World-renowned evangelist Billy Graham turned 99 on Tuesday. Religion News Service looks back at how he grappled with his role in advocating for the Gospel and his, at times, uneasy relationship with the world of politics…
Conservative Christian leaders have US President Donald Trump’s ear, but they are certainly not the first evangelicals to counsel the leader of the free world. The most famous evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham, advised many an American president, though differently than Trump’s faith advisors approach the job.
As Rev Graham celebrates his 99th birthday on Tuesday (7th November), in what his son Franklin described as “stable” health, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is kicking off a yearlong celebration of the preacher’s past. Franklin Graham, who heads the association, said it will highlight the elder Graham’s “impact on worldwide evangelism and personal testimonies of people whose lives were forever changed at one of my father’s crusades.”
President Richard M Nixon (right) and Billy Graham bow their heads in prayer during the President’s visit to the Billy Graham East Tennessee Crusade at Knoxville, Tennessee. PICTURE: Religion News Service file photo
“If I get up and talk about some political issue, it divides the audience, What I want is a united audience to hear only the Gospel. Many times (in the past)…I went too far in (dividing people on) such issues, and I think this time I want to stick only to the Gospel.”
– Rev Billy Graham speaking in New York in 2005.
It’s safe to say that Billy Graham’s politics won’t be a central focus of the commemoration. But when he was an up-and-coming preacher wearing hand-painted ties, and later, when he was America’s leading Christian evangelist in the heart of the Cold War, everyone knew where he stood on politics.
Rev Graham railed against communism and anti-war demonstrators. He helped presidential candidates and gave them advice once they made it to the White House.
Over the years, Rev Graham spoke to an estimated 84 million people at his crusades around the world, his wide reach increasing to 210 million when it includes live audiences that watched him via satellite. His success, religious historians say, was a precursor to the political rise of evangelicals and set the stage for recent faith-based public discourse on abortion, gay marriage and other issues.
As other conservative religious figures like the late Rev Jerry Falwell, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and others gained sway in the political arena, Rev Graham, deliberately withdrew from it, at least in public. His focus was on the Gospel, not politics, when he visited Flushing Meadows Corona Park in June 2005. “If I get up and talk about some political issue, it divides the audience,” Rev Graham said at a press conference preceding the New York crusade. “What I want is a united audience to hear only the Gospel. Many times (in the past)…I went too far in (dividing people on) such issues, and I think this time I want to stick only to the Gospel.”
Evangelist Billy Graham enters the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center with the aid of a walker before a New York City press conference to talk about his upcoming crusade in Queens. PICTURE: Michael McWeeney
The substance of Rev Graham’s crusades changed little, aside from the addition of Christian rock and hip-hop music, said William Martin, author of A Prophet With Honor, a biography of Rev Graham. They still involved singing by George Beverly Shea, who became part of Rev Graham’s inner circle in the 1940s, and ended with Rev Graham speaking for 20 to 30 minutes and asking people to respond to his “invitation” to convert. (Mr Shea died in 2013 at the age of 104.)
Rev Graham’s son Franklin has spoken publicly against Islam in recent years, garnering the type of publicity his father studiously avoided since the 1970s after his association with President Richard Nixon hurt his reputation. Since then, as evangelicals have increasingly linked themselves to the Republican Party, Rev Graham cautioned religious leaders not to align too closely with any political program.
“Billy Graham…has been unwilling to draw lines that would alienate other people or rule them out of his circle,” Mr Martin said. “Many of the other conservative Christians who are involved in politics are not only willing to do that; they seem bent on doing that.” Rev Graham gained White House access in his 30s and advised Presidents Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon on politics.
After his stature grew in the 1940s and 1950s with well-publicised crusades in Los Angeles, Washington, New York and Britain, presidents found it in their interest to meet and be seen with him. Rev Graham used the access to offer political advice that belied a professed desire to avoid taking sides, Mr Martin wrote in his book.
President George W Bush shakes the hand of evangelist Billy Graham. PICTURE: Donovan Marks/Washington National Cathedral
While Rev Graham rarely endorsed candidates, from the 1950s to the 1970s “he was more partisan than he let out,” said Mark Noll, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “He did keep politics out of his public messages, but he wanted to take a part in public life, and the engines of publicity were there for somebody who was charismatic and could keep out of scandal like Graham.”
Rev Graham had a close association with Nixon, and the president’s downfall shocked Rev Graham in many ways, not the least of which was the profanity that Oval Office tapes showed Mr Nixon freely used, according to Mr Martin. The release of other tapes almost 30 years later dealt an embarrassing blow because they showed Rev Graham speaking with Nixon negatively about Jewish news media figures in ways many Jews found offensive. Rev Graham apologised repeatedly for the comments about Jews and for becoming too close to power.
His humility earned praise for his character, said Leo Sandon, professor emeritus of religion and American studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
“At times when Billy Graham, I thought, was showing the worst judgment, which in my opinion would be…with Nixon, even then, no one ever doubted his integrity, his honesty,” Dr Sandon said. “His greatest problem was a lot of celebrity and publicity. He loved to be in that White House.”
It helped Rev Graham’s recovery, Mr Martin said, that he had since led global conferences – including two in the Netherlands in the 1980s – to bring Christians of various denominations together and help ministers preach. Rev Graham’s willingness to associate with liberal mainline Protestants led to a break with Christian fundamentalists.
Evangelist Billy Graham holds a New York City press conference at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center to talk about his upcoming crusade. He says it will be his last in New York City.
Through the years, his views became less conservative on many issues social conservatives care about most. According to A Prophet With Honor, Rev Graham remained generally conservative but believed administration of the death penalty is biased against poor people. He regarded homosexuality as sinful “but no more so than adultery,” and said, “There are worse sins.”
At a time when many conservative Christian leaders were trying to focus public concern on secularism and gay marriage, Rev Graham stressed poverty as the most pressing social issue.
But more recently, rev Graham’s messages on social issues waded into the political fray, leading some observers to speculate that his outspoken son played a role in his father’s political participation.
In 2012, in a prayer letter released by his ministry, Rev Graham decried abortion and “a lack of shame over sin,” and took a more prominent role in partisan politics, after years of public avoidance.
That same year, as voters on North Carolina considered an amendment to the state constitution stipulating that marriage was between a man and a woman, a full-page ad taken out in several papers quoted Billy Graham saying: “At 93, I never thought we would have to debate the definition of marriage. The Bible is clear – God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote for the marriage amendment.”
