Billy Graham’s Heir: The Rebellious Franklin Graham

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 25, 2009

A 1996 TIME magazine article explores the passing of the evangelistic baton from Billy Graham to his oldest son, Franklin Graham. It has a number of interesting tidbits about the rebellious Franklin:

• Billy Graham had asked evangelist John Wesley White to encourage Franklin in preaching. In 1983 White gave Franklin a chance to share his testimony in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in front of 1,000 people. Not a single one came forward. Franklin later told White: “Don’t you ever ask me to do that again. I’m not Billy Graham!”
• The article also described Franklin Graham’s rebellious streak growing up and the lengths his mother, Ruth Bell Graham, had to go to keep him in line: “On another occasion the mother, provoked beyond reason during a fast-food jaunt, locked her son in the car trunk. When she opened it again, he cheerily placed his order for ‘a cheeseburger without meat, French fries and a Coke.’”
• Some of the details are a little more frightening: “In 1987 neighbors called the local sheriff when he took on the task of chopping down a neighbor’s tree—with 720 rounds of machine-gun fire from a borrowed weapon.” Later in the article it adds: “His only known explanation was that he hadn’t realized it would require so many rounds.”
• The article primarily covers Franklin’s ascension to the leadership of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which it describes as the “Rolls-Royce of revival ministries.” The article notes that Franklin once said, “I wouldn’t touch BGEA leadership with a 10-foot pole,” though he said he would consider it if Billy Graham asked him. Despite reservations from other board members, that’s eventually what happened.
• There’s also the interesting ‘what if’ that some board members, Billy Graham included, publicly considered the idea of shutting down the BGEA after Billy was gone.

Does Billy Graham Stand Up For the Poor?

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)

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