LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Reflection Essay: “Billy Graham’s America”
Submitted to Dr. Hester
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
THEO 650 – D03
Public Theology
by
Mawolo Mulbah
December 17th, 2020.
Seeing the world from an evangelical perspective as a non-evangelist is difficulty. Billy
Graham, one of the world’s greatest evangelist of all time, not only transformed the world with
his preaching and teaching, instead, he changed the world by showing the world to Jesus Christ.
Born in 1918, near a village in Charlotte, North Carolina, Billy Graham became a household
name to many Christians family in the United States, and around the world as he went from a
leader to celebrity, then to an icon.1 For many, it is not ordinary to come across the name Billy
Graham to older congregations who do not instantly recognized who he was: an icon with a
Bible in his hands. He was a great influence in his field of evangelism. And moreover, he was a
gift to the United States, and a blessing to the rest of the world.
Billy Graham was a man of compassion and love who had a stronger desire to see sinners
save. As an evangelist, his messages mostly focused on change, as he had the desire to see people
saved and lives being transformed. Reverend Graham traveled almost all over the world to
Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and Australia preaching the gospel of repentance to 215
million plus people in person, and to more than 185 countries and territories.2 As an evangelist,
his greatest desire was telling people about the love of God, that God loves them and He wants to
forgive their sins by giving them a second chance. His messages of God’s love to sinners were
always center around John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV).
As popular as he was, and with many head of states seeking counsel from him. Today, I
believe there are not many Billy Graham that are around to whom presidents and head of states
can seek counsel from, because Billy Graham was special, and he had a special anointing upon
1. Grant, Wacker, Billy Graham’s America, (Church History, 00096407, Sep 2009), Vol. 78, Issue 3.
2. Ibid.
his life by God to provide spiritual guardian to world’s leaders. What started in Lost Angeles in
1949 as a normal crusade by a young preacher, became history that put the young preacher on the
world’s map. The crusade that was originally intended to last for three weeks, ended up lasting
for eight weeks that transformed the nation with overflowing crowds of people of all ages, as
young and old ran to the alter to give their live to Jesus Christ. The Los Angele’s Crusade was
the beginning that would launch Billy Gram into an internationals prominence to the people of
America and the rest of the world.3 Soon, the rest became history as Mr. Graham hosted crusade
on many platforms and arenas in the world. In London, He hosted a crusade that lasted for 12
weeks, and a Crusade in Madison Square Garden (New York City) that ran nightly for 16 weeks
in 1957.4 He also preached in villages of Africa, the Middle East and also to head of states in
Australia and to the former Eastern bloc, including the former Soviet Union.5
Unlike the traditional evangelist, Billy Gram transcended lines that many in religious
circle would not consider in his role. Politically, to some the reveren was more of a politician
than an evangelism. His support of the Vietnam’s war in the late 1960s’ and support for Richard
Nixon after the Watergate’s scandal was criticized by many and caused some to even lost the
respect they once had for the evangelist.6 Also not only did this brought bad taste about the
evangelist to many, his remarks about the Jewishs to Nixon that was leak to the public was
another thing that saw many to question the authecitiy of the reverened. Regardless, of all Billy
Graham was America’s evangelist, and the man ordained by God Himself.
3. Billy Graham Biography, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 2020.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Grant, Wacker, Billy Graham’s America, (Church History, 00096407, Sep 2009), Vol. 78, Issue
3.
On a personal level, I believed Billy Graham overstepped his boundary. Even though, like
me, he supported separated of church and state, I believed at one point in his career, he allowed
his love for God to grow cold as he moved toward a compromising gospel, as he moved toward
being more open-minded toward other traditions and surrounding culture.7 I believe the danger
of creating a compromising gospel starts by developing an open mind attitude to what God
opposes. When the children of Israel were brought out of slavery in Egypt, one of the
instructions given to them by God was that they should never blend-in with the other culture.
Having an open-mind sometimes creates an atmosphere for one to blend-in with what God do
not want them to do. As one who obersered the preacher could easily tell that in later stage of his
career, he changed toward a softening message. His refusal to speculate on the final fate of the
earnest non-Christian and his refusal to take a stand on racial injustice toward African American
were signs one could clearly see that the one vibrant, and powerful evangelist of America had
change.8
I believe Bill Graham failure to take a stand against injustice when he had the platform
to, caused more damage than anyone can imagine. With all of his accolades, and connections to
Washington D.C., I believe Reverend Graham was the best man who could have push for racial
justice for the poor and under-privilege Americans. He had the power and the support to make an
impact but he failed to do so. However, regardless of what he had done, “one thing is clear, and
that is how Americans evaluated Graham’s relation to the civil rights movement depended on the
criteria they deemed most important,”9 and in this area, He fails to exercise his God given power.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
Other than this mistake, I believe Mr. Graham did an extraordinary work in showing the world
Jesus Christ.
Bibliography
Wacker, Grant, Billy Graham’s America, Church History, 00096407, Sep 2009, Vol. 78, Issue 3.
Billy Graham Biography. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 2020. Retrieved from
https://billygraham.org/about/biographies/billy-graham/
