Talk:Franklin Graham

message: It says in 1974, at the age of 22, in a hotel room, that Franklin Graham "became a Christian." I don't understand. I assume he was born a Christian (a Southern Baptist, in particular), as his father was a top Christian minister to Presidents before Franklin was born. Anyone know what's going on here? Was he adult-baptized in a hotel room? Did he have a born-again experience?--173.161.113.17 (talk) 07:27, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: "Became a Christian"

message: It certainly is notable that Graham has touted the IRS scandal of tea party type groups under the Obama regime.  Numerous media appearances and references may be cited.  I would like this section to be in the article.Wikipietime (talk) 13:36, 15 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Crusade against IRS and media campaign 

message: Is there any formal basis, like an institutional accreditation, for the "Reverend" title that this article awards to Franklin Graham?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.119.205.88 (talk) 15:44, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: What proof do you have that he is not a "Reverend"?  Anything? At all?--ML (talk) 12:47, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a legitimate question, and it is quite confusing. Graham has no theological or ministerial training whatsoever. I can also find no evidence of any ministerial experience. However, peculiar though it is within the broad scope of the Christian tradition, the Southern Baptist Convention (an American ecclesiastical body) allows individual parishes to ordain people without any prerequisites. Shocking, but true. There are claims on-line - I have no idea whether they can be substantiated - that Graham was ordained in 1982 by Grace Community Church in Tempe, Ariz. This sounds odd, however, since this doesn't sound like the name of a Southern Baptist congregation and, moreover, at this point Graham was already working for both the BGEA and Samaritan's Purse. None of the websites that claim he was "ordained" by this church (which includes the BGEA website) provide any indication that Graham was ever actually involved in active ministry at this church. All of the references to him as "Rev." or "Reverend" in this Wikipedia article (in its present form) are now only in direct quotations and in the titles of articles cited. That's probably a safe way to keep it.95.113.98.204 (talk) 13:13, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Think: Honorary doctorate (or in this case, honorary ordination). 2600:1700:71E1:6B0:0:0:0:47 (talk) 17:03, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

text: Misplaced burden of proof, ML. Oh, I see that you have been indefinitely banned for being an awful person (taking after the subject, perhaps). Not surprising, and ... good. -- Jibal (talk) 05:56, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reverend? 

message: My clarification to the article on Franklin Graham is entirely reasonable. He was born to and raised by the most prominent Christian evangelist in the world and went on to attend Christian schools. Whatever the nature of the "conversion experience" he claims to have had in 1974 when he was 22 years old, it cannot be accurately described (as was the case in the article) by saying that at that point he "became a Christian". The self-contradictory nature of these statements should be clear even to those outside our religious tradition; my rewording of the sentence makes this clear.95.113.98.204 (talk) 12:35, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Dear anon editor (95.113.98.204):  The standard to judge edits to Wikipedia is not "reasonableness", but whether the edit is notable, supported by a reliable source, and presented in neutral manner.  I reverted your edit, not because I don't think it is reasonable (your personal opinion that you expressed above might be correct and reasonable) but because it is merely your personal opinion and it is presented in POV manner.  You are new editor, I can tell by the small number of edits that you have done, so you need to look at the edit from the perspective of whether the edit you want to do is notable, supported by a reliable source, and presented in NPOV manner.  You need to provide a reliable source and you personally are not a reliable source.  Please review WP:RS to get a better understanding of what a reliable source is.  Also, when you want to discuss an edit to an article you need to make that edit on the talk page of the article, not on the talk page of an editor with whom you disagree.  This discussion needs to be read by the other editors of the article so they can input their perspective and either agree or disagree with you and me.  Also, do not engage in an edit war.--ML (talk) 12:46, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not a new editor, I've been editing Wikipedia for about 5 years: I'm just not signed-on. This is a far more neutral description of whatever Graham's "conversion experience" was when he was 22 years old. Using wording that he "became a Christian" at this point employs a specific, non-neutral point of view as well as "insider language": i.e., that of American fundamentalism. The use of "Christian" as a sectarian term within American fundamentalist circles is extremely confusing to the general public - even many within the Christian community. You may not be familiar with this if you've never engaged in the academic study of religion (and most people haven't - that's not a criticism of you), but the problem has already been raised by two editors in the discussion above on this Talk Page. This has nothing to do with your opinion or my opinion: I have no opinion about conversion to Christianity, but I can accurately describe it based on the teachings of various Christian ecclesiastical bodies and by academic study of the phenomenon. So I've changed the wording to reflect a NPOV, which means eliminating insider, sectarian language and pointing out the confusion already raised by other editors. If you're tempted to reintroduce non-NPOV wording by changing this sentence again, I suggest you first familiarize yourself with the reasons this is not allowed by taking a look at the Wikipedia:NPOV tutorial.  95.113.98.204   (talk) 13:02, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments left on my personal talk page instead of here, the Franklin Graham article talk page by 95.113.98.204

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Quote: "In the August 30, 2010 issue of the Time magazine, "Does America Hate Islam?" Graham reportedly [sic] said that Islam..."
How about an actual citation instead of a second-hand source here? How is anyone supposed to check the accuracy and context of this alleged quotation?
NicholasNotabene (talk) 04:56, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Changed cite to time.com rather than second-hand reference. No change to text.Peter Gulutzan (talk) 20:07, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Second-Hand Attribution

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I’ve found that the majority of content on Graham’s political viewpoints tab only include negative response to his comments. Ought it be better to include positive feedback from some of his quotes? (It must exist, and am willing to search myself). I find that would be a more balanced approach when wanting to describe his comments. Biaskiller45 (talk) 06:02, 22 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Support for viewpoints 

message: I put Franklin Graham#COVID vaccination into a separate section because my source didn't mention controversy.  Someone else put it into Franklin Graham#Controversies.  Should it be there? Proxima Centauri (talk) 14:38, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, i thought you did it by accident, i reverted it FMSky (talk) 14:41, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  COVID 

message: I'm not sure what the relevance of his heart condition is in the COVID section. The cited source doesn't try to make any connection between the heat condition and the vaccine and absolutely seems like it's inclusion here is just an anti-vaxxer trying to spread fear. 174.53.136.140 (talk) 19:39, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Moved to personal life. StAnselm (talk) 20:28, 5 March 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Heart condition