Wednesday, February 21, 2018

B144. Remembering Billy Graham



Legendary Evangelist Billy Graham has been talking for years about moving to heaven, and this morning, at the age of 99, he made that move.  We North Carolinians proudly claim him as our own, and this blog is a memoir of how and where his legacy and my own North Carolina life have intersected.


My Childhood and Youth

I grew up Southern Baptist, and if Baptists ever had a pope, at least in my house, he was Billy Graham. The ultimate spiritual icon, the most honored of all heroes, followed at some distance by Lottie Moon, Corrie ten Boom, and all Southern Baptist missionaries. Well, OK, my daddy did have another set of heroes during those days: Dean Smith, Bob McAdoo, Mitch Kupchak, Phil Ford, and other young men who wore light blue basketball uniforms.

Televised Billy Graham crusades were events in my house. I don’t remember sitting down and watching more than one, but his distinct preaching voice, George Beverly Shea singing “How Great Thou Art,” and the extended “Just As I Am” closing invitation were heard throughout the house whatever I was doing.

In 1973, when I was 11 or 12 years old, the Billy Graham Evangelical Association put out maybe their first ever full-length movie, Time To Run (you can watch it free here),  and I remember that being especially meaningful to me. Growing up, Billy Graham was just part of the air I breathed.

The BGEA published hundreds of books too, many credited to Billy Graham, although I learned later what made sense, that, like most other celebrities, he was much too busy to write books, and used “ghost writers.” (Read Mel White’s Stranger at the Gate.) Well, I remember when I was in high school, My charismatic friend Janet introduced me to contemporary Christian music and took me to her tongue-speaking church a couple of times. My Baptist parents were deeply concerned, and they bought me Billy Graham’s The Holy Spirit to explain to me (straight from the “pope”) what the Holy Spirit was and was not supposed to do, at least for Baptists. My first of several BGEA books.


1996 Crusade in Charlotte

In 1996 Billy Graham held a crusade in Charlotte, and my church volunteered to be a part. I learned a little about what goes into such an event. Several months of work, prayer, and preparation!  With other members of my church (and hundreds of other churches) I trained to be a counselor at the event, and I led what was called “Operation Andrew” at my church, which was about inviting friends to the crusade. Billy Graham did not attend the training sessions, but if I remember correctly, we did meet Beverly Shea (or maybe it was Cliff Barrows).

I learned that the masses of people moving from their seats during the “Just As I Am” time are not all responding to the call, but many are the trained counselors like me. I don’t remember how many evenings I attended, or how many evenings the crusade lasted, but I remember sitting in the pouring rain with Pam, completely soaked, despite the plastic rain covers we purchased there. And I remember the counseling room.

The Billy Graham Library

During Christmas of 2009, two years after its opening, Darlene and I visited the Billy Graham Library. Again I specifically remember the weather. It was so cold and windy! We explored the exhibits, drank hot cocoa, rode the carriage, visited Ruth’s grave site, and shopped in the gift shop. The library has become quite the tourist attraction.



His politics

In more recent years, as politics and evangelical Christianity have become more and more interwoven, I have gained even greater respect for him and his legacy. In the 1970s when Jerry Falwell changed the face of American Christianity by marrying it with conservative politics, Rev. Graham refused to be a part of it. In 1979 he refused  to join Falwell's Moral Majority, saying, "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments.  Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person.  We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left.

Though ordained as a Southern Baptist and registered as a Democrat, he never let either of those distinctions rule his life.  Graham willingly pastored all presidents regardless of political party, from Truman to Obama.

In 1981 he told Parade magazine, “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form.  It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right.  The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”


Criticisms and Legacy

He has been criticized for aligning himself tightly with President Nixon for a time, for which he repeatedly expressed regret. He is criticized for not being there for his family because he was so often traveling for crusades. Some criticize him for not speaking out on divisive issues.

When we allow him not to be God, though, what an amazing 99 years he lived, leaving an unmatchable legacy, not just to those who knew him, but to the world. He ministered for a lifetime without serious controversy or compromise, keeping himself clean of all political factions, and keeping his focus on the simplest message of Jesus Christ. Throughout history there may not have been a more respected Christian leader than the Rev. Billy Graham. 


His children

Ruth and Billy Graham had five children, and two of those have affected my life in some way. I heard Anne (Graham Lotz)  preach twice – once at my seminary, and once I traveled to hear her speak in a nearby church. Her father used to say she was the best preacher in the family; and she was an inspiration to me, being a Southern Baptist with few women in ministry role models. In later years, though she turned back to her expected Baptist gender roles. I have blogged at least once about her, and at least once about the politics of her brother Franklin.  


See You Later

Billy Graham said while here, "My home is in heaven. I'm just traveling through this world." So now he's home. See you later, Rev. Graham. You lived well here.


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