My earlier piece about 18th century
George Whitefield told of revivals in Britain and British America and marvelled
at the number of sermons preached, the distances travelled and the size of his
audience. Billy Graham was a master of the communication techniques of our age
and presided over 417 crusades in 185 countries and reached an estimated 210
million people. I recall the excitement, even in our decidedly unzealous
household, of his visits (the first of several) to London in 1954 and 1955 and
to Glasgow in the same year. Billy Graham was a tall, square-jawed American
phenomenon and his name was on everyone’s lips, at least for a few weeks. The
men felt challenged and the women swooned.
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| Billy Graham preaches |
Billy Graham (1918 - 2018) died aged 99 after a
spectacular career. His father was a modest dairy farmer in Charlotte, North
Carolina, where he was brought up and educated. Indeed, he died in his house in
Montreat, by Asheville, NC, cherishing his North Carolina roots all his long
life.
Young Billy easily fitted in to the rural
religious ambiance and in 1934, aged 16, was converted at a revival held by the
Southern preacher Mordecai Ham – who was later disparaged as a racist and
anti-Semite. He became an apprentice preacher, attending bible institutes, and
was ordained into the Southern Baptist Convention in Florida in 1939. He
practised his sermonising on the local birds and alligators! An attack of mumps
exempted him from military service. Meanwhile his education was completed with
a degree in anthropology from Wheaton College, Illinois, in 1943.
Billy moved from church to church and dabbled
in popular radio evangelism. He had come to believe that the Bible contained
the infallible word of God, and this coloured all his later utterances. He
started his revivalist crusades in 1947 and one in Los Angeles in 1949
attracted much publicity and he became a national figure.
His social views were maturing. Early revivals
in the South were racially segregated but by 1953 Billy Graham was refusing to
speak at segregated gatherings and told his white audiences their former racial
pride was mistaken and that all men were equal before God. He started to employ
black clergy assistants gradually breaking down racial barriers. He was an
influence for good on this issue.
Billy’s crusades really got into their swing in
the 1950s. He targeted mainly US cities but also “saved souls” in England,
Scotland, Germany, Scandinavia, Australasia and France. Later he concentrated
on India, Africa and the Far East – indeed his largest audience was the 1.1m
who attended a revival in Seoul, South Korea in 1973
.
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| Billy Graham crusade NYC 1957 |
The revivals were carefully staged. Typically, a sports arena with a high capacity would be hired. A choir of up to 5,000 voices would be recruited, creating a melodious atmosphere. Billy would deliver his vigorous Christian address begging those seeking redemption to “come forward” and declare their commitment. Those who came forwarded were interviewed by Billy’s staff and counselled, given some improving literature and a promise of follow-up. In Moscow, one-third of the audience “came forward” – mass emotion / hysteria? More songs and music would close proceedings. The revivals were ecumenical in spirit – no attempt was made to recruit “inquirers” to the Baptists, but they were directed to their local denomination. The wonders of acoustic science were employed to make sure everyone heard the message and local TV and radio stations were likely to cover the occasion “live”, greatly increasing the audience.
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| Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles |
Billy Graham kept this up for more than 40 years. He operated through a Billy Graham Evangelist Organisation with reams of propaganda, magazines and pictures streaming out to his public. Recordings of his sermons are still distributed. His public reputation increased and he hobnobbed with Presidents. Harry Truman met, but did not like Billy but Ike enjoyed Billy’s regular visits. The Catholic Kennedys kept aloof but Billy’s closest friend in the White House was Lyndon Johnson. LBJ’s rural Texas background was not unlike Billy’s and as LBJ wrestled with the problems of civil rights and Vietnam, Billy would kneel alongside him at his bedside and pray. Similarly, Richard Nixon appreciated the support of Billy in his difficulties (Billy did admonish Nixon for his bad language in the Watergate tapes) but they were reconciled. Later Presidents all honoured and respected Billy who became a kind of American Protestant Pope.
Worn out by his labours, Billy finally retired
in 2005. Beset by hydrocephalus, making balance, vision and hearing difficult,
his public appearances were rare. He died in 2018 and his coffin was presented
to the mourning people in the Capitol building in Washington, a rare honour.
We will not see his likes again. The decline of
religion and of Christian enthusiasm is very evident. TV audiences are
fragmented and the days have passed for coverage of sermons even by a
charismatic orator. Billy championed civil rights in the name of brotherly love
and in doing so did much to civilize America – he fought a good fight.
SMD
30.07.2019
Text copyright ©Sidney Donald
2019
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