"And what of Christian ministers and leaders who are not off the charts? What shame shall they claim for remaining moot when Jesus is used as a political football?"
Well, Billy Graham has been criticized by both sides over the years for not getting involved in many political issues. His comment always was that he only preaches Jesus. He ministered to presidents form both sides of the isle.
Is he to whom you are referring?
I refer to everybody wearing a collar (visible or otherwise) who is not drunk with politics, including, I guess, Billy.
I myself cannot remember hearing this criticism of Billy, but then most of what I did hear came from the msm, and not church organizations. The msm, though, always seemed to refer to Billy's eschewing of party politics in a favorable way. I think in his last days, especially when he acknowledged that he was a close friend to Nixon (close as one could be a friend to that Dick), he tipped his hat to the Right.
It may be simply indemnic to the South and Republican mindset, though, that top-dog Baptists gain the stature to associate with the big money in the South. Even when large parts of the South were Democratic, the Southern rich always had a Republican mindset.
As you know in the Southern Baptist churches, the well-to-do occupy the front pews, and in fact one can recognize the monied stature of the congregations simply by panning over all the pews, front to back. I do not know if I can google up a backing for this statement (doubtful, in fact, since religion has always enjoyed that special priveledge of escaping the general criticism that everybody else is subject to.) But I have heard over the years many Baptists talking about who sat where. Money was the qualifier in every instance.
The same could not be said about Billy's boy, though. He is an opportunist of the first degree, and caters to the far Right. The essential difference between Billy and his son may well reflect what changes have been made in the quality and credibility of the characters of fathers and sons over this last generation in America. One can see the difference between Billy and son much like one can see the difference between Herbert Walker and his shallow son George.
