11/10/07

Times Review: Do you believe in God?

Peter Steinfels is at it again. He's reviewing a book that surveys celebrities about their beliefs.
Beliefs
Q. Do You Believe in God? A. Yes, No and Well . . .
Published: November 10, 2007

Do you believe in God? What will happen to you at death? Do you pray? Do you think religious believers are deluded?

Many people would hesitate to raise these questions at dinner. Antonio Monda, on the other hand, has been posing them for several years to cultural eminences like Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Daniel Libeskind, Derek Walcott, Spike Lee, Jonathan Franzen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese. more...

One celebrity feller who professed a lot of belief was Billy Graham. His legacy has now been condensed into a Museum Review.
At Billy Graham Library, Man and Message Are One and the Same

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN
Published: November 10, 2007

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When the Billy Graham Library opened here last spring, its 88-year-old namesake, who had preached the Gospel to more than 210 million people on six continents, who had prayed in the Oval Office with 11 consecutive presidents and who had brought evangelical Christianity into the heart of American political life, had one main complaint: “It was too much Billy Graham.”

He had envisioned the $27 million library, with its 40,000-square-foot exhibition space, as an extension of his ministry, whose purpose was “to please the Lord and to honor Jesus, not to see me or to think of me.”

But one of the unusual things about both this place and Mr. Graham’s ministry is that it is impossible to think of either without thinking of the man behind them. That may even be their greatest strength, though it also raises other questions. more...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I usually don't think of "celebrity" and "famous clergyman" in the same sentence.