Graham urged his audience to pray for Presidents no matter what they believe, saying all Presidents needed wisdom. He spoke of his love for Clinton and Carter as well, his “longtime friends. I love them all, regardless of politics and regardless of who stands for what.”
If Graham’s spiritual message was always consistent, a message of gospel love and Jesus’s saving grace, his political message changed profoundly. There had been a time where he didn’t hesitate to speak out on the issues of the day, on foreign policy, the economy, court decisions. But he had come to see the cost about discussing the issues that divide people.
Jerry Falwell’s death brought many reminders of what happens when preachers take sides; long ago, Graham had decided to go down a different road. He had gotten way too deeply involved in his friends’ campaigns, and he resolved to try and stop diving in. Ten days before his good friend Ronald Reagan was sworn in, Graham told Parade Magazine that “evangelicals can’t be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle, to preach to all the people, right and left. I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.”
If anyone deserves a library dedication it is evangelist Billy Graham. There is no religious leader in America more respected, past or present. Eleven presidential administrations have adored him and relied on his spiritual advice. The one fact I find striking and have never known about Graham before is that he skinydipped at the White House with LBJ. I don’t know if he actually got in the water or just watched from the sidelines. Either way, it gives you an entirely different picture of the man many presidents have relied upon for spiritual guidance.
Graham has been criticized, even by me, for his changes in doctrine over the years. He seems to have softened up on what some would call key Christian issues. Perhaps he has and perhaps that’s not all bad. I certainly do agree with him in his philosophy that a Christian, particularly a preacher, should remain publicly neutral on many political issues. Not all, of course, but the goal of Christianity is to draw people to Christ and anything we do or say that detracts from that is divisive, counterproductive, and anti-Christian. Too many political aspirants who claim to be Christian have forgotten that - or never knew it.
It is refreshing to read about Billy Graham in his old age looking back at his life and reflecting on his mistakes. That is something we never saw in Jerry Falwell and likely will not see in Pat Robertson. Graham has been a voice every generation of American could count on from the early 20th century until now. May he live another 20 years.
