Saturday, July 22, 2006

My Mum & Billy Graham

I talked to my Mum about religion and what she believes a few days ago. She told me that she once went to see Billy Graham, with a friend. This, of course, interested me greatly, as he's one of the most famous evangelists. His ex-colleague Charles Templeton features in the apologetics book I was reading recently.

At a certain point in the service, everyone was called forward to accept God, and my Mum and her friend went forward too. She said she was moved by the moment and didn't want not to be a part of it. After that, the mission used to send her credit card sized notes containing inspiring advice or scripture, or something. I wasn't clear on what exactly it was. She said she found these unhelpful, as she said it seemed to be assumed that having had that experience, she would completely and unquestioningly believe. But she didn't. She still had a lot of questions.

Anyway, that was interesting.

From what I can gather, she isn't a Christian as such. She wants to believe in a god, but she has difficulty with the god of the Bible and the church. But when looking at a flower, she thinks there must be a god behind such beauty. She also says that she knows so many intelligent people, smarter than her, who believe, that it makes her think she must be missing something.

It continues to puzzle me why she wants the children christened, however.

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