{"id":346,"date":"2011-01-24T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T18:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html"},"modified":"2011-01-24T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T18:17:00","slug":"pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html","title":{"rendered":"Billy Graham Admits 20th Century Regrets, Pope Benedict Issues 21st Century Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aside from <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/on-roe-v-wade-anniverary-pro-life-christians-gear-up-for-2012.html\">the Roe v. Wade anniversary&nbsp;<\/a>&#8212; featuring <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/2011\/01\/finding-fresh-angles-at-march-for-life\/\">a huge anti-abortion crowd at the March for Life in Washington&nbsp;<\/a>&#8212; the top two&nbsp;religion newsmakers today each concerns an elderly white male&nbsp;Christian leader with an unexpected message: Pope Benedict (age: 83)&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/pope-calls-for-christian-presence-on-social-networking-sites\/\">issued some cautionary&nbsp;advice about social networking&nbsp;&#8212; YouTube, Facebook, blogging, etc. &#8212;&nbsp;<\/a>while the Rev. Billy Graham (age: 92) reflected on the past&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2011\/januaryweb-only\/qabillygraham.html?start=2\">in an interview with <em>Christianity Today<\/em>,<\/a> including what he should have done differently:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;d spend more time at home with my family, and I&#8217;d study more and preach less. I wouldn&#8217;t have taken so many speaking engagements, including some of the things I did over the years that I probably didn&#8217;t really need to do &#8212; weddings and funerals and building dedications, things like that. Whenever I counsel someone who feels called to be an evangelist, I always urge them to guard their time and not feel like they have to do everything.<\/p>\n<p>I also would have steered clear of politics. I&#8217;m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn&#8217;t do that now.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Politics Daily and USA Today have more on the Billy Graham interview, and you can check out the AP and Reuters for more on the pope&#8217;s message for the Catholic Church&#8217;s World Day of Social Communications:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.politicsdaily.com\/2011\/01\/24\/billy-grahams-regret-i-would-have-steered-clear-of-politics\/\">Billy Graham&#8217;s Regret:&nbsp;&#8216;I Would Have Steered Clear of Politics&#8217; <\/a>(Politics Daily)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/rssfeeds.usatoday.com\/~r\/Religion-TopStories\/~3\/VaLaNfnJnlw\/1\">What&#8217;s Good About Old Age? Ask Billy Graham <\/a>(USA Today)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/rssfeeds.usatoday.com\/~r\/Religion-TopStories\/~3\/rrxAh1ZeUyk\/2011-01-24-pope-facebook-blogs-24_ST_N.htm\">Pope to Catholics Online: It&#8217;s Not Just About Hits <\/a>(AP)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/nm\/20110124\/lf_nm_life\/us_pope_facebook\">Pope Warns of Alienation Risk In Social Networks <\/a>(Reuters)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aside from the Roe v. Wade anniversary&nbsp;&#8212; featuring a huge anti-abortion crowd at the March for Life in Washington&nbsp;&#8212; the top two&nbsp;religion newsmakers today each concerns an elderly white male&nbsp;Christian leader with an unexpected message: Pope Benedict (age: 83)&nbsp;issued some cautionary&nbsp;advice about social networking&nbsp;&#8212; YouTube, Facebook, blogging, etc. &#8212;&nbsp;while the Rev. Billy Graham (age: 92)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Billy Graham Admits 20th Century Regrets, Pope Benedict Issues 21st Century Warning - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Billy Graham Admits 20th Century Regrets, Pope Benedict Issues 21st Century Warning - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aside from the Roe v. Wade anniversary&nbsp;&#8212; featuring a huge anti-abortion crowd at the March for Life in Washington&nbsp;&#8212; the top two&nbsp;religion newsmakers today each concerns an elderly white male&nbsp;Christian leader with an unexpected message: Pope Benedict (age: 83)&nbsp;issued some cautionary&nbsp;advice about social networking&nbsp;&#8212; YouTube, Facebook, blogging, etc. &#8212;&nbsp;while the Rev. 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Wade anniversary&nbsp;&#8212; featuring a huge anti-abortion crowd at the March for Life in Washington&nbsp;&#8212; the top two&nbsp;religion newsmakers today each concerns an elderly white male&nbsp;Christian leader with an unexpected message: Pope Benedict (age: 83)&nbsp;issued some cautionary&nbsp;advice about social networking&nbsp;&#8212; YouTube, Facebook, blogging, etc. &#8212;&nbsp;while the Rev. Billy Graham (age: 92)&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2011-01-24T18:17:00+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html","name":"Billy Graham Admits 20th Century Regrets, Pope Benedict Issues 21st Century Warning - Belief Beat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-24T18:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-01-24T18:17:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/01\/pope-benedict-warns-bloggers-billy-graham-reflects-on-political-past.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Billy Graham Admits 20th Century Regrets, Pope Benedict Issues 21st Century Warning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/","name":"Belief Beat","description":"BeliefBeat - Nicole Neroulias","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/42dac2ebd149a02dfe91f0f93e36761b","name":"Nicole Neroulias","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/caf\/caf1ad99f5fc2a063b8e935cf82f65fdx96.jpg","caption":"Nicole Neroulias"},"description":"Nicole Neroulias is a correspondent for Religion News Service, a secular news and photo service devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. 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