150.Religious leaders “will use my views as a guide.” Ruth Gmeiner, “Billy Graham Making Check of Candidates’ Spirituality,” UP, February 2, 1952.
150.“I’d be elected.” AP, February 4, 1952. A slightly different account, setting this statement in the context of a conversation with a presidential candidate, presumably Estes Kefauver, was reported in the Aberdeen, Maryland, World, February 9, 1952.
150.BG is encouraged to run for Senate. AP, February 19, 1950.
150.“estimated he could swing at least sixteen million votes.” UPI, July 9, 1952.
151.Eisenhower thanks BG for interest. Letter, Dwight D. Eisenhower to BG, November 8, 1951, CN 74, Box 1, Folder 12, BGCA. Unless otherwise noted, further correspondence between Graham and Eisenhower or other members of the Eisenhower administration with the exception of Richard Nixon is from this source. On February 14, 1952, Graham requested an interview with General Eisenhower, noting that Sid Richardson had suggested he write. In a letter written to Graham on February 21, Eisenhower tentatively granted the interview. Graham’s enthusiasm for Eisenhower may have been generated by the general’s penchant for making such statements as “the churches of America are citadels of our faith in individual freedom and human dignity. This faith is the living source of all our spiritual strength. And this strength is our matchless armor in our worldwide struggle against the forces of Godless tyranny and oppression.” Quoted in the New York Times, September 8, 1947, cited in Mark Silk, Spiritual Politics (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), p. 91.
151.Richardson prompts Graham to write Ike. Billy Graham, “Billy Graham’s Own Story: ‘God Is My Witness,’” Part III, McCall’s, June 1964, p. 64.
151.BG urges Ike to run for office. Gerald Beavan, interview, July 27, 1988. Beavan claims, and there seems to be no reason to dispute the claim, that largely on the strength of their Fontainebleau meeting, Eisenhower invited him to join his campaign staff to become his primary public relations man. Though he declined a full-time position, he did some work for the campaign.
151.“one man sitting in Washington.” Hour of Decision, July 26, 1953, quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 114.
151.Truman and Adam compared. Quoted in ibid., p. 114.
151.“the nation’s leaders blundered.” Houston Post, May 4, 1952, Section II, p. 1, quoted in ibid., p. 112.
151.Truman faulted for failing to follow MacArthur’s advice. “Grace Versus Wrath,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1951, quoted in ibid., p. 115. McLoughlin reported that in a personal letter to him, Graham insisted he had studiously attempted to remain neutral in his statements about Korea, ibid., pp. 244–45, n. 64.
152.“a new foreign policy.” Hour of Decision, November 2, 1952, quoted in ibid., p. 115.
152.“we all seem to agree.” Pittsburgh Press, September 7, 1952, II, p. 25, quoted in ibid., p. 243.
152.“nation desperately needs a strong spiritual leader.” BG, sermon Hour of Decision, June 29, 1952.
152.“fortitude and courage.” Houston Post, May 4, 1952.
152.“a Moses or a Daniel.” Charles Cook, The Billy Graham Story: “One Thing I Do” (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1955), p. 100. All quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, pp. 117, 120.
152.Ike’s religiosity. Graham, “‘God Is My Witness,’” Part III, June 1964, p. 64.
152.Eisenhower to Langliere BG’s possible involvement in campaign. Letter, August 11, 1952, CN 74, Box 1, Folder 12, BGCA.
152.Eisenhower staff ambivalence toward BG. Internal memos from the campaign staff reveal that James Hagerty felt Eisenhower should not bother with BG, but Gabe Hogue favored communication. A memo approving a visit bears the handwritten note, “Five minutes only.” Note to General Paul Carroll from Alice S., October 2, 1952, CN 74, Box 1, Folder 12, BGCA.
152.Graham’s “personal survey.” “Billy Graham: Churchmen Favor Ike,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, October 27, 1952.
153.Graham’s efforts to visit Korea. “Army Refuses to Sponsor Graham Revival in Korea,” Boston Globe, November 28, 1952.
153.Ockenga criticism of government policy. Boston Post, November 29, 1952.
153.Beavan and congressional friends help. Billy Graham, I Saw Your Sons at War: The Korean Diary of Billy Graham (Minneapolis: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1953), p. 12. The congressmen were L. Mendel Rivers (Democrat-South Carolina) and Senator Clinton Anderson (Democrat-South Dakota).
153.Graham visits Korea. “Two Visits to Korea,” Time, January 5, 1953, p. 34.
153.“duck from bunker to bunker.” Minnesota Star, December 13, 1952, CN 360, MF Reel 23, BGCA.
153.“750 missionaries.” Graham, I Saw Your Sons, p. 16. All profits from the sale of this book were directed to war relief and mission efforts in Korea.
153.“We all became VIPs!” . . . “assigned by protocol to [generals].” Ibid., pp. 19, 35, 49, 52, 54.
153.BG visits orphanages, hospitals. Ibid., pp. 29–31, 46, 55.
154.“wept more . . . come out a man.” Ibid., pp. 34, 55. The United Press also reported that BG was truly shaken by scenes of battle and the wounds of soldiers, December 27, 1952.
154.Reports of preaching services, commitment of Korean Christians. Ibid., pp. 24, 38, 44, 54; AP, December 15, 1952.
155.“rugged he-man” . . . “no pinup picture.” Graham, I Saw Your Sons, p. 50.
155.“If President Truman had taken time to visit Korea.” Widely quoted in news accounts of Korean trip. Ernie Hill, “I’ve Got Plan to End Korean War—Graham,” Chicago Daily News, December 13, 1952.
155.BG’s plan to end war. UP, December 27, 1952.
155.“It has been my privilege . . . born-again Christians.” From a sermon, “Peace in Our Time,” preached early in 1953, quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 96. Graham would later observe that “I am convinced [Eisenhower] made his personal commitment to Christ as a boy; but he made it publicly after he had become President of the United States.” John Pollock, Crusades: 20 Years with Billy Graham (Minneapolis: World Wide Publications, 1969), pp. 283–84. BG claimed on other occasions that both Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had told him America’s only hope lay in religious revival. Also, Asheville Citizen, November 9, 1953.
156.BG requests “a short chat” with the President. Letter, BG to Eisenhower, June 29, 1953.
156.Why BG belongs to First Baptist, Dallas. Noel Houston, “Billy Graham,” Holiday, March 1958, p. 113.
156.Review of Peace with God and Templeton’s Life Looks Up. Theodore A. Gill, “Evangelists Three,” Christian Century, March 23, 1955, pp. 369–70. Templeton’s book was published by Harper & Row. The third evangelist of the title was Dale Evans Rogers, whose inspirational book, My Spiritual Diary, Gill also reviewed.
156.“for the man in the streets.” Billy Graham, Peace with God (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953). Introduction, p. vii.
156.BG sends Peace with God to Eisenhower. Thank-you note, Eisenhower to BG, November 3, 1953, CN 74, Box 1, Folder 12, BGCA.
156.“I have seen it happen.” Greensboro Daily News, October 15, 1951.
156.“appealing to a higher type of social strata.” Quoted by Richard H. Rovere, “Letter from Washington,” The New Yorker, February 23, 1952, pp. 78–85.
157.BG rejects Billy Sunday role and NBC offer. Minnesota Sunday Tribune, October 1, 1950; “Billy Graham Spurns Millions,” Christian Century, March 17, 1954, p. 351; Billy Graham, America’s Hour of Decision (Wheaton, Ill.: Van Kampen, 1951), p. 33.
157.Bunny and Franklin are born. Patricia Daniels Cornwell, A Time for Remembering: The Ruth Bell Graham Story (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983), pp. 88–89.
157.Billy fails to recognize his daughter. Ibid., p. 87.
157.Baptist tourists. Ruth Graham, oral history, August 26, 1978, CN 141, Box 4, Folder 8, BGCA. According to Graham, some tourists actually forced themselves into their home. “‘God Is My Witness,’” Part II, May 1964, p. 176.
157.Bunny’s fund-raising gambit. Ruth Gra
ham, oral history.
158.GiGi remembered father’s absences. Virginia “GiGi” Tchividjian, interview, October 25, 1990.
158.“Bye, Daddy!” Ruth Graham, It’s My Turn (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1982), p. 106.
158.Satisfying the need for a father. Graham, “‘God Is My Witness,’” Part II, May 1964, p. 176.
Chapter 10: Trust and Obey
159.“I can feel the tug.” “What Is God Like,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1951; Billy Graham, Peace with God (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953; New York: Pocket Books, 1965), p. 31. Unless otherwise noted, all page references are to 1965 edition. NB: quotations from Hour of Decision sermons are taken primarily from printed copies of the sermons. The dates cited are taken from these reprints but may not be completely accurate in every case, since some revisions obviously occurred in later versions. For example, a sermon entitled “The Invitation of Christ” and dated 1959 includes a reference to “the late president John F. Kennedy,” who did not die until 1963.
160.“we prayed once out in Portland, Oregon, and it poured down.” Hour of Decision television program, 1952, CN 113, Film 188, BGCA.
160.God as Great Bookkeeper. Charlotte News, May 22, 1957, quoted in Marshall Frady, Billy Graham: Parable of American Righteousness (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979) p. 303.
160.Satan described. Graham, Peace with God, p. 48.
160.Adam “created full grown.” Ibid., p. 33.
161.“Christ was the substitute!” Ibid., pp. 82–83.
161.“Only the Christian knows how to live.” Billy Graham, My Answer (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1960), p. 139.
161.“The Christian should stand out . . .” Ibid., p. 160.
161.BG, “The Life That Wins,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1952.
162.Profanity and lying. BG, “Sins of the Tongue,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1952.
162.Georgia considers prohibition. “The Whiskey Rebellion,” Time, February 20, 1950, p. 18.
162.Graham hopes Mississippi will remain dry. Jackson Clarion-Ledger, July 10, 1952, CN 360, MF Reel 5, BGCA.
162.Sexual content of My Answer. G. W. Target counts and categorizes these statements in Evangelism, Inc. (London: Penguin Books, 1968), p. 156.
162.“never lick it without Christ.” Sherwood Eliot Wirt, “New Life Surges in ‘Graveyard of Evangelists,’” United Evangelical Action, August 1, 1958, p. 16.
162.Death penalty for adultery. BG, “The Responsibilities of the Home,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1954.
162.Perils of “innocent friendship.” Graham, My Answer, p. 42.
162.“adultery can be forgiven.” Ibid., p. 149.
163.“make certain that my suspicions were justified.” Ibid., p. 34.
163.“an either/or deal.” Ibid., pp. 39–40.
163.Advises against confession of adultery. Ibid., pp. 27, 36.
163.“on the question of abortion.” Ibid., p. 111.
163.The role of women. Billy Graham, “The Home God Honors,” sermon in Revival in Our Time (Wheaton, Ill.: Van Kampen Press, 1950), p. 95, and BG, “Responsibilities sermon.”
163.“Wife should adapt continually.” BG, “My Answer,” newspaper column, February 15, 1953.
163.Women “entitled to choose” to become pregnant. Graham, My Answer, p. 29.
164.The Bible sanctions corporal punishment. “Responsibilities.”
164.“calluses on my backbone.” BG, “Home God Honors,” p. 99.
164.“Do not be afraid to use it.” Ibid., p. 100.
164.disintegration of Roman Empire due to broken home. BG, “The Answer to Broken Homes,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1953.
164.Divorce survey. BG, “Broken Homes.”
164.“the secret of America” . . . “homes of our fair land.” BG, “The Home,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1956. Quoted in William G. McLoughlin, Billy Graham, Revivalist in a Secular Age (New York: Ronald Press, 1960) p. 129. This passage does not appear in later reprints of this sermon. It is not uncommon, however, for the printed sermons to undergo revision, sometimes to remove distracting references to events no longer familiar to contemporary readers or, apparently, to delete passages that have drawn unfavorable notice from journalists or scholars.
164.Moody-style pathos: open front door and fatally ill girl. BG, “Mother’s Day Message,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1953.
165.“stepping in Daddy’s tracks.” BG, “Father,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1956.
165.Graham on emotional preaching. Frank Colquhoun, The Harringay Story: The Official Story of the Billy Graham Greater London Crusade, 1954 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1955), p. 19.
165.Revival more likely in difficult times. U.S. News & World Report, August 27, 1954, p. 87.
165.Social problems listed by Graham. The reference to high-speed objects is from “Immortality,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1957. The other references are generic and appear in many sermons.
167.Graham silent at invitation. Graham’s silence at the invitation was not invariable. In the film Mr. Texas, he urges the audience in typical revivalist fashion: “That’s it. Quickly. Come on.” Newspaper accounts of the notable absence of this technique, however, make it appear the silent approach was his standard method of giving the invitation.
167.“almost all ministers . . . agree.” BG, “Christianity Versus Communism,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1951.
167.“victory over the tongue.” BG, “The Sins of the Tongue,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1952.
167.Reasons for youthful immorality. “Young Evangelist Graham Flays Girls’ Loose Morals,” Boston Traveler, January 4, 1950.
167.Jefferson’s theology. “Billy Graham Tours National Shrines, Asks Moral Awakening,” the Washington Post, January 13, 1952.
167.“behavioristic philosophies.” BG, “The Bible and Dr. Kinsey,” sermon Hour of Decision, 1953.
167.Ministers should hide doubts. “Billy’s Conquest,” Newsweek, July 12, 1954, p. 68.
167.“People want to be told.” Wayne S. Bond, “The Rhetoric of Billy Graham,” Ph.D. diss., Southern Illinois University, August 1973, p. 28.
168.Ockenga on the social conscience of the New Evangelicalism. Quoted in Lowell D. Streiker and Gerald S. Strober, Religion and the New Majority: Billy Graham, Middle America, and the Politics of the 70’s (New York: Association Press, 1972), p. 112.
168.Favorable observations on labor. BG, “Labor, Christ and the Cross,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1953; Billy Graham, Peace with God (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1953), p. 181; Graham, interview, March 26, 1987.
169.Admonitions to employers. Graham, Peace with God, pp. 180–81.
169.Prayer groups in cities. Stanley High, Billy Graham: The Personal Story of the Man, His Message, and His Mission (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956), p. 63.
169.“an industrial Utopia.” BG, “Organized Labor and the Church,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1952.
169.“no union dues” in the Garden of Eden. Quoted in James L. McAllister, “Evangelical Faith and Billy Graham,” Social Action XIX (March 1953): 23, cited in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 99.
169.“The only one I mention is communism.” “Rabbi Criticizes Evangelist Billy Graham; Southern Baptist Ministers Offer Defense,” Portland Oregonian, February 17, 1950 CN 360, MF Reel 2, BGCA. Quoted again in July 25, 1950 edition.
169.“a battle to the death.” BG, “Satan’s Religion,” sermon Hour of Decision, 1953. In another sermon, “Christianity Versus Communism,” Hour of Decision, 1951, he called communism “a fanatical religion that has declared war upon the Christian God.”
169.Communism’s “power from the devil.” Asheville Citizen, November 20, 1953.
169.“The Devil is their god.” BG, “Satan’s Religion.”
169.“Then let’s do it.” Hour of Decision, June 10, 1951, quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 112.
170.“While nobody likes a watch dog.” BG, “Labor, Christ and the Cross,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1953. Later reprints of this sermon
delete “the lavenders,” probably in an effort not to offend homosexuals unnecessarily.
170.BG did not know of Marxists in churches. AP, March 30, 1953.
170.“put under suspicion.” Asheville Citizen, November 20, 1953.
170.“I am not answering that.” London Daily Herald, February 26, 1954, p. 7, quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 112.
170.“most people laughing off McCarthy.” Letter, BG to Eisenhower, May 10, 1954, CN 74, Box 1, Folder 12, BGCA. 166 “Senate was fiddling over trifles.” Hour of Decision, December 5, 1954; also BG, “Christ Is Coming,” sermon, Hour of Decision, 1955, quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 112.
170.Warnings against appeasement. BG, “America’s Decision,” sermon Hour of Decision, 1953.
171.“We shed the blood and pay the bills.” Ibid., quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, p. 116.
171.UN weakness. BG, “Teach Us to Pray,” sermon, Hour of Decision, March 1953, quoted in McLoughlin, Revivalist, pp. 116–17.
171.“Communism’s Public Enemy Number One.” Chicago Daily News, June 11, 1955, p. 1.
171.East German papers call Graham “a hypocritical demagogue.” “Billy Graham’s Messages Arouse the Red Devil,” AP, in Chicago Daily News, February 27, 1952.
171.Racism “an unspoken assumption.” Graham, interview, March 28, 1987.
172.God “no respecter of persons.” Acts 10:34.
172.Reporters question Columbia segregation. Boston Post, March 27, 28, 31, 1950; Portland, Maine, Evening Express, March 27, 1950. In CN 1 (Haymaker Papers), Box 1, Folders 1–2, BGCA. Cited in Jerry Berl Hopkins, Billy Graham and the Race Problem, 1949–1969 (Ph. D. diss., University of Kentucky, 1986), p. 33. I am grateful to Dr. Hopkins for having ferreted out some materials of which I was previously unaware, as well as for his generally evenhanded treatment of Graham’s developing position on race.
172.“All men are created equal.” “Rabbi Criticizes Billy Graham,” quoting a statement Graham had made on August 15, 1950. CN 360, MF Reel 3, BGCA.
173.Offer to hold service for blacks only. Atlanta Daily World (November–December 1950); Atlanta Constitution, November 27, 1950; Christian Science Monitor, January 1, 1951.
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