Skepticum

LA Times reported today the evangelist Billy Graham got his own 40,000-square-foot museum in his hometown of Charlotte, NC. Unlike others who get a museum after they die, or usually just a small display in another museum Graham got to walk through his museum and got to approve its creation, "only when he was convinced that the project would serve as a perpetual crusade — a tribute not to him but to Jesus Christ — did Graham give it his blessing."

As Graham probably didn’t give the same directions to the LA Times article, his living personality is the focus of the news. From this report it’s hard to see if the museum is focused on Jesus, Graham or Disney. Here are some quotes:

The Billy Graham Library is intensely focused on the Gospel, with dozens of video clips of Graham quoting Scripture.

Right here we see we don’t just get any gospel in the museum, but rather clips of Graham quoting Scripture.

Tourists will see several dozen artifacts from Graham’s life, including a poem written for him by rock star Bono; a medal from Queen Elizabeth; photos of him with Muhammad Ali, Johnny Cash, John F. Kennedy Jr. (After his father protested there was too much Billy Graham, Franklin took down some of the snapshots, but he couldn’t bear to strip them all.)

There are also pictures of Graham with presidents including W Bush, a stuffed cat, a lifelike-looking cow and hens clucking on a soundtrack wrap up the atmosphere:

In a calculatedly Southern drawl — the first attempt at a voice-over was deemed too Yankee — Bessie tells visitors how a young Billy Frank used to practice preaching as he milked her.

And talking about milking, the museum has a gift shop with "stacks of $12 Billy Graham ball caps and $10 stuffed cows wearing Billy Graham T-shirts."

But I digress, I started by saying Graham appears to be the focus here not Jesus. At the end of the article the win goes to Graham with 36 mentions versus Jesus who only gets 2.

Suck it Jesus, Graham is our god now!

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