Billy Graham died today, aged 99. He was a great preacher and a great basher of Bibles, and so it seems appropriate to open up the Good Book and share a verse. Such as:
‘Solomon slept with his ancestors… and his son Rehoboam succeeded him’ (1 Kings 11:43).
Billy G had things in common with King Solomon. He had something of Solomon’s wisdom, with his outward-facing evangelicalism, but he got into bed with Nixon like Solomon did with his 300 concubines, and said some foolish things on the phone to him.
Meanwhile, there’s something depressingly Rehoboam-like about Franklin, Billy’s son, who campaigned for Trump, spreads hatred about Islam, inherited his father’s faded empire, and lives like a tinpot monarch. Rehoboam was the divisive king with the catchphrase, ‘My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions’ (1 Kings 12:11).
The crown has been passed on, but it’s tarnished.
It’s all very Old Testament. And not in a good way.
Lead us not into augmentation