Graham monument just another statue that won’t stand test of time

After suffering recent demonstrations against statuary of the Confederacy such as “Silent Sam” on the UNC campus and changing the names of buildings once dedicated to “racist” university founders, now this granite-based destruction has moved to Washington.

Every state is permitted to have one statue each of its two “favorite sons” placed in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Of the two North Carolina men currently on display, one was a “racist.” To solve this abhorrent display of political incorrectness, the legislators of North Carolina have committed their citizens to the construction of a statue of another local hero, the Rev. Billy Graham. Regulations prohibit the placement of this silent, solid evangelical portrait in the secular rotunda until after his death, but the politicians who voted for this, without debate or committee meeting, must move it forward while still the majority.

Memories of Graham:

▪ He has counseled every American president since Harry Truman. Graham’s great friendship with Nixon disappeared with the publicity of the Watergate scandal.

▪  From a recorded conversation with President Nixon: “This (Jewish) stranglehold has got to be broken or this country’s going down the drain. … If you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something. … A lot of Jews are great friends of mine. They swarm around me and are friendly to me, because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth, but they don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country, and I have no power and no way to handle them.”

▪ Martin Luther King suffered and struggled for immediate integration while Graham’s silence was broken only by his pleas for “slow and gradual progress while not breaking the peace.” I can find no picture of Graham marching against segregation.

▪ Graham ignored encouragement for him to speak against the Vietnam War, leaving Martin Luther King Jr. to suffer the wrath of J. Edgar Hoover alone.

▪  “I believe it is vitally important that we cast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel. I urge you to vote for those who protect the sanctity of life and support the biblical definition of marriage between a man and a woman. Vote for biblical values this November 6, and pray with me that America will remain one nation under God.”

▪ After Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the country in 1973, Graham said, “American people have suffered an emotional trauma that has had few parallels in our history.”

▪  “Politically neutral” Billy Graham takes a full-page ad in an Ohio newspaper to back Romney for president.

▪ Graham urges North Carolina residents (in full-page newspaper ads) to vote for a state constitutional amendment to limit marriage to be between one man and one woman.

▪ Graham has admitted to an amassed fortune of $25 million, presumably based upon donations by his less-than-wealthy flock.

▪ Graham held a critical role in the creation of the modern American South. He was a powerful figure in the transition from “the Solid South” of Democratic Party dominance to the right-wing Republican majority.

▪  Addressing what he called the “disease of sin” in America, Graham stated, “if God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

For the hundreds of thousands of Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, non-evangelical Christians and “nones” in North Carolina, this is an unnecessary pill to swallow. Time will correct this when the issues of some current social movements have been accepted as the social norm.

This statue of Billy Graham will soon suffer the familiar fate of others who stood on the wrong side of history. Its expiration date is established.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Graham monument just another statue that won’t stand test of time."