President Obama meets with Billy Graham.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with 91-year-old Billy Graham today at the evangelist’s North Carolina home. It was Obama’s first meeting with Graham, who has met with every president back to Harry Truman. The two tried to meet back in 2008 during the presidential campaign but it never happened due to scheduling conflicts. It was also Graham’s first meeting with a president in his Montreat, N.C., home.

Graham presented Obama with two Bibles, one for him and one for his wife. The two also prayed for each other.

Like other presidents before him, Obama confided with Graham how lonely, demanding and humbling the presidency can be:

“That is a discussion that Mr. Graham has had with previous presidents who realize not only the demands but the loneliness of the job. And they’re humbled by that,” [Graham spokesman Larry] Ross said. “The only way one can do the job properly is to draw on spiritual resources.”

Graham and Obama spoke for about 35 minutes over coffee. The discussion included their wives, their past history in Chicago and golf.

“It was an honor having Governor Palin and her family in our home this evening. I, like many people, have been impressed with her strong commitment to her faith, to family and love of country. I appreciated hearing her speak of her own spiritual journey and her life in Alaska. I shared with her my own memories of preaching in the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage in 1984.

“We had an opportunity to pray together. Life in the spotlight is not easy and I pray that whatever lies ahead for this family that their faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, would remain strong and that God would put a hedge of protection around her and all those she holds dear. Sarah and her family will always be welcome in the Graham home.”

Sarah Palin is also featured on BillyGraham.org talking about facing challenges, her faith and the experience of meeting Billy Graham.

This encounter does at least add some substance to the previous comments about Palin attributed to Graham.

The book The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House, by TIME magazine veterans Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, profiles Graham’s relationship with each president and their families. The book goes into incredible detail, digging through personal correspondence and White House records.

The result is a 50-years snapshot of presidential politics that have tried and tested the world’s greatest evangelist. Though Graham tried to stay out of politics and offer neutral prayer and counsel regardless of political party, he didn’t always live up to that. On multiple occasions he allowed his bias to sway votes, though he would often step back from the brink and regret too much political action.

It was during an unguarded moment with Richard Nixon that Billy Graham uttered words that could have unraveled his ministry, words that when they became public in 2002 the evangelist didn’t remember saying and strongly denounced. Nixon’s own downfall in the Watergate scandal blindsided Graham, forcing him to reconsider his proximity to power, but also reinforcing his long held notion that presidents need prayer.

The Preacher and the Presidents offers a behind the scenes peek at the Civil Rights movement, showing both Lyndon Johnson’s and Graham’s frustration with the radical, non-violent leader Martin Luther King Jr. We also witness Graham’s shift from the anti-communist furor of the 1950s to speaking out against the nuclear arms race and beginning to preach in the former Soviet Union.

Though a registered Democrat, it’s intriguing to watch Graham work with presidents from both parties. We see his intimate relationship with the Bush family and his much-criticized friendship with the Clintons. There are stories of skinny-dipping with Lyndon Johnson, being shutout by Harry Truman and offering grace and forgiveness to Bill Clinton.

The Preacher and the Presidents is a detailed look at presidential power and the great need for spiritual guidance in the face of overwhelming challenges.

Published in 2007, the book barely touches on the 2008 election (it mentions candidates and Graham’s thoughts of them, as well as dismissing notions that Graham endorsed Hillary Clinton based on a comment he made at his New York Crusade in 2005). We do know that John McCain met with Graham and Barack Obama has tried to. Graham has expressed a wish to pray with Obama, though his days as a presidential pastor are over (Graham was also apparently “fond” of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin). And while Graham has participated in a record-tying nine presidential inaugurations, he passed on his inaugural hat to Rick Warren in 2009 (literally).

According to Rick Warren’s Jan. 25 sermon, he received a box from Billy Graham a week before the inauguration. The box contained a hat and a note saying that this was the hat Graham had worn to previous inaugurations and he wanted Warren to have it.

Nobody can replace Billy Graham, but the hat has been literally passed on.

But perhaps the under-reported story is how Billy Graham felt about the vice-presidential candidate and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. According to Gigi Graham, Billy’s oldest daughter, the evangelist was fond of Palin:

“He’s a typical man. I don’t care if he’s 90 years old, he thought that she is so pretty,” Gigi Graham said. “He loves a pretty woman.”

The comment has little context and is buried in an article about Billy Graham turning 90, but it’s still bizarre. It’s also sad that the comment continues the widespread emphasis on Palin’s looks instead of her politics. Hopefully it’s more an out-of-context joke on Gigi’s part.

“Help them always to see the office to which they’ve been elected as a sacred trust from you. We pray that you will bless their wives who will share so much of the responsibility and burdens. Make President-elect Clinton know that he is never really alone but that the eternal God can he his refuge and he can turn to you in every circumstance. Give him the wisdom you’ve promised to whose who ask and the strength that you alone can give.”(1993 Inaugural Invocation for Bill Clinton)

“We recall that the Bible says, ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it’ (Psalm 127: 1). You also said that to whom much has been given, much shall be required.

“We look gratefully to the past, and thank You that from the very foundations of America You granted our forefathers courage and wisdom, as they trusted in You. So we ask today that You would inspire us by their example; where there has been failure, forgive us; where there has been progress, confirm; where there has been success, give us humility; and teach us to follow Your instructions more closely as we enter the next century.” (1997 Inaugural Prayer for Bill Clinton

More:

• Presidential Inauguration Prayers & Sermons by Billy Graham
• Billy Graham’s Inaugural Prayer for Richard Nixon
• Billy Graham and Barack Obama
• Billy Graham and the Rick Warren/Barack Obama Flap
• The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House

“I was almost in a state of shock,” Graham wrote in his autobiography. “Not only was I losing a friend through a vicious and senseless killing, but America was losing a social leader and a prophet, and I felt his death would be one of the greatest tragedies in our history.”

Graham prayed there on the golf course with the journalists for King’s family and the healing of racial divisions. He tried to cancel his schedule and return for the funeral, but it wasn’t possible.

Billy Graham with Martin Luther King Sr. at the grave of Martin Luther King Jr.

“Our concern since God laid the matter on our hearts some year ago has been not so much to talk as to act, to set an example which might open new paths and stir the consciences of many. There is no segregation in our Crusades, even in the South.”

At a conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. commented:

“Had it not been for the ministry of my good friend, Dr. Billy Graham, my own work in the civil rights movement would not have been successful as it has been.”

“We beseech Thee that he will have Thy divine guidance and power daily. Help him as Thou didst help Thy servants of old. Our Father, we know his burdens and responsibilities will be overwhelming. He will hold in his hands the destiny of more people than any man in history. O God, our new President needs Thee as no man ever needed Thee in leading a people! There will be times when he will be overwhelmed by the problems at home and abroad that have been building up to the breaking point for many years. Protect him from physical danger. And in the lonely moments of decision grant him an uncompromising courage to do what is morally right. Give him a cool head and a warm heart. Give him a compassion for those in physical, moral, and spiritual need. We pray that Thou wilt so guide Richard Nixon in handling the affairs of state that the whole world will marvel and glorify Thee.

Those “lonely moments of decision” didn’t turn out so well for Nixon (or Graham, for that matter), but hindsight is 20/20. These same words could be said for Barack Obama today, as Graham has reminded people time and time again to pray for presidents no matter their political party.