God: The ultimate deadbeat dad

Unsurprisingly, Billy Graham's letter this Sunday is Father's Day related. Even less surprising is how terrible his answer is...

Reach out to your children this Father's Day

DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: I know I wasn’t a very good father, but I’m an old man now and I really wish I could see my children again. I’ve begged them to forgive me, but they just ignore me. I don’t know why I’m writing, but maybe you can urge fathers to do better than I did. — B.W.

DEAR B.W.: Today, Americans will be celebrating Father’s Day, a special day set aside to honor our fathers and thank God for all they have meant to us. Being a good father isn’t easy, but almost nothing is more important, when we see it from God’s viewpoint.

If you could live your life over again you’d probably try to avoid the bad decisions you made, and you’d try to be a better father. And that’s one reason I wanted to reprint your letter, because it reminds us of what happens when fathers ignore their God-given responsibility to “Train a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6). God is our heavenly father, and he is our example of what it means to love and care for our children.

What can you do? First, seek God’s forgiveness for the past — not just for the wrongs you did, but also for the good things you failed to do. God loves you (as well as your children), and the greatest discovery you’ll ever make is that he loves you so much he sent his son into the world to die for you. By a simple prayer of faith confess your sins to God and ask Christ to cleanse you and come into your life.

Then do whatever you can this Father’s Day to let your children know you still love them, in spite of your failures. Pray for them also, that God will bring healing to their hurts and help them forgive the past.

Now, I don't know the details of the kind of dad that BW was and is, but the pact that he doesn't seem to be serving a life sentence in prison suggests that he's a better dad than the example set by God in the Bible. But I'll get back to that in a bit...


What the hell is Graham on about? I can tell you that wen I (and most) celebrate Father's Day, it is not to thank God fro what my father means to me, but to thank my father for what he means to me. Why on Earth would someone thank someone who doesn't exist, and if he did, had sod-all to do with what kind of dad my dad was and is? I guess you could thank God if your dad was an overbearing religious follower that shoved the Bible down your neck at every turn... But that definitely wouldn't be something to be thankful for. So instead, I'll thank my dad for being the great dad he's was and continues to be.


But then 'bad news Bill', give the same horrible advice he gave on Mother's Day... Follow God's example of parenthood! How about no... I'm not a horrible individual, and would like to stay that way. Let's look at what kind of god the dear old sky daddy is.


Well, first he tells you from the moment that you are born, that you are a terrible person deserving of eternal torment and anguish. Does that sound like a loving parent? How many dads do you see that start yelling obscenities at their newborn child the moment the moment that leave their mother's womb? None... so the vast majority of parents are better than God right there!

What about children loving a parent? Typically, love is reciprocal to some degree. Not so with the Christian god. You must love him no matter what. May I ask if your father threatens  you to love him? I know mine doesn't! I love him (and my mother) for who they are and how they've raised me. They provided for me, cared for me, helped me and yes, even disciplined me. But never did they hang horrible penalty above my head like God supposedly does...

If a child doesn't love their father back (be it the father's fault or the child's), they simply lose that relationship. They could have a strained relationship, fight at times, or just not communicate or see each other at all. But God takes to about five-thousand steps further... If you don't love him back (a poor choice of words since it doesn't seem like he loves anyone but himself), he doesn't simply get sad and wish you could make up. No, he sentences you to a fate worse than death. Don't love him and he casts you into eternal fire to burn forever in agony and never-ending torture. Where is the love there?

What would you think if a man kidnapped his child, locked him in his basement and proceeded burn him with cigarettes, electric shocks, break his fingers one at a time, pummel him with his fists, etc? Then wait for him to heal and regain his strength only so he can start the circle of torture once more. And he did all of this because his child didn't love him. What should become of this terribly psychotic father? You'd probably want him locked up for life, and even put to death! Yet that is exactly the fatherly example that God sets. Love me or will wish you had. But the thing is, parents that love their children would never purposely put them through such harm. If you love someone, you don't want to cause them pain, regardless of if they feel the same. Yet God is ready and willing to torture each and every single person that is born. Translation... God doesn't really love anyone.

And then what about Jesus. We are told that God sacrificed his only son for us. But is that really a good story to illustrate an example of fatherhood to strive for? Of course not. He sent his son to die for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Jesus didn't have to die (if the stories were true)! If God wanted to forgive the worthy, he could, you know... just forgive them. I know, talk about a complicated proposition. You want to forgive people, you know who is worthy, so you forgive them without a meaningless hurdle that will only cause less of the worthy to be forgiven, and more of the unworthy to be forgiven. Jesus' death and suffering would have been meaningless, and God would have known this if he really is all knowing.

It would be like you told you grandmother that her cooking was disgusting, and she was outraged by this statement. She loves you though, so she wants to forgive you, BUT there's a catch! She tells you that she's going to send her first son (your uncle) to his death for your insult. If you accept this sacrifice she will forgive you and your hurtful words. Would any sane person make such and insane

offer? And who would be twisted enough to accept it? Yet this is the sick offer that Christian's the world over gladly accept, and pronounce to be a grand loving gesture. It is not! It is a unnecessary and barbaric story created by barbaric people.

So this father's day, and hereafter, do not follow God's example of parenting, and instead be a good parent. Love your children for who they are, and don't try to force them to be something different than they are. And don't try to force love. Forced and demanded love is not love at all. Genuinely thank you dad for his genuine love for you, and if you want to thank a creator,  thank your parents, because without them, there would be no you.

-Brain Hulk

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