Billy Graham as Saint *AND* Sinner

Reverend Billy Graham died on Thursday, February 22 at age 99.

Most of the articles about his passing were laudatory, but there were a few that excoriated Graham for charges ranging from misogyny (for his "never eating along with a woman other than his wife" rule) to anti-semitism (for failing to chastise Richard Nixon for comments about Jewish leaders) to prejudice against same-sex couples (for standing against marriage equality).

It was easy to dismiss most of these criticisms as out of touch with history and/or an attempt to use a good man's death to grab pageviews and advertiser dollars.  But the more I thought about them, the more annoyed I became at the attempts to tarnish a good man's name without allowing family, friends, and admirers time to mourn.

Then, while sitting in church on Sunday, God began to work on my heart.  "What is wrong with noting the failings of a Christian who has died?" He asked. "My word is unflinching when presenting the failings of my people.  Moses was unforgiving and guilty of manslaughter, David was an adulterer and a murderer, Jonah had no compassion, Peter was violent, and Paul was a political extremist who demanded the death of his enemies.  Even the relatively modern saints you know are deeply flawed.  Martin Luther was an anti-semite and John Calvin was a tyrant.  Only Jesus was without sin so that he could die for all who did."

The thing is, Billy Graham wouldn't have minded his sins being made public.  He was very clear in his sermons that all have sinned.  That we are creatures of sin.  And that apart from God, we are doomed to remain in our sin forever.  He taught that we need Jesus to find forgiveness in God, and that seeking forgiveness is not a one-time thing but a lifestyle.  He taught that we will fail and we will be wrong in our lives - just as God says in the Bible.  That is exactly why we need a Savior.   Every day.

So go ahead and list the sins of Billy Graham.  That doesn't tarnish or reduce this man of God.  It reminds us of the very lesson he most wanted to preach - We are all sinners in need of the grace of God.  And Jesus Christ offers that grace free to all.  Amen.

How do we respond to the death of OBL?

The day after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, I was surprised and saddened to see just how many people not only took no joy in the news - but actually took it upon themselves to condemn anyone who viewed his death as good news. Some were simply killjoys - people who took great pleasure in robbing others of happiness - but some were truly thoughtful people struggling with the situation. Religious leaders were equally split this weekend, as they tried to teach their congregants how to react to death of this mass-murderer.

My own read is simple. It is appropriate to rejoice in justice done - especially for those of us in the NYC area who were closest to 9/11 and knew those who died. But it is also appropriate to mourn at the necessity of killing, and at the fact that he will now never have a chance to repent.

Palm steps up to the gallows

We all knew it was coming. The Palm Pre - while a stunning entry into the smartphone market - could not compete with the twin juggernauts of the Apple iPhone and Google Android. Palm, Inc. simply could not reverse a decade of complacency with a single great product. Now, the venerable father of the successful PDA is up for sale. Apple got there first with the Newton, but Palm put millions of PDAs into the hands of businessmen and changed portable computing. They will be missed.

Rumored buyers include HTC (maker of smartphones), Motorola, Nokia, and Apple.

Why was Death Counselling a bad idea in Health Reform?

Sarah Palin struck a nerve by claiming that the Democratic Health Reform bills contained provision for (or would inevitably lead to) "Death Panels" deciding who would live and who would die? After much back and forth, it was revealed that it was the "death counseling" portion of the bill that triggered this accusation. Many advocates claim such end-of-life planning is critical, while others claim it is merely an excuse to end the lives of the helpless.

Charles Krauthammer has posted one of the more reasoned and thoughtful pieces on the subject. It reminds us that health care decisions are NOT private things, but rather collective decisions made by both us and those who love us.

My own living will, which I have always considered more a literary than legal document, basically says: "I've had some good innings, thank you. If I have anything so much as a hangnail, pull the plug." I've never taken it terribly seriously because unless I'm comatose or demented, they're going to ask me at the time whether or not I want to be resuscitated if I go into cardiac arrest. The paper I signed years ago will mean nothing.

And if I'm totally out of it, my family will decide, with little or no reference to my living will. Why? I'll give you an example. When my father was dying, my mother and brother and I had to decide how much treatment to pursue. What was a better way to ascertain my father's wishes: What he checked off on a form one fine summer's day years before being stricken; or what we, who had known him intimately for decades, thought he would want? The answer is obvious.

Except for the demented orphan, the living will is quite beside the point.

World's Oldest Mother Dies. (I'm Shocked!)

A Spanish women who lied to doctors to get an in vitro fertilization procedure done has died 2 years after giving birth to her twin boys. She was 69 when she died. Every few years we have someone break this record of "Oldest Mother". When will people stop being selfish. Even if these boys have a loving extended family to raise them, they will miss their mother. Some of us lost a parent who died at a "young " age. That is hard enough.

Broadcasting Assisted Suicide

While apparently, this already aired, I had not heard of it other than this article. Craig Ewert went to Switzerland in order to have an assisted suicide where it was recorded and was then shown later on British TV. Eerily reminds me of a comment "Nick" made a number of years ago wondering when we'll be so depraved as to have Colosseum type games on TV.

Biscuit Houdini Chesner: 1995 - 2008

You will be sorely missed. You brought much joy and love to our lives.

R.I.P Paul Newman

Paul Newman has died at the age of 83 from cancer. A great actor and loved by his community.

Note: The fourth to last paragraph has a quote with a little bit of language.

R.I.P. George Carlin

I was never a big fan, but understand the importance of his work. And learning of him later in life thru younger comedians, I have been amazed at his kind and generous spirit. The world will miss George Carlin. And I suspect several generations of comedy will mourn a mentor and a role model.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

Carlin constantly pushed the envelope with his jokes, particularly with the "Seven Words" routine. When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace.

Mod-Blog Mourns with the Kucinich Family

We here at Mod-Blog are not big fans of Dennis Kucinich as a presidential candidate. He is to be lauded for being philosophically pure, but his views clash with most of our posters and commenters. But now is a time to quiet such thoughts, and to simply express our sympathies and prayers to the Kucinich family, because his brother, Perry Kucinich was found dead today in his home.

Perry Kucinich, brother of U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, was found dead Wednesday morning at his east-side home.
Perry Kucinich was found face down by another brother, Larry Kucinich, at about 9 a.m.
Larry Kucinich had taken his brother shopping Tuesday and then took him home but couldn't get an answer when he tried calling him Wednesday, said Powell Caesar, spokesman for the coroner.
Perry Kucinich was an artist and some of his works have been on display at a local art gallery.

An autopsy has not yet been done, but there are no indications of foul play.

Death and Medicine

I have been fortunate to not lose too many people close to me to death (two of my four grandparents died before I was born). An article on Wired talks about preliminary research into drugs that could stop age related diseases. The downside? In the lab animal tests the animal still died around the age they would have. The difference is that there is no cause of death that they can pinpoint it too. The question posed by the author is, how would this change our life knowing that there would be no signs of coming death? I'm somewhat torn on this... on the one hand, it would be nice to not have people suffer. On the other hand, in my limited experience with dealing with the death of loved ones, I would think that having some warning is easier than no warning at all. One commenter brings up another issue... if there are no signs of death, we couldn't allow those past a certain age to do anything dangerous such as driving. What do other Mod-Bloggers think... if available (and side-effects were minimal to none), would you take the drugs? Would you want your loved ones taking the drugs?

Warning: I have not watched the videos with the article. They appear to be clips of movies, but I do not know if they are family friendly or not.

Both profound and profundly disturbing

VT and the Deaths of our Soldiers

This article is being sensationalized by some in the Press as an attack by a soldier on the memory of those who died at Virginia Tech. But if you read the article in depth, it is really questioning whether we have become inured to the deaths of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The whole nation stops for the deaths of the victims at VT - and rightly so - but it barely shrugs when roadside bombs or suicide bombers or insurgent attacks claim the same number of lives. Of course, soldiers choose a life which faces death, while college students do not. But maybe we do need to be a little more mindful even so.