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Billy Graham: Pastor to presidents for more than 50 years

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Billy Graham: Pastor to presidents for more than 50 years
MONTREAT, N. C. — The Rev. Billy Graham will go down in the annals of U. S. presidential politics as “ the great legitimater,” according to one biographer.
Through the years, beginning with President Harry Truman and extending through the presidency of George W. Bush, Graham served as pastor, preacher, chaplain and counselor.
But most of all, Graham’s presence lent a legitimacy to presidents and their political policies, said William Martin, a professor of sociology at Rice University. Martin wrote a definitive biography of Graham that was published in 1991, Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story.
“Graham didn’t have to say anything. Just the friendship made it appear that (a president’s) programs were something that conservative Christians should support,” Martin said. “Having Graham as your friend meant you and your programs, at the least, were worthy of attention and respect. At the most, it meant they were good and Christian. That is an immeasurable, but important, asset.”
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Graham also realized that rubbing elbows with the leader of the free world benefited him as well.
Here are the highlights of Graham’s association with a string of U. S. presidents. The following has been gleaned from an interview with Martin and from Graham’s own writings in his 1997 book, Just as I am.
Harry S Truman
Graham learned an early lesson in dealing with presidents and the press after Truman invited Graham to the White House in 1950.
After a 20-minute meeting with the president, Graham and colleagues Grady Wilson, Cliff Barrows and Jerry Beavan met with reporters and photographers. When reporters pressed him, Graham recounted his meeting with the president.
Next, Graham and his colleagues posed for photographers. Graham knelt on the White House lawn for prayer at the press corps’ urging to re-enact his prayer with the president.
“It dawned on me a few days later that we had abused the privilege of seeing the president,” Graham wrote. “National coverage of our visit was definitely not to our advantage. The president was offended that I had quoted him without authorization.”
In a visit years later, Graham apologized to Truman.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Graham played “a somewhat significant role” in helping persuade Eisenhower to run for president, Martin said.
After being encouraged to write Eisenhower a letter asking him to run, Graham did so.
“I have been told that Eisenhower took that seriously,” Martin said.
Graham never endorsed Eisenhower, “but certainly let it be known that he favored Eisenhower,” Martin said. Graham even gave Ike a Bible that he carried prominently during his campaign.
Later, Graham visited and golfed with the president.
John F. Kennedy
During Kennedy’s ascent to the White House, Graham found himself pulled in several directions.
Graham declined a Kennedy aide’s request that Graham issue a statement asking for tolerance because Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. At the time, some political leaders worried that Kennedy would be beholden to the pope above his country.
But while Graham turned down that request, he also wrote that he “refused the demands of some Protestants to come out against a Catholic candidate.”
In the general election, which pitted Kennedy against Richard Nixon, Graham wrote that he felt Nixon’s experience in the Eisenhower administration made him a better qualified candidate. Graham was also a friend of the Nixon family.
But Graham never declared a favorite. Graham wrote a column for Life magazine that favored Nixon but asked at the last minute that it not run, according to Martin.
The election was a close race, “and it might have made the difference,” Graham’s biographer said.
The relationship between Kennedy and Graham was cordial, but the men didn’t have much in common, Martin said.
Lyndon B. Johnson
After Kennedy’s assassination, Graham called Johnson and offered to help in any way he could. Within days, Johnson summoned Graham to the White House.
Graham spoke out on behalf of Johnson’s anti-poverty program and “to some extent, helped work on behalf of easing integration,” Martin said.
“Many people criticized (Graham) for not being more aggressive in the civil rights movement. But he was still ahead of his constituency. He was never in the vanguard. He wasn’t protesting. But he should be given more credit than blame,” Martin said.
During the Vietnam War, Graham’s position evolved, Martin said.
First, Graham took the administration’s side. But after talking with missionaries and the military men and women who served, “he became less confident that we were doing the right thing.
“Then he said we should either do something — either pull out, or win. I think he shared in the frustration and ambivalence that a great many Americans did,” Martin said.
Like many people, Graham noted Johnson’s overwhelming personality and inherent contradictions.
“He could be coarse and charming at the same time, and even profanely poignant,” Graham wrote. “Almost every time he swore in my presence, he would quickly turn and say, ‘Excuse me, Preacher.’ ”
Richard M. Nixon
The height of Nixon’s political career matched the height of Graham’s involvement in presidential politics.
Graham was a longtime friend of Nixon and his family. Graham’s counseling provided “decisive encouragement” for Nixon to decide to run again for president, Martin said.
Graham was in regular contact with Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, and wasn’t shy in offering advice, according to Martin. “It was clear that he was a friend.”
After the Watergate break-in, Graham first downplayed its significance. But gradually, Graham became deeply concerned.
“He was terribly disillusioned by the language (Nixon used) and the machinations that were clearly there. It was one of the most painful episodes of his life,” Martin said.
Graham wrote that “when the worst came out, it was nearly unbearable for me.”
“On the day the contents of the White House tapes were made public and I heard the president’s words, I was deeply distressed. The thing that surprised and shook me most was the vulgar language he used,” Graham wrote. “Never, in all the times I was with him, did he use language even close to that. I felt physically sick and went into the seclusion of my study at the back of the house. Inwardly, I felt torn apart.”
Later, White House tapes from 1972 gave evidence that Graham disparaged Jews — talking about a Jewish stranglehold on the country — in a conversation with the president, something he denied in 1994 when H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s former chief of staff, published The Haldeman Diaries. He apologized in 2002 when the National Archives released the tape.
Graham said in his book that did not shrink from commenting on Watergate.
“I called the whole affair sordid, describing it as a symptom of a deeper moral crisis that affected other nations besides our own,” he wrote.
Never again would Graham have such a close affiliation with a sitting president.
Gerald R. Ford
After Nixon left the White House, Graham encouraged Ford to initiate a healing process and pardon Nixon.
Graham called the White House and talked with Ford. Graham wrote that Ford told him, “Well, it’s a tough call, a tough decision. I’m certainly giving it a lot of thought and prayer.”
Graham wrote that he responded, “Mr. President, I’m praying for you constantly.”
Jimmy Carter
Graham had a polite relationship with the Carters, but they were never close.
Graham called the personal contacts “cordial though infrequent” during Carter’s tenure. Without speaking specifically about the topic, Graham felt both men believed that active involvement on Graham’s part “could easily have raised suspicion that I was somehow taking advantage of our shared faith to influence political decisions or to secure favors for the evangelical movement,” Graham wrote.

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