Good Morning!
On this day in 1874 the Republican party was first symbolized as an elephant in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly.
In 1893 the state of Colorado granted its women the right to vote.
In 1918 the Rev. Billy Graham was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1916 Jeanette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
In 1932 “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” was broadcast for the first on CBS Radio.
And in 1965 the “Pillsbury Dough Boy” debuted in television commercials.
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Quotes of the Day
“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.”
“The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.”
Billy Graham
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Whenever I think of Billy Graham, this gentleman comes to mind as well.
🙂
Today is also the birthday of composer William Alwyn. So it’s “Autumn Legend for Horn and Orchestra”.
Very nice job on the video scenery shots as well.
And here’s another from Mr. Shea.
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Wandering Views 
Wow 1st
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Billy Graham was Largely influenced by Mordecai Ham.
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Billy Graham was saved at a Mortacai Ham revival meeting.
I had not heard of Billy Graham until around 1954. I was already active in the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at USC. I went with others on IVCF weekends and some people were talking about George Beverly Shea records. And I didn’t know what they were talking about. And I thought “Beverly” was strange for a man’s name.
But I started going to a SS class at FBC Columbia taught by a guy named Emory D. Harper.
Emory Harper had quite a testimony. He owned a real estate business and that, and golf and drinking were his life. He said he was on the verge of addiction. His wife made him go to a BG crusade meeting in Columbia. During the invitation, his wife went forward. He was convicted and followed her.
He became a local evangelist, though still a business man. He was mentioned in the Columbia papers, but it was his wife that initiated it.
I know of a similar situation in Falls Church, Va. We were living in a trailer park in Fairfax, Va. Elvera invited a neighbor woman, Ruth Ellen, to some of the women’s group meetings. She went, and became involved. Soon, her husband, Ed started coming to SS with her. He was in my class.
During a revival, Ruthellen (always said as one word) went forward and trusted the Lord. Then Ed also trusted Christ. The pastor made a big deal of Ed’s decision. But in both of those cases, it was the woman who made the first move.
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Emory Harper was an influential man in Columbia and was close to the people in the Graham organization at the time. One time, when associate evangelist, Grady Wilson, was in Columbia, he was persuaded to preach to a group of men in Preston Hall at USC. Several men were saved and a couple of them joined our group. One of whom was Don Johnson, our star fullback. The coach Warren Geise, always led the team in prayer before a game. It wasn’t unconstitutional in those days.
Grady Wilson once came up to Elvera’s apartment to speak to a group of college students. Everyone in this group was already a Christian.
The only BG crusade I attended was the one he held in Washington, DC. I went to the ones at the Convention Center and the old football stadium.
He was a forceful preacher, but in content, it was always the same. “There will be a judgment and you need Christ”. There was never any theological depth. But that was his calling. He was called to be an evangelist, not a theologian.
One of his sermons was on the Return of Christ.
“Jesus is coming again. He’s coming to bring judgment. Are you ready?”
“I was playing golf with President Kennedy. President Kennedy said, ‘Billy, do you believe Jesus is coming again?; ‘I said, ”Yes, I believe Jesus is coming again”’ That is Graham’s eschatology in a nutshell.
But evangelism was his calling, and the Lord used him in a big way. We need another. The Bible tells us that one like Elijah will come. We need him.
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I see I’m talking to myself here.
If the football picks don’t come up soon, we won’t be able to choose between Oregon and Stanford. I’m going for Oregon.
I see in the comics where Beetle Baily stumbles and breaks dishes while on KP. I once saw a GI cup bounce off a concrete floor.
😆
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First off, did any of you watch the Country Music Awards? By far the best part of the night was when George Strait and that other Alan Jackson sang He Stopped Loving Her Today and the camera panned out to George Jones’ widow.
Two things that have always stuck with me about Billy Graham. I
I grew up in a home with two 8×5 mahoghony book shelves in the front hall. They were crammed with encyclopedias, books, and what seemed like a thousand National Geographics. In one of the magazines there was an article about a young college graduated who decided to Walk Across America in celebration of the Bicentennial. He attended a Billy Graham Revival in Mobile, AL on that walk. I believe he is still a writer and still a Christian.
I had an aunt who was shot and paralyzed when the bank where she worked was robbed. She attended that same revival. She was hoping for a healing miracle, but was told there was sin in the family and she couldn’t be healed. (I am a little fuzzy on how this story came to be but…) As a result, I and some of my cousins were able to laugh and tell about attending our grandparents wedding. My grandparents were married for almost 20 years, divorced for 20 years and married for 22 years.
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Chas, was it the coffee that held it together? 😉
Isn’t it often the woman who quietly leads the man to church? I wasn’t so quiet about it. I told Mr. P right up front that if he wanted to date me he would have to attend church with me. He drove 26 miles each way on Sunday’s to go.
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I found the video to share with you:
http://tasteofcountry.com/alan-jackson-george-strait-george-jones-tribute-cma-awards-2013/
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George Jones was, indeed, one of the greats. I have that song on CD.
But the “all time” great, I believe is still Hank Williams Sr. His career only lasted about four years, but his was a permanent contribution.
Of course, the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers started it all. Neither were very good by modern standards, but they made it happen.
That song was good, but I don’t care much for modern country. It’s mostly overproduced.
Kim, a woman has lots of influence over a man who loves her. He’s happiest when she’s happy and sad when she’s sad.
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Hiram Hank will always be the best.
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I like Hank and George, but I’ve always been a fan of Johnny over the others.
And that fake Alan Jackson is starting to grow on me. 🙂
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In Zamperini’s case also it was his wife who insisted he go to a Billy Graham crusade in LA with her. He walked out of one of them, I believe, but God clearly had his hand on him already. And interesting how God chooses to use women in such quiet but powerful ways.
Kim, that’s interesting about your memory that someone told your aunt she couldn’t be healed because there was sin her family. Like there’s not sin in anyone’s family?? 😮 What a skewed and really damaging theology that is. But I have had friends who were given those same kinds of messages, though perhaps more subtly, basically saying they weren’t getting well (or couldn’t speak in tongues or … fill in the blank) because their faith wasn’t strong enough.
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So for those of you old enough to remember him (and even those who aren’t), maybe you can help me on a story I have to write: What were/are your impressions & thoughts about JFK? His presidency? His legacy when it comes to our political system?
Was his presidency pivotal in our culture or country’s history in some ways? Was his assassination, which seemed to usher in a decade of chaos and violence, something of a loss of innocence?
What was Kennedy’s significance? Why is our culture, especially the baby boom generation who were kids or teen-agers when he was killed, still so obsessed with the Kennedy mystique?
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I wasn’t born yet, but I have read a lot of biographies on him and on Jackie. My thoughts are that he wouldn’t have been as significant if he hadn’t be assassinated and that Jackie was the braintrust in that relationship. She spun the story along the lines of the musical Camelot from Hyannisport. She created the myth.
There are documents in the Kennedy library that she had sealed for so many years AFTER her last child died. Somehow I think it might be 50 years, so those who were fascinated and awed will never know the truth.
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I think more documents won’t be released until 2029 — that’s what I remember seeing somewhere. And, yes, Jackie was behind the “Camelot” mystique, using her friend Theodore White in a piece for Life magazine that was essentially written with and edited by her just weeks after the assassination.
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So Kim, what prompted you to read so much about the Kennedys? What was the allure?
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If the football picks don’t come up soon, we won’t be able to choose between Oregon and Stanford. I’m going for Oregon.
Sorry, Chas, but it won’t be included. I just sent them to AJ, so they should be up today. I also couldn’t include the other top 10 match up tonight- Oklahoma at Baylor.
Re:Kennedy. I remember well coming in from lunch recess and hearing the news over the school loudspeaker. For us 1st graders, it really had no meaning. But it is the only time I remember a teacher crying.
Was Kennedy a great president? The media caused a lot of the mystique after he was assassinated, so I don’t know. But I remember Rush Limbaugh mentioning that Kennedy put in place economic policies that started the stronger economy of the 60s. I think Rush pointed that out when Liberal Democrats tried stopping Reagan, when what Reagan did was the same thing Kennedy did: lowered taxes to spur growth.
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Re: Billy Graham- I went to a crusade in 1974 or 75 in Phoenix. Some friends and I drove two hours from Tucson. I remember nothing about the message, but I do remember the throng going forward at the end. Mr. Graham had great things to say, but his evangelistic methods leave a lot to be desired, especially when you consider the small percentage of “converts” who are still in church a year later. No. I think God intends evangelism to be on a much smaller scale.
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Donna, I had just turned 33 when Kennedy was shot and I remember it well.
Kennedy wasn’t as popular then as he is now. And Nixon wasn’t as reviled. Kennedy won by a very narrow margin. Some think some stray ballots in Chicago did it.
The best thing for Kennedy’s legacy was being killed and the videos of Jackie and John-John. It was a traumatic event, even for people who didn’t support him; like me. It’s difficult to overcome the images. But it’s probable that Jack and Jackie didn’t really love each other. It was a marriage of convenience for both. Jack was a real womanizer. We didn’t know it at the time I suspect that Jackie missed the White House more than she missed John.
The worst thing about the assassination was Lyndon Johnson. JFK and LBJ didn’t like each other. LBJ gave Texas to Kennedy, and he needed it.
LBJ was a disaster. He started the War on Poverty. The attack on the Turner Joy was a set-up to get us into the Viet Nam war. Advisers had been in Viet Nam during the Eisenhower years, but Johnson needed a war. He didn’t know it would turn against him.
A result of the war is John Kerry.
I’m not an expert fit as a resource, but it gives you some things to look for.
If you’re doing something on Kennedy, you need to read O’Rilley’s book, Killing Kennedy. Lots of new stuff.
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Donna, I had just turned 33 when Kennedy was shot and I remember it well.
Kennedy wasn’t as popular then as he is now. And Nixon wasn’t as reviled. Kennedy won by a very narrow margin. Some think some stray ballots in Chicago did it.
The best thing for Kennedy’s legacy was being killed and the videos of Jackie and John-John. It was a traumatic event, even for people who didn’t support him, like me. It’s difficult to overcome the images. But it’s probable that Jack and Jackie didn’t really love each other. It was a marriage of convenience for both. Jack was a real womanizer. We didn’t know it at the time
The worst thing about the assassination was Lyndon Johnson. JFK and LBJ didn’t like each other. LBJ gave Texas to Kennedy, and he needed it.
LBJ was a disaster. He started the War on Poverty. The attack on the Turner Joy was a set-up to get us into the Viet Nam war. Advisers had been in Viet Nam during the Eisenhower years, but Johnson needed a war. He didn’t know it would turn against him.
A result of the war is John Kerry.
I’m not an expert fit as a resource, but it gives you some things to look for.
If you’re doing something on Kennedy, you need to read O’Rilley’s book, Killing Kennedy. Lots of new stuff.
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Sorry, I didn’t think the first click took.
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Fascinating. None of my Apple products will allow me to post here. I can write the post, it just doesn’t show up.
I’ve had no end of problems since I downloaded IOS7. I even completely cleared my Ipad, but it still won’t allow me to post here or on FB. Hmmm. Strange.
I just wanted to say, I never attended a Billy Graham Crusade, but I did go to one for his associate Ralph Bell. The people I met there, changed my life.
When you visit the Billy Graham museum at Wheaton, you can learn many amazing facts. But what bothered me, was how the Graham family was always so important and front and center. The exhibit on George Beverly Shea (along with the article about him in Decision Magazine) included all sorts of Graham family phots and only one of Shea’s own family.
It just bothered me. It must be difficult to be in a family whose patriarch has long been on a pedestal.
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Here’s what happened to us when we upgraded to IOS7. Hubby and I share an iTunes account. Son and DIL share an iTunes account. Every text we send to one another goes to both people sharing an account and the intended recipient is not identified. So when DIL texts me with “are you home yet” hubby gets it, too, and doesn’t realize it’s for me. He texts back, “huh?” and it goes to DIL and son. It goes on and on. It is very confusing. Son found the explanation online somewhere, as we were all confounded by what was happening. I’m not sure if this is a bug or a feature.
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I took all the kids to a Billy Graham crusade in Sacramento in 94 or 95. I think that there was even a children’s choir that one of them was in. It is a message of repentance that this nation needs to hear.
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Michelle, I agree that it would be hard to be in a family always in the limelight, with the father on a pedestal, especially if he travels so much you yourself hardly know him! (As may well have been the case.)
When I was a college student, everyone getting married would buy The Act of Marriage and I thought how icky it would be to have your parents write “the” sex book for the Christian world! Of course if you’re their kid, and you’re getting married, you would NOT want to buy it or read it. You want your parents to have a good marriage, but not to be “the standard” for other people everywhere.
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Really enjoyed the “Autumn Legend” video, AJ. I had not heard of that piece or the composer, but am glad to have been introduced to him and his music through such a pleasant route.
QoD: The only time I’ve ever heard Billy Graham speak was on TV, never in person. My grandparents next door used to like to watch him, and there were times I was over at their house and saw him on TV.
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I just finished reading Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims>/i> by Rush Limbaugh.
It is a children’s book and interesting if you buy into the idea that a talking horse can go back in history.
I can’t say that I learned anything. The only historical event involved is the trip on the Mayflower and the Plymouth colony up to the first Thanksgiving.
As I said, some interesting stuff about the first Pilgrims, but nothing I didn’t know. But then, I went to school a couple of years ago.
OK maybe more.
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Donna, I have always loved biographies most. I grew up seeing Jackie on the cover of magazines and hearing my father call her a whore. I think I was drawn into the mystique of The Kenendy’s. My uncle (the one who died this summer) loaned my dad a biography of Joe Kennedy–it wasn’t very flattering. From there I read several biographies of each of them, John, Robert, Teddy, Jackie, Ethel, etc. Some were gushy and flattering, others were not. I formed my own opinion somewhere along the line.
I once heard them called “American Royalty” and cringed. No they weren’t. There were a bunch of Irish hooligans and bootleggers. Jackie was brought in to add class. She had the high society connections but not the money. Her money came when Papa Joe paid her to stay married to Jack. The rest of her money came after Aristotle Onassis died and she had Teddy step in and “negotiate” her settlement. One of the biographies related the story of her shopping all over Europe and spending a fortune on clothes then flying home to New York and selling them in consignment shops.
The best story is of her working as a book publisher for an amount of money that didn’t even cover the property taxes on her home in Hyannis Port.
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QoD: I went to a Billy Graham crusade in Calgary when I was a teen. I even sang in the choir (or tried to – couldn’t hit those high notes). I, too, most remember the people streaming forward at the end.
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Re: wives influence on their husbands – I once heard it explained that God gave husbands the power of authority, & He gave wives the power of influence.
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I went to a very good caregivers banquet today. My group my husband jams with once a week was invited to be the entertainment. They had some wonderful speakers and lots of literature and consultants available.
The downside was when a woman gave a participatory yoga lesson. The first thing she wanted was people to take off their shoes, so we could be more in touch with the earth. Then it was the relaxation, emptying of the mind etc. We were to become more one with one another through it all, too. I refused to participate as did several others. Some left the room, but many stayed and just sat through it all. My husband and I used the time to do our own praying.
I was saddened by the many Christians that I knew who went along with it all. This was not just relaxing or exercising, although it did not go beyond the first couple of steps in yoga. Christians, who have the Prince of Peace within and the fruits of the Spirit, one of which is peace, are very foolish to exchange what they have for this poor substitute.
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Thanks for your thoughts and input on Kennedy. I’ve been tasked with writing an overall piece for our Sunday 50-year package and so it’s fairly wide open on where I can go with it. I’m going to take a stab at calling a professor tomorrow who has studied Kennedy’s charisma and how that has impacted our politics every since. Another source I’ve known told me today that JFK’s was the first campaign he volunteered to work on — as a 14-year-old high school student. He still has his campaign buttons and went on to be very active in Democratic party politics throughout his life, working on staff for a couple of our LA mayors.
I’ll keep poking around for folks to talk to, keep reading Kennedy retrospectives and hope it will all begin to take shape. Just hearing what regular people’s impressions were of the Kennedy presidency is helpful.
I had just turned 12 when Kennedy was assassinated so I do remember that event quite vividly (our teacher cried, too). But I paid no real attention to politics during that time. So my impressions of his effectiveness as a president, his legacy, come from things I’ve read since.
I don’t know quite what to make of Jackie, though I always respected her for not “dishing the dirt” on Jack after his death. And let’s face it, she was absolutely stunning. I suspect she was deeply hurt by his behavior, if not entirely surprised. Nevertheless, she seemed quite devoted to him and to their children. Motives, though, are always hard to discern — our own are hard enough to figure out sometimes, let alone those of other people.
They were flawed people, to be sure. But still fascinating to us for some reason. They projected a striking and beautiful “picture” that we never seemed to tire of admiring.
A friend of mine once lamented (after John Jr died in the plane crash) at how the Kennedys were plagued by such tragedy. True, I said, but I couldn’t help but think they’d also been blessed with much in the way of privilege and opportunity as well.
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It sure takes you all a long time to wake up in the morning these days. But… since it is Friday evening, I will wait around a bit for you.
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We’re here Jo. But not awake yet.
😉
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Mornin’ Jo, you too Chas. 🙂
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