Anne Graham - Lotz

Billy Graham's daughter was being interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her: "How could God let something like this happen?"

And Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said

"I believe that God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?"

I know there's been a lot of emails going around in regards to 9/11/01, but this really makes you think.  If you don't have time, at least skim through it, but the bottom line is something to think about....In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.

Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body was found recently) complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school...  the Bible that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself.
 And we said, OK.

Then, Dr.  Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr.  Spock's son committed suicide.) And we said, an expert should know what he's talking about so we said OK.

Then, someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave.  And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (There's big difference between disciplining and touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.) And we said, OK.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents.  And we said, OK.

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school.  And we said, OK.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs.  And agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.

And then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said, OK.

And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then stepped further still by making them available on the internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to their free speech.

And then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex.  And let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.

I think it has a great deal to do with
"WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." 

Author:

The daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham, Anne Graham Lotz has just completed "Heaven: My Father's House." Written in consideration of the events of September 11, the book examines concepts such as death, suicide, heaven and hell from a biblical perspective. Lotz is president and executive director of Angel Ministries, a non-profit ministry organization that produces "Just Give Me Jesus" revivals across the United States. The book, "Just Give Me Jesus," has been a best-seller since its 2000 release. Graham Lotz joined the CNN.com chat room from New York.