Graham's Crusade Saved America

Weekly Standard: Former President Underscores Importance Of Evangelical Leader's Role

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Mark D. Tooley.

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The most poignant moment of the May 31 dedication of the Billy Graham Library was the tribute to the 88-year-old evangelist by 82-year-old former President George H.W. Bush.

Three former presidents were present at the dedication in Charlotte, N.C. Jimmy Carter praised Graham's early opposition to racial segregation. Bill Clinton recalled, with suspect sincerity, that the "best date he ever had" was taking his soon-to-be-wife Hillary to a Graham crusade 35 years ago.

But an emotional George H. W. Bush was unique in describing Graham's influence as both spiritual and geopolitical.

"The moral awakening that Billy helped to ignite starting here in America — which then spread like a wildfire across the country, and ultimately around the world — was also the same spark that ignited hope and kept its embers burning in far away places, behind an Iron Curtain," Bush recalled. "And just as there was a coalition of free nations that stood together in the face of this geopolitical threat, so, too, was there a brotherhood of great spiritual leaders — including our honoree and Pope John Paul II — whose unaffected charisma and purity of purpose played a decisive role in resolving the moral crises of our times."

Bush concluded: "No question, these men, together with other messengers who carried forth The Word, helped tip the balance in the Cold War in freedom's favor."

Graham has been America's chief religious celebrity for almost 60 years, a spiritual statesman who has been acquainted with every president since Harry Truman. Bush justifiably called him "America's pastor." So it is easy to forget where American evangelicals were when Graham's ministry began in the late 1940s.

The liberal mainline Protestant denominations firmly controlled America's religious public square when Graham first appeared on the stage. Evangelicals were commonly derided as fundamentalists, a group long since discredited by academia and the respectable denominations. The nascent evangelical subculture was just beginning to challenge the hegemony of liberal theology in America's Protestant churches.

Graham's early evangelistic crusades were famously "puffed" by the Hearst press, at the direction of William Randolph Hearst himself. But Graham's quick fame relied more on his own charisma and organizational skills than Hearst's puffing. Graham's style was revivalistic, but not chauvinistic. It recalled the better moments of America's 19th century revivalist history, while appealing to country's burgeoning new suburban demographic.

From the start, Graham was interested not just in crusading soul-saving, but in the intellectual reformation of American religious thought. He helped found Christianity Today magazine to articulate mainstream evangelical thought and challenge liberal Protestant journals such as Christian Century. Symbolic of a larger transformation in America's religious demographic, Christianity Today now has nearly four times as many subscribers as the liberal flagship Christian Century.

Although liberal Protestantism stood atop American religion in Graham's early years, it was ripe for a fall. Its denominations began their long decline in the 1960s, soon followed by falling enrollment at its seminaries. America's ten largest Protestant seminaries are now all evangelical, whereas 50 years ago they were all liberal Protestant.

America's mainline churches followed the direction of European Christianity both in their theological liberalism and their demographic implosion. Without Graham's evangelical revival, America's religious culture could well have followed Europe's spiritual route. Graham re-injected evangelical Protestantism back into the front portals of American culture, building a firewall against aggressive, European-style secularism. Importantly, he modernized evangelical culture, purging its previous hostilities towards Catholics, its accommodations towards segregation, and its suspicions of higher education.

Graham's friendships with nearly all the last 11 presidents and his prominent role in state worship events symbolize evangelical culture's ascendancy in America. Graham, the Southern Baptist preacher, stands where Episcopal bishops, now nearly inconsequential, once stood in national prominence.

Indeed, President George H. W. Bush was far more influenced by Graham than any cleric of his own denomination. "As an Episcopalian . . . I have always viewed my faith as an intensely personal matter," Bush said at the library dedication. "There is nothing self-conscious, however, about my relationship with Jesus Christ; and thanks to Billy, I have come to understand this all-important relationship in deeper and more meaningful ways."

Bush recalled that Graham had stayed at the White House while Desert Storm was launched and had guided his children, including the current president, through their own spiritual journeys: "The family love we Bushes feel towards you and Ruth extends all the way into the Oval Office."

His own life roughly paralleling Graham's years, Bush remembered that "at the time of Billy's rise . . . the clouds of fascism had gathered in Europe . . . and the storm they unleashed would threaten the existence of free and open societies. And after a great coalition of free peoples poured forth the blood of their sons to defeat this machinery of death, we faced another threat — a rising tide of tyranny in the Soviet Union."

In both World War II and the Cold War, Bush said, "Freedom's victory was far from foreordained. It would require vigilance in the face of laxity; courage in the face of appeasement; moral clarity in the face of relativism; and above all else, hope in the face of despair." These matters of state were never separate from the spiritual issues to which Graham had dedicated himself, Bush observed. Graham's central role in restoring America's religious spirit contributed directly to democracy's survival internationally.

[rbailey31]

THE REV.BILLY GRAHAM HAS BEEN SPREADING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD & SAVIOR FOR A GREAT MANY YEARS.IT HAS BEEN PLACED UPON HIM BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO DO AS DIRECTED BY GOD. IF YOU BELIEVE IN AN ALL KNOWING GOD, OR NOT, IS YOUR FREE MORAL CHOICE IN LIFE.WE ALL WERE GIVEN ''FREE WILL''IN LIFE ON WHICH WAY TO CHOOSE.THE PERSON WHO POSTED THEIR COMMMENT SAYING DR.GRAHAM NEEDS TO ''KICK''OFF & GO AWAY WITH JERRY FALLWELL IS TYPICAL WHY SATAN IS SO DELIGHTED TO TURN MINDS AWAY FROM CHRIST & BE WITH HIM. WE ARE NOTHING TO SATAN BUT ''PAWNS''.HE KNOWS TIME IS SHORT FOR HIM & PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE JUST WANT HE WANTS,BECAUSE HE DESPISES GOD,& ALL WHO TRUSTS & BELIEVES IN GOD. AREN'T YOU HAPPY NOW !!!!!

[nothappyatall]

Oh YEAH, Graham saved the country, another right-wing biBULL thumper who needs to kick off and go away with Fallwell.

[ubrew12]

"Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction when we invaded." Posted by creeper00 at 11:01 AM : Jun 12, 2007

As Bush would say: "What are facts compared to faith?"

[creeper00]

ubrew 12: Excellent post except for this--
"2. Invading countries like Iraq when peaceful solutions to their WMD exist."

In case you missed it, Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction when we invaded.

[grumpas]

When is CBS going to get tired of this story???? It's been on here for the last three or four days. Are they trying to tell us something???? Get religion and we will finally take it off our websight.

[luvny-2009]

Big BUCKS no wammy...that's what it's all about. You can thump the bible all you want but it all comes down to the almighty dollar and Ol'Franklin's going to get all he can besides his 6 figure pay check!

[drinuk]

I wonder how many anti-Christ Big Pharma stocks are held collectively by these four men.

[burneb]

Graham always seemed too cozy with the wealthy and powerful, trying to make their stand-by-me photo-op hypocrisy seem like real Christianity, over promoting any of Christ%u2019s known messages %u2013 like actually giving up any wealth to help the poor and sick.

Have we ever had a big name evangelist whose agenda was really God%u2019s or Christ%u2019s instead of their own?

And what religious authority has Tooley to take any cheap shots at Clinton's religious sincerity?

[quatermass2]

"Importantly, he modernized evangelical culture, purging its previous hostilities towards Catholics, its accommodations towards segregation, and its suspicions of higher education."

Don't we all wish THAT were true? We still have half the population not "believing" (or let's be real: not UNDERSTANDING) evolution, the snake handlers and rapture nuts are ever-increasing, and today's American "Christians" would be condemned by Christ if He were to attend one of their mega-church "worship services". Yes, Graham was instrumental in inflating that "olde tyme" tent-revival spirit, and that's what will keep America as an intellectual backwater for decades to come.

[frb01]

Billy Graham did the Lord's work on earth for over 60 years, it didn't matter what the religious background. And outside of an incident on one of Nixon's tape appeared to live his life in a Christ like way. If the Billy Graham corporation wanted to build this, I am sure that the board of directors had to approve it. And Rev. Graham was resistant to have the this built. It honors his life well lived and blazes a path for the next generation. Hopefully we can all see the light, and reflect on Rev. Grahams impact on America. And unlike some of his contemporaries, Rev. Graham never promoted a political agenda actively.

[Syndicate]

JackSteen1 you must be a ***. I'm a cracker so I have a right to call you a *** asuming your a ***. Otherwise Please choose the apropriate racial slur.

[jacksteen1]

Praise - even tearful praise - coming from a ratbastard like George Bush I is questionable. This is a man that was head of the CIA and got WAY too involved in secret killings and other black-bag jobs overseas and -probably- right here on Main Street.

Amazing how the re-writers of jistory try to marginalize the effects John Paul II had in closing down communism in his native Poland and ripping the Berlin Wall down. I guess this writer's theory of the fundamentalists' old hate for Catholics being forgotten is also so much *********.

Billy Graham's bible-thumpers still speak in shorthand against ***, mixed marriages, rights of Blacks in the Old South, and their usual cross-eyed, pea-pickin' simpleton judgemental garbage rules their thoughts on everything.

Stupid cracker.

[rushlimpdrug]

Mirror, mirror, on the wall
Who's crusade saved America?

This place sounds like the religious answer
to NASCAR.

[estuardo40]

jimfinster,

Amen, Touche`, and May God Bless you.

[jimfinster]

estuardo40:

Mirrors can also reflect ugly things...

[estuardo40]

jimfinster,

I understand exactly what you're saying. He didn't erect this to his memory, like some have done in the past. This was the work of others, to honor his name, and his legacy; a legacy of honoring Christ.

When a mirror reflects something beautiful, we don't praise the mirror for doing what it was designed to do, we enjoy the beauty it reflects. Likewise, Billy is just reflecting Christ in his life to us all. Yet, we're more than 'mirrors' to Christ, and He has told us we will get to share in that glory. Billy just gets to enjoy a taste of that right now.

Wouldn't you want Christ to do the same for you and others?

[jimfinster]

estuardo40:

You just don't get it. It is about the appearance of the thing - the hubris involved is totally at odds with being a humble Christian. And that is the how BG portayed himself all these years, which adds the hypocrite angle.

Just my HUMBLE opinion.

[estuardo40]

You asked what this has to do with Billy? It gives the appearance of someone building a temple to themselve (ie Billy), which indicates ego and a not so humble man. Which in turn is counter to the teachings and life of Christ. Whatever their motivation, there it is...
Posted by jimfinster at 02:25 PM : Jun 11, 2007

Billy didn't ask or tell anyone to build this for him, and when he found out, he was going to stop it. But then he found out what it was going to be used for.

You commented about Presidental Libraries in a previous post. What purpose do they serve? And how many millions were spent on them?

If someone comes to follow Christ, through something Billy (or you and I, for that matter) said or did, then praise God! This library is just one possible vehicle for reaching someone with the Gospel. How many Presidental Libraries can say that?

[jimfinster]

estuardo40

Religion at this level is a huge money making BUSINESS. Like any business, they make decisions that will hopefully increase revenue and solidify their future position.

You asked what this has to do with Billy? It gives the appearance of someone building a temple to themselve (ie Billy), which indicates ego and a not so humble man. Which in turn is counter to the teachings and life of Christ. Whatever their motivation, there it is...

[ubrew12]

One comment I read here yesterday that I just loved: "Fighting in the name of Christ is like f**king in the name of virginity" Take THAT Christian warriors!