Rev Billy Graham’s greatest sin

THE EDITOR, Sir:

WHEN BILLY Graham stands before the judgement seat of God, he may finally realise how badly he failed his country and, perhaps, his God. On civil rights and the environmental crisis, the most impor tant issues of his lifetime, he championed the wrong policies.

Graham was on the wrong side of history.

For Graham, the Bible had a clear message for Christians living in what he believed were humans’ last days on Ear th. Individuals alone can achieve salvation; governments cannot. Conversions change behaviours; federal policies do not.

These convictions shaped the evangelist’s views on civil rights.

In the l ate 1950s, Graham integrated his revivals and seemed to support the burgeoning civil-rights movement. This is the Graham most Americans remember.

But as the movement grew, expanded, and became increasingly confrontational, the evangelist’s position changed.

Once leaders like Martin Luther King Jr began practising civil disobedience and asking for the federal government t o guarantee African-Americans’ rights, Graham’s support evaporated.

He criticised civil-rights activists for focusing on changing laws rather than hearts.

Graham had the opportunity to lead fundamentalists into a new era. He could have pushed them to take social reform seriously as a God-given mandate to save the world from environmental destruction. He could have tackled racism, America’s original sin, by championing the federal government’s aggressive civilrights policies.

He had good intentions as his work desegregating his crusades demonstrated. But when his influence really would have counted, when he could have effected real change, real social transformation, he was too locked into last-days fearmongering to recognise the potential of the State to do good.

ROOPLALL DUDHNATH dudroops@yahoo.com