Billy Graham in hospital for intestinal bleeding

[mcscajun]

Source: CNN

The Rev. Billy Graham, the 88-year-old legendary Christian evangelist, was hospitalized in North Carolina early Saturday for evaluation and treatment of intestinal bleeding.

He was admitted to the Mission Health and Hospitals in Asheville, North Carolina, near his home in Montreat, and is listed in fair condition, a hospital spokesman said in a written statement.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/18/Graham.illness/

[elfin]

1. God's Will

as the fundies might say. Wants to go to Ruth and will leave his crazy son with all the money and power.

A shame -- want him to speak strongly against the fundies like his son before he crosses over -- but fear he will not.

[countmyvote4real]

10. Perfect summary.

God wants me to die, God wants to test me, God who? I want to be with my lifelong now dead companion.

As if...

I am no longer a believer in the Christian afterlife since I've seen how they've bungled their attempts in real time. Still, I wish him well.

[Solar_Power]

16. Umm, he has no money

[Faygo Kid]

2. It's close now. Ike warned us at the end; Billy won't get that chance. His fault.

Billy Graham is an American enigma; at least he recognizes that he was used by Nixon. But he doesn't admit that he was even more used by the Bush family, even though he may recognize it now at the end. Too late, though, and he takes that to his grave as a significant part of his legacy. Too bad. For all of us. Bushes win again.

[loves_dulcinea]

6. even if he did see it and admitted it,

the administration would dismiss it as the rambling of dementia. they have no shame at all.

[jody]

3. One of Graham's greatest failures is not teaching Dubya the true message of Christ. Of course

Graham didn't have much of a student with whom to work.

[candice]

4. I sat a few feet from Billy Graham when I was a teenager...he came to a Leadership Camp

held at the old Black Mountain College (I discovered that later). It was located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near where Graham lived. Although I had already had my "crisis of faith" (more aimed at organized religion), I was mesmerized by Rev. Graham. He had incredible charisma and spoke very eloquently. Afterward, I expected him to ask us to come forward and confess our sins and be cleaned in the "blood of the lamb," but all he asked was for us to raise our hand if we had been moved in any way. I thrust my hand upward. I've always had a soft spot for the Rev. after that experience. BTW, it was a somewhat religious camp, and I had forged my letter of recommendation from a preacher on the other side of town whose name I saw on the church sign. That way, no one I knew who was a true believer would think that I didn't attend church. We had moved from L.A. to the Bible Belt, and was it ever religious be-jesus on the surface. Lots of blatant hypocrites, however.

These aren't people who would want the poor among them to have the chance to see a doctor if it came out of their tax money, alas.

[cutlassmama]

5. The article said it's not life-threatening eom

[baldguy]

21. When you're over 80, everything is life-threatening.

[goddess40]

7. PLEASE - if he dies can we at DU not go nuts over it

the admiration over the charlatan Tammy Faye made me crazy Yes she seemed like a nice lady but she did rip off thousands of people that could not afford to give to two millionaires. Just because someone famous dies doesn't mean they need any kind of tribute. If it's someone who really made a contribution to better the world it's one thing but just to go loopy over someone because they were famous is another.

I know I'm wasting my time but I wanted to say it before the next celebrity died. Great people die everyday, we just don't know them personally but their families and friends feel the real pain and fawning and sending well wishes about someone we don't know personally seems to cheapen the real moments.

[Bake]

18. At the same time, can we also avoid dancing on his grave?

There are plenty of BG-bashers here. I'm not one of them. I have admired BG for decades, although I recognize that he, like the rest of us, is far from perfect.

So I'll agree to hold off on the lionization so long as my colleagues hold off on the demonization.

Bake

[MissMillie]

22. This guy was one of the good ones

yeah, he raised money, but he lived modestly and put that money to use the way he proposed it would be used. He didn't defraud anyone.

And he was a dear friend of the Carters.

If there ever was a decent televangelist, it was Billy Graham.

Didn't he just lose his wife recently?

[TwilightGardener]

8. Old widowers just don't last long after their wives die. I've seen this over and over again.

He's going to go downhill in a hurry, sadly.

[goddess40]

9. They said that about my grandfather and he lived for 30 more years

too mean to die

[Drunken Irishman]

14. My grandma was in near perfect health when my gramps died. She died a year and half later.

:(

He died in March '02, she started having major health problems in November of '02. Found out her heart had a hole in it and she needed surgery. She lived for about a year after before dying in the hospital after she had finally forgiven my grandpa for leaving her.

[daleo]

17. It's not very surprising, from a demographic point of view

Men usually marry women about two years younger than themselves, and man usually live about 5 or 6 years less than women. So, it makes sense that older widowers wouldn't outlive their wives for long.

[krispos42]

20. My grandfather died two months after my grandmother

55 years of marriage...

[mitchum]

11. Time draws short for a very valuable henchman of the plutocracy

[zanne]

12. I thought he died a couple of years ago.

There was alot of press about him a little while ago. What was that all about?

[mcscajun]

13. His wife died in June, and some time ago, he handed over control

of his ministry to his son. Apart from that, I don't know. I generally don't pay too much attention to preachers of any stripe. :shrug:

[Xenotime]

15. Just let it out...

I know most of you are ready to come down hard on him.

[MnFats]

19. at least he didn't weep and beg for money.

Sure, he was a shill for GOP presidents like the evil nixon and reagan but....

his sermons were mostly "try to be like Jesus."

off the stage, he did say a lot of stuff that was problematic, including the tape recorded comments about Jews in Nixon's wiretapped oval office...