Billy Graham on New Orleans, Katrina, and Job
Graham may no longer head the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (Franklin heads it now), but he's still preaching. He recently appeared in New Orleans:
"I cannot imagine what those people have been through," Graham said during an interview with The Associated Press, a day after he was shown some of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. "This is a far greater disaster than the average American understands."...
He needed the aid of his son and others to shuffle to the pulpit — the same one he used during a 1954 revival meeting here. But once stood before the assembly, gripping the oak pulpit's sides, Graham was as generations of Christians remember him: His voice was clear and strong, he joked with the crowd and drew on biblical stories to encourage them.
He compared New Orleans to Job, the Old Testament figure who was stripped of his children and riches but refused to curse God for his undeserved suffering. Job was later given more than he lost.
"God restored him, and God is going to do that for you. I believe that," Graham said.
A disaster like Katrina, which hit Aug. 29 and broke the city's flood-control system, is a mystery, said Graham, whose own home suffered damage during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. God did not cause Katrina, he said.
Why did the storm strike? "I'll tell you the truth: I don't know. I don't know anybody who does know," he said.
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