LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
JOHN W. RAWLINS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Billy Graham’s America
Submitted to Dr. Malcom Hester
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
THEO 650---B04 LUO
Public Theology
by
Anne Ford Rector
March 4, 2022
The stairway that lead Billy Graham to Heaven was anchored in a cow barn, spiraled
through stadiums and palaces, and ended on a mountaintop. The man who sold more Fuller
brushes in a year than any other salesperson also preached Jesus to more people than anyone
since the Apostle Paul.1
Graham was raised by old line North Carolinian Presbyterians who were firm in living by
the Holy Bible. After a run-of-the mill adolescence, he made his way through the Florida Bible
Institute and then through Wheaton College in Illinois, an evangelistic institution that solidified
his foundation in fundamentalist preaching. As Graham took pulpits, his messages were seldom
burdened with nuance or layers of subtext. Graham preached that every individual was a sinner
but God so loves each one that he’s provided a way to deliver us from sin if we only accept it. A
Billy Graham sermon was not, in itself, the feature that distinguished his ministry; what set him
apart was his uncanny ability to achieve conversions at such a consistently high rate. Graham
believed that evangelism is measured in souls won to Christ, and his productivity at the altar call
was unmatched and remained that way through his retirement.
Billy Graham was no theologian. He admitted it: “I didn’t know one theological position
from another. I just knew that I had come to know the Lord as my Savior.”2
During the nascent stage of his public preaching, Graham purposely avoided societal
pronouncements, and sidestepped political posturing. Yet, the conservatism of his native Mid-
South-eastern Appalachia was naturally imbedded in his philosophy. For Graham, the Bible had
a clear message for Christians living in what he believed were humans’ last days on earth:
Individuals alone can achieve salvation; governments cannot. Conversions change behaviors;
federal policies do not. Graham maintained that only the return of Jesus would correct societal
1 https://orlandosentinal/opinion.com,” No One Brought More People to Christ,” Accessed March 1, 2022.
2 Grant Wacker, America’s Pastor, (Cambridge: Harvard Press, 2014), 189.
wrongs. Indeed, it was this premise, that of Christ’s returning to earth to re-establish his
kingdom, that Graham the preacher based everything on.
At the height of segregation in America and the accompanying political and
public turmoil surrounding it, Graham insisted on desegregating his crusades. Although early on
in his preaching he held the conviction that racial riots were the handiwork of Communist
infiltrators, Graham’s views changed from support of the nation’s pervasive fearmongering to
personally seeing to it that everyone was allowed into his crusades and that white people and
black people were seated together.3
Graham won his way into the favor of men of high office, pursuing them
(more than they did him) with his Fuller Brush salesman’s persistence. The first President he met
was Harry Truman, who shunned him at a 1952 Washington crusade dissing him as a religious
hack. He golfed with Presidents Kennedy and Ford, counseled Johnson and Clinton, vacationed
with both Bushes. Later in life hosted the Obamas at the Graham’s Montreat, North Carolina
home.4 His puzzling closeness with Richard Nixon stained his reputation; tapes of a White
House conversation with Nixon in which both men denigrated Jews were published, humiliating
Graham who for years after apologized to the Hebrew community with unabashed contrition.5 A
longtime registered Democrat, Graham made no theoretical differences—he prayed with them
all. Connection with Graham brought politicians a novel type of public endorsement, as well as
the private meditative consolation so often sought by men with power. For Graham, his
association with world leaders satisfied his need to be seen as “somebody who stood in the circle
of other somebodies,” as his biographer William Martin phrased it.6 In becoming the preacher to
3 Wacker, 239.
4 David Aikman, Billy Graham, His Life and Influence, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 45.
5 Ibid., 175.
6 William Martin, A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018), 71.
Presidents, he became the symbol of Protestant Christianity in America, effectively stamping
Evangelicalism as the faith of mainstream America.
Billy Graham was a composite of what Americans expect our heroes to be… homespun
and handsome, self-made from a secular point of view, anointed by the God who purposed this
nation. As a husband with an itinerate job, he initiated a “rule” that other prominent Christian
men, including Vice-President Mike Pence, would follow: never be in a compromising position
with a woman other than your wife.7 Graham had married the beautiful Ruth Bell in 1943
during their attendance at Wheaton College. Giving him five children while being the epitome of
a pastor’s wife, Ruth Bell Graham is belovedly recognized almost as universally as her famous
husband. Graham consistently gave Ruth full credit for galvanizing their remarkable 64 year
marriage.
When the indefatigable preacher became a Christian in winter, Billy Graham reputedly
mellowed and became more tolerant of religious differences. He even suggested, at one point,
that one did not have to be a born-again Christian to attain heaven, applying the dodge to people
groups not familiar with Jesus, referencing Paul’s declaration to the Romans that creation was
sufficient for belief in God (Rom. 1:19, 20). In 2012, he endorsed a Mormon (Mitt Romney) for
president, apparently having allayed the concerns he voiced when the Catholic Kennedy was a
candidate.8 And although he never fully subscribed to syncretism, late in life Graham embraced
the ”wideness of God’s mercy,” instructing his Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in the
founding the Lausanne World Evangelism Conferences in 1980s. More recently, these
conferences have called on all churches, including the modernist ecumenical churches of the
United States, to cooperate with evangelical churches in converting the world for Christ. This
7 Wacker, 395.
8 Aikman, 207-208.
operative pivot on religious universalism revealed his reborn ecumenical, inclusivist approach to
the evangelism that made him famous.9
Graham’s spiritual contribution to the Kingdom is paralleled by his achievements as an
entrepreneur for Christianity. This is not to be considered heretical or profane. He was a public-
relations savant, so omniscient he launched an entire separatist Christian media culture,
contemporarily found in Christian radio and cable TV; his omnipresence laid the foundation for
megachurches and prosperity ministries; his multiple sleepovers in Lincoln’s bed brought Jesus
irreversibly into American politics.
Did Graham, in his old age, water down the fire and brimstone he once
guaranteed to sinners? Did he compromise his crusade invitations with neo-evangelicalism? Did
he make peace with what he once warned against, “the world?” And did he morph into a
universalist, accepting in his own soul eternal life for Muslims and Buddhists? His detractors
and many of his acolytes feel the answers are unequivocally “yes.” But when Billy Graham died
in 2018, taking his enormous personal attributes with him, he left to the world his heart for God;
“the world” and the Kingdom of God, will never be the same.
9Martin, 333.
Bibliography
Aikman, David. Billy Graham, His Life and Influence. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007.
https://orlandosentinal/opinion.com.
Martin, William. A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2018.
Wacker, Grant. America’s Pastor. Cambridge: Harvard Press, 2014.
