Yesterday, we lost a good anchor of Fox news and this is my thought on this subject

8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Ephesians 5:8-10

 What happened to Fox news anchor Bill O'Reilly needs to be put into proper context. Over the course of many years, money was paid out to many women whose claims were that he sexually harassed them and destroyed their careers in the process. If this were not so, then legal counsel would have stood by him and those rumors eventually disappearing.

 What happened to O'Reilly wasn't something that just happened. It started out as a simple thought, a thought that objectified woman, not as a person created by God, but as an object created for a satisfaction of men.

In 1949, after a full day of ministry, Reverend Billy Graham returned to his hotel room to find a naked woman in his room. Rather than yield to the temptation of lust, he fled and from that night he self-imposed a rule, now commonly referred to as the Billy Graham rule, that basically said that he would never be alone with an unmarried woman. 

I believe most men develop trouble in this area when they do not develop accountability in their life. I know someone at work whose husband has met with several other men over the course of several decades for prayer, recitation of memory verses along with their struggles with life. In turn, those men held each of their marriages up to the Lord asking Him to keep their love for their wives strong and temptation at bay. 

Evangelist Billy Graham had a policy to never be in the same room alone with a woman or eat out with a woman.  He did this because of his love for his wife, Ruth Graham. He knew the power of sin and didn't  want to have to answer to the questions of impropriety and have his reputation destroyed.

If we could rewind the tape of Bill O'Reilly's life and asked if he had the same policy that  Reverend Billy Graham had when traveling for business, whether those incidents might not have occurred.  Unfortunately, most married men fail to see how vulnerable they really are in the face of sin when they momentarily let their guard down and justify that dinner with a female business/ministry associate as  'just friends enjoying a meal'. 

Vice President Mike Pence once again brought to light the Billy Graham rule.

Vice President Mike Pence did it the right way when like Reverend Billy Graham, allowed himself to be accountable.  He, like Reverend Graham, never eats or travels alone with an unmarried woman.  http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865676774/Why-won7t-Mike-Pence-eat-alone-with-a-woman-who-is-not-his-wife.html

As men, we need to examine our hearts and consider implementing the 'Billy Graham' rule as a safeguard for our marriages. I would suspect if someone had taken Bill O'Reilly aside and brought him into a men's accountability group where they would study scripture and hold each other accountable that none of what we read in the press this week would have happened.


I found this 1996 Promise Keeper's video that features Ravi Zacharias as he urges men to pursue the call to holiness and does it teaching us from the book of Daniel.

We must pray for Bill O'Reilly that God will transform his life so that, one day, his voice may be heard again.