Frank Shaeffer, the bête noire of the Evangelical Right, does a good interview with Becky Garrison. (I don't spend a lot of time at Sojourners, I confess, but Becky is always worth reading.) I tweeted an edited version of this quote earlier today,
Personality cults with no accountability and no tradition and no structure to fall back on when the “Dear Leader” dies, or is found to have “fallen” — whatever — are no better than the men and women they’re built on. The “something bigger” you thought you joined just turns out to just be some guy named Rick, or maybe Franklin Graham.
I doubt Frank was referring to this, as the news had yet to spread, but it is interesting that he makes the above statement when it has been revealed that Franklin Graham made over a million dollars in income last year. Accountability indeed.
Apparently as of late last Friday, Graham has told the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association that "he wants to give up his pay as head of" the BGEA. He'll try to live on the $535,000 salary (as paid in 2008) from Samaritan's Purse. (There must be a lot of coins in that purse, eh.)
BTW - I'll probably be ordering Frank Shaeffer's new book, Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Lke Religion (or Atheism). It looks like both a good and important read.
