{"id":25703,"date":"2021-06-13T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T00:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=25703"},"modified":"2021-06-14T01:33:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T01:33:48","slug":"why-the-legacy-of-billy-graham-continues-to-endure-3-essential-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-the-legacy-of-billy-graham-continues-to-endure-3-essential-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the legacy of Billy Graham continues to endure: 3 essential reads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kalpana Jain<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new two-hour documentary on PBS<\/a> examines the life and rise of Billy Graham, the famed preacher, who died on Feb. 21, 2018 at 99. Graham\u2019s enduring legacy is that he helped shape the modern-day American right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham\u2019s rallies, known popularly as \u201ccrusades,\u201d attracted millions of people all over the globe. His influence extended deep into American politics, and he provided spiritual counsel to several American presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three articles from The Conversation U.S. that offer insights into his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representative of new evangelicalism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the early part of the 20th century, evangelicalism came to be seen as being \u201csynonymous with intolerance and anti-intellectualism<\/a>,\u201d writes Andrew Dole<\/a>, professor of religion at Amherst College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1925 fundamentalists succeeded in bringing in legislation banning the teaching of evolution in public schools in Tennessee. That same year, as Dole writes, the young teacher, John Scopes, was prosecuted for teaching evolution. Known famously as the \u201cScopes monkey trial,\u201d it made headlines all over the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quoting the congregationalist minister Harold Ockenga, Dole points out that a new generation wanted to create \u201ca progressive fundamentalism with an ethical message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billy Graham, he writes, \u201cwould lead evangelicalism to revival.\u201d As he says, \u201cGraham, already a rising star, was soon adopted as the right man to represent the new \u2018evangelicalism.\u2019\u201d Over time, Graham would \u201cbecame the closest thing to an official spokesman for this movement,\u201d which was then seen to be rescuing evangelicalism from fundamentalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influence on Eisenhower<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the next few decades, Graham had an unparalleled influence on American politics. Scholar David Mislin<\/a> points to the religious language that found its way into government and politics, \u201cdue in no small part to Billy Graham.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mislin writes that in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower held the first National Prayer Breakfast, \u201cat the strong encouragement of Graham<\/a>.\u201d The event is now an annual tradition that brings together high-profile political, military and corporate leaders in Washington, D.C., usually on the first Thursday of February. Eisenhower would later sign a bill placing the phrase \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on all American currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mislin argues that in the early years of the Cold War, these actions emphasized the religious commitment of Americans. And Graham, as he writes, stressed the use of religious language, not just as a way to set the U.S. apart from \u201cthe godlessness of Soviet communism,\u201d but to address other domestic concerns that included social welfare policies that conservatives business leaders and others were opposed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be sure, Billy Graham was not singularly responsible for all of these developments. But as his biographers have noted, he loomed large in the religious politics of the 1950s,\u201d adds Mislin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rev.<\/a>
President Dwight Eisenhower held the first National Prayer Breakfast at the encouragement of Billy Graham. AP Photo\/Zieglero<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s wrath and Christian nation beliefs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In addition to political influence, evangelical leaders such as Billy Graham deeply influenced the moral values and America as a Christian nation. Scholar Samuel Perry<\/a> says for many evangelical leaders such as Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell Sr., social and cultural changes of the 1970s and 1980s such as racial integration of schools \u201cwere signs of a fallen country<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of this rhetoric was that God punishes America when Americans are unfaithful to his commandments, writes Perry. In the lead-up to Obama\u2019s reelection, Graham wrote an article with a premise that Obama\u2019s leadership would lead to God\u2019s wrath. It was, for Graham and other evangelical leaders, \u201can intentional move away from Christian values toward immorality,\u201d says Perry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump offered himself as an antidote to that fallen America and as a savior from the destruction,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the future of evangelicalism?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Evangelicalism is once again going through a change. As scholar Andrew Dole points out, \u201cevangelicalism of the future will be smaller, grayer, more closely identified with the Republican Party, and more out of step<\/a> with the views of younger Americans than it is at present.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To many it might appear that Billy Graham was the last of evangelicals who enjoyed nonpartisan support. However, adds Dole, \u201cas one who teaches the history of evangelicalism, I can imagine different possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation\u2019s archives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalpana Jain<\/a>, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kalpana Jain, The Conversation A new two-hour documentary on PBS examines the life and rise of Billy Graham, the famed preacher, who died on Feb. 21, 2018 at 99. Graham\u2019s enduring legacy is that he helped shape the modern-day American right. Graham\u2019s rallies, known popularly as \u201ccrusades,\u201d attracted millions of people all over the globe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":25704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[710,3789,479,2275,2066,10029,6431,1946],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25709,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25703\/revisions\/25709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}