The Practicing Progressive

Issue 24
June 4, 2007

One approaches even a semi-respectful critique of the life and work of Billy Graham with more than a little trepidation and a healthy heaping of hubristic self-awareness. Nevertheless, the opening of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina this past week does provide an invitation for reflection on the legacy of America’s most famous preacher.

You may have seen the photo of, according to most polls, the most admired man in America, standing in front of his new library, flanked by three ex-presidents and his son, Franklin. Billy himself looks strikingly weak and must use a walker to aid his mobility. 88 years have taken their toll on this once impressively vigorous preacher. The New York Times reported that a number of laudatory speeches were made including the keynote address given by President George H.W. Bush who stifled a sob as he praised Graham as “the humble farmer’s son who changed the world.”

Certainly a case can be made that Billy Graham had more of an effect on the shape of American Christianity than any other religious contemporary, including the plethora of popes who reigned during Graham’s working years. I suspect that some of you will remember your own experience at a Billy Graham Rally when, after an hour or two of arousing hymn-singing, emotional praying and convictive preaching, the invitation was made to turn your life over to Jesus, the only savior of the world, and be born again.

And so you did, as did I…along with all the members of my Luther League youth group. While “Just As I Am” was played repeatedly over the public address system, we went down to the stadium floor that warm Los Angeles night and knelt before a gently smiling volunteer. Hands were laid upon our heads, prayers were invoked, a small tract on eternal salvation was shared and we returned to our seats convinced that our lives were irrevocably changed.

Adolescence is a temporary condition, of course, and our fervor waned, replaced with a piety seasoned by the ambiguities of passing time and acquired reason. For millions of others, however, a kind of spiritual adolescence remains. Easy answers to complicated questions continue to be welcomed today just as they were by those voluminous crowds who filled the arenas and stadiums for The Rev. Billy.

His message remained fundamentally unchanged over his tenure, altered only with a timely anecdote or poignant testimony of one more sinner saved from the fires of hell. Graham’s God is deeply disappointed in His creation offering one final solution to the problem of sin’s hold on humanity: “This is what Jesus Christ did for you. You and I are guilty before God, but Christ paid the penalty for our sins by dying in our place. And now our sins can be completely forgiven—all of them. The Bible says, "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:5). Ask Christ to come into your life today, and trust Him alone for your salvation. Then thank God for forgiving you of all your sins.”

The theme, of course, wasn’t new. But Graham honed it in a manner that made sense to the masses. Just as the Apostle Paul before him, Graham spent little sermonic time on the life and teachings of Jesus. It was the gruesome, bloody death of the only son of God that captured the imagination of this preacher. (Mel Gibson’s recent entry into religious filmmaking was a highly successful, if theologically repugnant, cinematic extension of Graham’s recurring message.) Over and over again, Graham focused his considerable oratorical skill not on the physical needs of this world but the promised rewards in the next. He claimed to be removed from politics but there hasn’t been a president in the last 50 years Graham couldn’t count as a devotee. His commiserating with Nixon, secretly taped, over their shared perception of the “stranglehold” the Jews had over the media was an embarrassment that only his enormous popularity allowed him to weather. The bigoted remark left many wondering whether it revealed the vestiges of a Southern upbringing or the inherent anti-Semitism of Evangelical Christianity. By and large, however, he successfully remained aloof from political issues. Many found this laudable. Some of us see it as a profoundly sad shirking of Christian responsibility.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is to be applauded for its extensive charitable activities although, quite frankly, a considerable amount of financial resources seem to be spent on simply perpetuating the association, as a quick perusal of the BGEA website will make disturbingly clear.

Billy Graham’s fragile condition and dramatic decline is a poignant reminder to all of us that even the powerful must one day forego their prestige and privilege and join the incalculable crowd who has gone before us. Despite his failing health, Graham appears certain, and certainly proclaims, an even better world awaits all those who agree with him.

The certainty of Graham’s religious convictions is impressive to be sure but being certain should never be confused with being correct. One can’t help but wonder how different the world would be now if Graham’s considerable skills and enormous resources would have been employed less as a disciple of Paul and more of a disciple of Jesus.