Last week my daughter Evelyn and I had a very special father-daughter outing on her Sweet 16 birthday. We went to the US Capitol...to pay our respects to Billy Graham. It was tremendous. Not only was the weather picture-perfect and unusually warm for February, it was very moving to see his casket inside the Capitol Rotunda. The picture below is a screenshot from the C-SPAN coverage - That's me and her on the far left.
Why did we go? Just to be part of a historic event? Because we revered him as a church leader? No. We went to honor a humble servant of Jesus Christ, who was inspiring because he so was faithful in his calling to proclaim the Gospel to the lost souls of the world. The memorial card shown below sums up his ministry in his own words:
Last Sunday, right before the Oscars began, Fox broadcast an excellent documentary of his life, entitled Billy Graham: An Extraordinary Journey. I can't seem to get this link to work for me right now, but I hope it does for some of you, because you really should watch it. To hear his booming voice again (especially in his younger years) express God's love and forgiveness and quote Scripture is thrilling to me, because I know that God's Word doesn't return void (Isaiah 55:11). I also enjoyed hearing how he desegregated his crusades in the South (and was criticized for it) and the impact his crusades in Eastern Europe had on the end of the Cold War. The Russians even invited him to a peace conference in the early-80s with intent to use him in propaganda, but God opened a door for him to speak boldly for Jesus. Again, I highly recommend it even if your intent is only for the history part of it.
In case you think I may have violated Jim's directive that any of our uncensored and diverse views and commentary had to be somewhat associated with comics. "Fear Not!" I wanted to share with you one of the Spire Christian Comics Archie books from 1973. Even Elton John was singing about "Jesus Freaks" back then. Was all of it legitimate or were people just taking up the latest fad? I'm sure there was a little bit of both, but this comic is the real deal!
This book as well as all the Spire books were written and drawn by Al Hartley. According to his wiki bio, he drew a long run of Patsy Walker issues for Marvel and was drawing a "nudie-cutie" strip for a men's magazine, when he became a Born Again Christian and decided to stop. He was able to license the use of Archie for some of his comics.
The comic consists of a series of short Archie (or his "Pals 'N Gals") focused stories with the typical Archie humor. There is also a few pages of direct evangelistic material. I started with scanning only a few pages, but I ended up scanning most of the book, because it's better to experience it yourself. Click on the pictures (AFTER THE BREAK) to be able to read it better. I apologize in advance if some of the pictures or gaps between text is a little screwy.
