if they turn on the television and see that the leaders of their country have no compassion for the people of the world, I doubt the prayer will supercede their belief that people don't matter. You can't whoop them all day and half of the night, but if you allow them watch violence and condone the violence of your government, they'll learn that shooting a classmate IS the solution to their problems.

This whole thought process is ridiculous. When the Bible says, "you reap what you sow," it's talking about YOU reaping what YOU sowed. You committed actions that have caused a chain of events that are a result of the actions you committed! It's not talking about God going, "nanny-nanny-poo-poo! I told ya so!" That's what 3rd graders do, not the Almighty God of all of Heaven and Earth who is merciful, loving, kind, gracious, and just.

In conclusion, I'd like to end this article with a truly profound quote that I read by theologian Patricia Arnold:

"Those who believe that God behaves like humans haven't fully opened themselves to the Awesome Allness. They have shrunk God into something small enough to wrap their human brains around.... It's not until someone publicly gives voice to a judgmental, punitive, angry, vindictive bully and calls him God that we get this wonderful opportunity to re-think our own image of the Almighty."