What Would Billy Graham Think?

Billy Graham was one of the most popular preachers of the late Twentieth Century. He was strongly Evangelical and often made friends with the current presidents of the USA. He even invited one president, Nixon, to one of his rallies, the one held in Knoxville, Tennessee where I lived at the time.

However, Billy Graham was a man deeply committed to following his faith, a man who could admit to missing God’s leading and being in error. In his latter days, he began to realize and admit to mistakes he had made along the way. I think the willingness to admit to being wrong and publicly stating his mistakes and regrets takes a man of character that we don’t see very often.

I researched what I had heard and found it to have been recorded. That invitation to President Nixon was one he directly alluded to when he told Christianity Today, that in his forays into presidential politics he messed up, “Looking back, I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn’t do that now.” In a 2005 interview with the Associated Press, he also expressed regret for not marching in Selma with Martin Luther King, Jr. an old friend.

On the other hand, in the 1950’s, he actually had insisted that his crusades, even those in the South, be integrated. Furthermore, in 1957, he bailed King out of jail.

Later, in a Parade Magazine interview in 1981, Graham reported trying to discourage Jerry Falwell from his political efforts. Graham said that he wants to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form,” he said. “Liberals organized in the ‘60’s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organized in the ‘80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”

I want to emphasize two things that Billy Graham said in the last paragraph:

One: He didn’t want to see a wedding of the religious fundamentalists and the political right. Today’s Evangelical leaders have not heeded that advice.

Two: He said that the “hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” We see this today on a continuing basis! Think about it and observe!

What would Billy Graham think about the current state of much of the Evangelical leadership? I think he would be disappointed!