Print

Print


Walter--

You asked for responses.  It's hard to follow Barb on the bill, but I'd
like to add a few comments, questions and a correction.  Billy Graham
has spent decades preaching and still manages to keep a managerial hand
on his evangelical association.  He literally has his hands full (of
reports, schedules, sermon notes, etc.) with his life's work and he's
not getting any younger--or healthier.  He is the best judge of where
his waning energies will be most effective.  It seems arrogant in the
extreme to tell him to  drop what he's involved in and instead
concentrate--even for just an interview--on being a spokesperson for PD.
 As Barb says, the interview was about his religion and preaching career;
he didn't mention his favorite baseball team, his ideas on the next
presidential eledction or numerous other aspects of his life because
they also were not a propos.

For some, it is extremely stressful to talk about their PD in the early
stages. They are not in denial but neither do they choose to dwell on
it, preferring to take smaller nibbles of the "reality apple" as their
psyches can handle it.  When they become more comfortable, they are able
to speak of it without choking up (and heaven knows PWP do enough of
that).  Others deliberately choose to keep quiet because they are just
too darn busy  and determined to not let it affect their lives until
forced to.  Again, they don't deny it; they know people are aware of it,
but they choose to ignore it.

Are you actually saying that he has a moral imperative to speak out on
PD?  That he is morally wrong for keeping quiet?  When did God die and
put you in charge of such decisions?  It smacks of that old Nazi saying
that we used to quote jokingly, not realizing that it was deadly
serious: "We haf vays of  making you talk!"   Are you in favor of
thumbscrews or the rack?

Finally, Andrew Greeley is a priest of the Chicago diocese, a professor
of sociology and an author, but definitely not a Jesuit.

I'll echo Barb in emphasizing that the golden silence you heard was our
way of saying "Give it a rest and let Rev. Graham be--and also the Pope
and Janet Reno while you're at it."

Kathy Kunz