The Unofficial Billy Graham Blog
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on March 17, 2009
“My parents never once told me to be in at a certain time when I went out on a Friday or Saturday night date. I knew that I had to be up by three in the morning and if I stayed out past midnight I would get only a couple hours of sleep.”
-Billy Graham
(Just As I Am)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 24, 2009
“Few people of our day are more committed to using their celebrity for the cause of the poor around the world than my friend Bono.”
-Billy Graham
(endorsement for the book On the Move, which features Bono’s speech at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 2, 2009
This booklet chronicles Billy Graham’s relationship with the black community. Published in 1973 by Graham’s World Wide Publications and edited by Decision magazine staff, it includes pictures, quotes and sermon excerpts. Howard Jones and Ralph Bell, associate evangelists on Graham’s team, explain in the forward that the purpose of the booklet is to express “what the ministry of the Billy Graham Team means to Black America.”
It outlines Graham’s strong stance against segregation, his efforts to include blacks on his team, his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. and his 1960 tour of Africa. While it’s certainly representative of Graham’s work and message, it comes off as an odd bit of PR. It probably had more context 35 years ago, but today a booklet exhorting how “Franklin Graham Loves Latinos” would seem a bit patronizing.
Still, it is an accurate record of Graham’s stand for civil rights:
“Christians should banish Jim Crow from their midst for one reason primarily: because it is right to do so. Race discrimination is a blatant denial of the fundamental gospel we preach and profess. As Christians, we must dare to obey the commandments of love, and leave the consequences in God’s hands. … The rift must be healed by Christians working in love.
“Men and women of religious conviction should declare themselves firmly on the race question—not with inflammatory words but with creative and conciliatory action. But we professing Christians have difficulty doing this because our commitment is so shallow. We refuse to let him awaken in us that deep love and concern for others which reach across all barriers in response to the commandment, ‘Love thy neighbor.’ When we do, we usually discover it is easier than we had thought.” (Reader’s Digest, August 1960)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 27, 2009
While reading the TIME 100 biography of Billy Graham, which profiled him as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century, I came across this odd statement:
“Though Graham has never, to my knowledge, spoken out on behalf of the poor, it seems legitimate to conclude that his almost exclusive emphasis upon soul saving is his passionate center, even his authentic obsession.” (emphasis mine)
The author, Harold Bloom, is making the correct point that Billy Graham has focused on telling people about Jesus above all else. But he also makes a very incorrect statement, assuming that Graham has never “spoken out on behalf of the poor.”
You don’t have to look far to come across one of Graham’s most quoted statements about social justice:
“As Christians we have a responsibility toward the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden and the many innocent people around the world who are caught in wars, natural disasters and situations beyond their control.” (from Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador, among other sources)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 22, 2009
Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the ground-breaking Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Throughout his career Billy Graham has taken a stand against abortion, but what is perhaps worth noting is his gentle and loving stance.
While his son Franklin Graham makes headlines for calling abortion murder, Billy Graham has a gentler, more understanding tone. There are four separate My Answer columns in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s spiritual help section addressing abortion, and each one, though firm, still drips with grace.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 19, 2009
Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr. have a storied history, at times partners and at times at odds. But despite their disagreements they were united on the issue of civil rights for all people. Graham insisted on integrating his crusades in the early 1950s. In 1957 Graham told Ebony magazine:
“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.”
"I'm counting totally and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on Billy Graham. I'm not going to heaven because I've read the Bible, nor because I've preached to a lot of people. I'm going to heaven because of what Christ did." Learn more about Jesus > >
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