God will be attending the Olympics

[grammafreddy]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... ouver.html

Christian teams gear up for Olympic outreach

Billy Graham rapid response teams are among dozens of outreach efforts that Metro Vancouver's Christian groups are putting together for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The volunteer teams organized by followers of the U.S. evangelist aim to provide support to people in crisis when the Games open in Vancouver and Whistler in February, says Abbotsford-based co-ordinator Melanie Neufeld.

"We just want to be on the ground, ready to deploy, should something happen," Neufeld said.

The volunteers have undergone a training regimen called His Presence in Crisis, to help others deal with everything from accidents to fights to stressed-out spectators, she said.

"We see ourselves as vessels that God can use, whether that's verbal or just in the ministry of presence … just being there and being available."

Billy Graham's rapid response chaplains previously have been deployed to natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, and to tragedies such as mass shootings in big cities around the world, Neufeld said.

The volunteers plan to offer their support outside SkyTrain stations and other community gathering points, but they will not be looking for converts, she insisted.

"Definitely not proselytizing. We're not going to be pushing our faith on anyone or anything like that. We just want to be of support."

Offer 'radical hospitality'

Vancouver-area Christian groups plan more than a dozen public outreach efforts during the Games, according to co-ordinator Karen Reed of the Christian network More Than Gold.

"The church structure should be engaged in all of community life, and to contribute for good," she said.

The groups will practise what Reed calls radical hospitality, including hosting guests in a home-stay program, doing charity work in the Downtown Eastside and setting up warming stations to provide hot chocolate or coffee and perhaps a conversation about God at SkyTrain stations.

Reed also said they won't be looking for converts for their churches.

"Practices from 20 years ago aren't as effective today … [such as] proselytizing in ways that turns more people off than engages them," said Reed.

Instead, volunteers will hand out a glossy, pocket-sized brochure with maps of the city and other tourism information, plus profiles of athletes participating in the Games that are members of Christian groups.

The efforts are funded by member churches and private donations from Vancouver's corporate sector. More Than Gold has what Reed describes as an amiable relationship with Olympic organizers.

No official Olympic connection

Olympic Officials say the groups are not associated in any official way with the Games, but they are free to carry on their activities in public places as long as they don't break any laws.

"We are not going to have a lot of control around [what] people do, nor should we," said Taleeb Noormohamed, VANOC's director of corporate strategy and partner relations.

"If people are coming together around specific ideas and values [and] it happens to be during the Games, that's great, but it's not up to VANOC to dictate or be concerned," Noormohamed said.

But not everyone believes the Christian mission should support the Olympic dream.

Dave Diewert, an organizer with the Christian social advocacy group Streams of Justice, which works on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, says it is inappropriate for Christians to associate themselves with the Olympic juggernaut.

"It seems unthinkable to align ourselves with the massive corporate enterprise as the Olympics," Diewert told CBC News.

******************************************************************

Lordluvaduck.

Hooray! Bill Graham is gonna save the day!

That crook and his empire have amassed a fortune off the backs of the unfortunate. He makes me want to puke. So now he's going to have his armies at the Games to spread his propaganda and brainwash some more people into joining his cult.

[Glacier]

Crook? Say what you will about BG (no relation to our resident BGv666), but crook just doesn't fit. I can understand words like delusional being used, but he does strike me as an honest man that sincerely believes what he preaches.

[flamingfingers]

Crook? Say what you will about BG (no relation to our resident BGv666), but crook just doesn't fit. I can understand words like delusional being used, but he does strike me as an honest man that sincerely believes what he preaches.

Course he believes what he preaches! Honest is another matter entirely tho. Just because a man 'preaches from the pulpit' does not make him an honest man. But it may make him a fabulously rich man......

[Glacier]

Course he believes what he preaches! Honest is another matter entirely tho. Just because a man 'preaches from the pulpit' does not make him an honest man. But it may make him a fabulously rich man......

While many if not all other televangelists have gained a lot of wealth, Billy Graham has not.

[JLives]

I'd say a net worth of $4 million is pretty damn good http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/06/r ... iting.html

[westsidebud]

I'd say a net worth of $4 million is pretty damn good http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/06/r ... iting.html

lol well 1 mill gets you into heaven, the other 3 are good for trips to hell

[Glacier]

I'd say a net worth of $4 million is pretty damn good http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/06/r ... iting.html

He is not poor that is for sure, but hardly healthy by famous people/celebrity standards - especially at the age of 90.

[JLives]

No, I guess compared to people with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars he is pretty much a pauper.

[westsidebud]

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, No. 258, raised about $83-million in 2008, which was down about 5 percent from 2007.

http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/99 ... clines-pay

[Glacier]

No, I guess compared to people with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars he is pretty much a pauper.

True. Kind of like how you I will probably have 4 million in assets by the time we are 90(especially if house prices keep going up the way the do), while my boss will probably have 100 million+.

Of course, being wealthy doesn't make someone any lesser of a person.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, No. 258, raised about $83-million in 2008, which was down about 5 percent from 2007.

Yes, they raise a lot of money, but it doesn't all go into Billy Graham's pocket. Kind of like the head of World Vision, Salvation Army, Canadian Cancer Society, MS society, etc. oversee 100s of millions, but they take home maybe a million a year.

[grammafreddy]

Just think how many more people they could brainwash if they donated their 75% of their "salaries" back to their religious organizations ...

Y'know, it's one thing to be generous and compassionate and truly want to help the poor, the unfortunate, the down-trodden and the sick. It's another thing entirely when your "assistance" involves your particular religious cult and your attempts to sway people from their own beliefs to yours.

"God" has made many men rich. He has also made a lot of poor and abused people.

[StraitTalk]

No, I guess compared to people with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars he is pretty much a pauper.

I wanna be a pauper. :*(

And I was gonna post my opinion but Gramma did it for me.

[Queen K]

At ninety, where is all his 4 million going?