A veteran North Carolina radio personality says the petition drive to create a national holiday for the late Billy Graham would be shunned by the beloved evangelist himself.
And Keith Larson, a weekday talk show host on AM 730 Radio Charlotte, says Graham's son Franklin Graham should try to put a stop to it.
"No man who would choose a plain pine box made by prison inmates as his final earthly resting place, who would choose a simple field stone for his grave marker and the words, 'Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ' — could possibly want to see his followers fawning over him as fans, petitioning government for a holiday in his name," Keith Larson of AM 730 Radio Charlotte writes in The Charlotte Observer.
"The man whom I'm sure would put a stop to all this holiday talk is, unfortunately, the man whom all this holiday talk is about."
More than 102,000 supporters of Graham have signed a petition on Change.org, asking President Donald Trump and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to create an annual day of remembrance for Graham, who died last month at the age of 99.
"Let's get a National Holiday for Billy Graham! Mr. Graham preached the Gospel to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history — nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories," the petition reads.
"Hundreds of millions more have been reached through television, video, film, and webcasts. Mr. Graham's counsel was sought by presidents, and his appeal in both the secular and religious arenas is evidenced by the wide range of groups that have honored him … Help us with our cause of setting a national holiday to remember this great man."
But Larson believes Graham — who died Feb. 21 at his home in Montreat, North Carolina and became the first private citizen since civil rights icon Rosa Parks to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol — would have none of it.
"No one would know better than Graham's own reverend son Franklin how the senior reverend would have felt about all the ceremony the past 10 days," Larson writes.
"Franklin admitted last week that Billy Graham would be embarrassed by all the focus on him, tweeting specifically that his father 'would not be comfortable with all of the attention in the Rotunda.'
"But Franklin, a few words from you could put this petition business into perspective, and to rest, right now."
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