I turned on the TV at 9:00 this morning and learned that the evangelist Billy Graham had died overnight. He was 99 years old and world-renowned for his integrity. Hundreds of thousands of people gave their lives to the Lord as a result of his enthusiastic (the word origin of 'enthuse,' en theos, is for God to enter in) crusade sermons.
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| Billy Graham in 1964 Religion News Service |
I admired him for a couple of things in particular:
1. He was relentlessly interdenominational, focused on Jesus instead of denominational creeds, and he did not recommend that new believers join a particular denomination but a Bible-believing church. This meant they'd have to make decisions based on visiting, fellowship, and Bible study.
2. He was in favor of the separation of church and state as liberty of conscience, for all people to worship their god as they were called to. Though he was frequently a counselor to American presidents and world leaders, he didn't offend people of other religions or denominations.
He wrote in a July 4 devotional thought,
"On this Independence Day we should be on our knees thanking God for all He has given us. The United States is a country in which everyone has an equal opportunity. Thank God for a country where there is no caste or class to keep a man from going to the top. If a man has a will to work and study, he can go ahead regardless of his background. In addition, thank God, He has given us freedom of religion. Whatever you may believe, no one can close your church because your religion does not coincide with his. A few people meeting in a small, out-of-the-way shack, worshiping God as they believe in Him, have the same right to religious freedom as the people who worship God in the great cathedrals on the avenues of our greatest cities."However, regarding his visits to and influence on American presidents and politics, there's this regret.
"Inside the Beltway is a different world," Graham said to biographer William Martin, author of A Prophet with Honor. "That's the reason I don't go there anymore if I can help it. I'm glad I live down here on these mountains. I don't go to Washington much, and I don't go to the Hill much. I used to have lots of friends that I'd go back and see—congressmen and senators—but for years I haven't done that. I just don't want to go. I feel God has called me to a much higher calling.""I came close to identifying the American way of life with the kingdom of God," Graham told Christianity Today more than 10 years after Nixon resigned. "Then I realized that God had called me to a higher kingdom than America. I have tried to be faithful to my calling as a minister of the gospel."
On Nov. 19, 2004, I was invited by a friend in our church praise group to go with her and her friends to the last evangelism tour of Billy Graham before he retired. I accepted, and it was wonderful. It was held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and nearly every seat was filled, though the crusade ran for about a week. It was slickly produced, and I suspect not just for a Hollywood crowd, but for any city, anywhere.
The stage participants included George Beverly Shea ("How Great Thou Art"), actor Jim Caviezel, singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith, Billy's son Franklin, and several others.
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| The Rose Bowl sign |
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| Unknown, Deborah Curbelo, unknown, and Christy Robinson |
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| Billy Graham sermon |
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| Singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith |
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| Franklin Graham |
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| George Beverly Shea and choir |
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| Actor Jim Caviezel gives testimony about acting in "The Passion of the Christ." |
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| Thousands of people poured onto the Rose Bowl field to accept Christ and be prayed for, while Shea sang "Just As I Am." |
But on the whole, he made the Son of God accessible and loving and full of grace, a contrast from what people had heard for hundreds of years.
His son, Franklin Graham, trained in business and not theology or ministry,
"has mocked both Islam and LGBT rights. He uses his following on social media to raise funds for "persecuted Christians," boycotts businesses that use gay couples in advertisements and blasts the separation of church and state as the godless successor to Cold War communism." https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/02/21/billy-graham-americas-pastor-has-died/858017001/
Regarding the revelation of Trump’s payment of $130,000 for
the silence of a porn actress Trump slept with during his marriage to third wife
Melania, Franklin Graham told MSNBC in January 2018,
“Now did he have an affair with this woman? I have no clue, but I believe that 70 years of age, the president is a much different person today than he was four years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, or whatever, and we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He said he didn’t do it, so okay, let’s say he didn’t do it.”Never mind that Trump himself said he does not confess his sins. Or that innumerable lies come out of that oral sphincter. That kind of statement about Trump, coming from high-profile evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham, Jerry Fallwell, and Tony Perkins, essentially gives him (and other Christians behaving immorally) a pass on sin. Take him at his word? His corrupt word? No.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/01/21/franklin-graham-dismisses-trumps-alleged-affair-hes-not-president-perfect/#LmbVdx3w25LiIfGd.99
"People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test." 1 John 3:9-10.
When her uncle Franklin Graham portrays Trump as someone who was elected President by the will of God and upholding the cause of Jesus, Billy Graham's granddaughter Jerusha Armfield says he “diminishes not only my Jesus but all he stood for and came to Earth to fight against.” Washington Times.
Though Franklin Graham has done some good humanitarian work with Samaritan's Purse, he's proven himself a bigot and a political partisan that can't pass the sniff test of John 13:34-35: “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."
Billy Graham mellowed as he aged, and seemed to have compassion for sinners, though not approval of their ways. I hope that his son will similarly find humility and God's heart, rather than notoriety as a political commentator for the corrupt Right.
I know what it's like to lose both parents, and though I believe in eternal life, the grief of their loss in my world comes in waves, even years later. I pray that the Graham family finds comfort and joy in remembering the love among them, and that they take the legacy of Billy and Ruth Graham into their own lives, for generations to come.
Imagine what a thrill, what a ride, it is, to be en theos and know God is using you to effect change in this world. Billy Graham knew that enthusiasm and gave that gift to countless others.
Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:
· Discovering Love (inspiration)
· Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
· William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th
century culture and history of England and New England)
and of
these books:
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