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A nation never falls

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until it starts to decay at the center.

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Rome was a striking parallel
to America today,

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a leader in world affairs,

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rich and prosperous,

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with an economy that defied collapse.

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Her armies were respected by the
nations of the world.

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But Rome fell.

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And that can happen right here today.

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There's only one hope for the world.

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And that is Jesus Christ dying on a cross.

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You'll never have an hour like this

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again in your entire life...
this is it.

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And if you don't come today,
you may never come.

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I'm asking you right now to come.

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Surrender your heart and your
life to Jesus Christ

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and say today, "I want my life changed.

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I want my sins forgiven."

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I'd met Frank Sinatra briefly

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and I met Billy Graham many times.

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They both had animal magnetism,

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almost like an aura around him.

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Get up right now...

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He spoke to
more than 80 million people in person

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and hundreds of millions
of others on television.

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You are an American,
and if America is to be spared

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and America is to continue to be
blessed and honored of God,

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you are going to have to become
a Christian.

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Billy Graham is like the Protestant pope.

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There was a war

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between ambition and humility.

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He wrestled with that throughout his life.

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Billy was attracted to political power

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like a moth is attracted to flame.

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He was drawn to politicians.

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It was almost like a narcotic for him.

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The closer he moved

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Christianity to politics,

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the more he opened up the
opportunity for Christianity

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being used

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to polarize,

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to politicize.

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He opened Pandora's box the second

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he stepped into the Oval Office
for the very first time.

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Now it's my very great joy and
privilege to welcome a friend

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who really needs no introduction.

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Will you welcome, please,

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Billy Graham.

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What is it that you've got
that other preachers haven't?

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Well, I think, uh, David,

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that God gave me
the gift of an evangelist.

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What is the gift
particularly you've got? Well,

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that's what I'm saying,
I believe it's a gift

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of the spirit of God,
and when we get to Heaven,

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I'm going to reach over and grab
David Frost...

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Thank you. If you're there!

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Thank you, thank you!
Thank you.

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And I'll take you up
to the Lord and I'll say,

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"Now, David wants an answer
to this question,"

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because actually,

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I cannot answer that...
I'm as surprised

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as anyone else.

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America is a land of salespeople.

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We have products to sell.

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We have markets to exploit.

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And Billy Graham started out
as a salesman.

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He started out selling Fuller brushes.

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The sun
never sets on the Fuller Brush dealer.

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He is America's most famous visitor,

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the real friend of the housewife.

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I sold brushes from door to door

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in the Depression period.

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Many times, you'd go to the door

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and the lady would come
and just crack the door.

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And I knew that the door was
soon going to slam,

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so I always put my foot in there, you see.

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And my technique was to always
offer the lady a free brush.

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And of course, in those days,
that appealed.

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He's a kid.

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He was six-two.

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By 17, he would have been
tall and lean, blue-eyed,

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almost blond hair, and trying
to make money to go to college.

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He's beginning to sense at this point

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that he has a special gift.

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He has an ability to communicate
with people that is striking,

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and it works.

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At the end of the summer,
he was the top Fuller Brush salesman

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in all of North or South Carolina.

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And what he learned,
he said, was sincerity:

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You have to believe in the product.

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When we were growing up,

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we had Bible reading and prayer

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every night about 8:00.

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And Mother would read the Scripture,

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and Daddy would always pray.

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That was a habit, just like
brushing our teeth.

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I mean, that's what we did.

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We never thought about,
"Did we enjoy it?"

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We just did it.

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Billy Graham was born in 1918.

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His parents had a dairy farm
in North Carolina.

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And his parents were
conservative Presbyterians.

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His family life was very much like

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that of great many other people
in Mecklenburg County,

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North Carolina.

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They believed in God.

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And most of them believed that
God wanted them to win souls,

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to evangelize other people,

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to bring them to Christ.

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Young Billy Frank
Graham, as he was known at the time,

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was in some ways a normal teenager.

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He was rebelling to some degree
against the strict piety

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of his parents, although not overtly so.

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After he got a driver's license,

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he had the advantage of being
able to borrow his father's car

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and spend luxurious nights with girls,

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parking, going to movies.

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He really liked the girls,
and they liked him.

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Even though he had a head full
of Scriptures and prayers,

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Billy wasn't completely convinced

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that he was a true Christian yet.

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One night, he and his friends went to hear

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a traveling revivalist coming
through the area

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named Mordecai Ham.

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If you're not acceptable in Heaven,

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do you want to know it,
before it's too late?

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How many of you do... I do,
lift your hand right now.

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At some point during
that gathering, something Ham said

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connected with young Billy Frank Graham.

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And he decided at that moment

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to embrace the religion of his parents.

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Billy wanted to go to college

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at the University of North Carolina.

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But his mother had come to
believe that the road to Hell

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went right through the campus
of state schools.

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So she wanted him to go,
as did his father,

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to a serious Christian college.

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He was sent off to Bob Jones College,

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which was one of the strictest
fundamentalist colleges.

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Prior to the
late 19th century, Baptists, Methodists,

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and Presbyterians believed in

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the authority of Scripture,

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they believed that Jesus died
for their sins,

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and they believed that they
needed to convert the masses.

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You had cultural transformation
and intellectual developments

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that began to disrupt

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Protestant culture.

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American Protestant

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fundamentalism is a religious movement.

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It's a religious response to everything

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we associate with modernity.

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Technology,

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urbanization,

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the rise of sciences.

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All of a sudden,
Protestants were broken up

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into multiple camps.

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And fundamentalists were just
those who dug their heels.

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They drew a line in the sand.

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They said,

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"The Bible says it,
I believe it, that settles it."

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We maintain

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the glorious idea that the
Gospel does not change.

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It isn't reinterpreted from one generation

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to another generation.

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In fundamentalist circles,

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the Bible was dictated by God
directly to human agents

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who wrote it down without error

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and passed it along, and was
His fully dependable word.

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And so when they're looking at
the Book of Genesis,

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and they see that God created
the world in six days,

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and rested on the seventh,

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they're taking those as literal days.

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Protestant fundamentalists
are driven by a particular urgency,

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because they expect the world
to come to an end very soon.

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It's really not worth
it to get involved in politics

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or culture.

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They want to separate themselves
from the world

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to preserve the fundamentals of the faith,

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to keep the faith pure.

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And so they're starting
their own churches.

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They're starting colleges,
their own publications.

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We have just one obligation
in this school.

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That is to run a Christian school.

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A thing that isn't Christian
doesn't belong on this campus.

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No compromise, no trimming,
no cutting corners.

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A Christian school, that's our job.

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That would have been
a very strict environment

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for a Presbyterian Billy Graham.

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Dating at Bob Jones
College had to be scheduled,

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was restricted to 15 minutes at a time

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in a dormitory parlor,
chaperoned, no touching.

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Billy couldn't stand it.

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He liked playing.

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And so this kind of strict demeanor

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of his parents' house and of Bob Jones

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really didn't suit him at all.

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He did not do well academically, either.

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He flunked math.

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He was there for four months,
and he was extremely unhappy.

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Bob Jones was
unflinching in his conviction

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that his opinions were right

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and those who disagreed
with him were mistaken.

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And he predicted that Billy,

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when he decided to leave
Bob Jones College,

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was not going to amount to anything.

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Graham decides
to go to Florida Bible Institute.

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He had a friend there who
talked about sunshine and orange trees

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and a golf course right next door.

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Florida Bible Institute
was theologically conservative,

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but it was more relaxed.

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He's still trying to figure out who he is.

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And what he's beginning to learn is that

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the persona of a preacher suits
him very well.

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It's well-attuned to his gifts
and to his abilities.

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In the South at the
time Billy Graham was growing up,

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being an evangelist, being a preacher,

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they were cultural heroes.

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This was about as high on the
status chart as you could get.

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He began preaching,

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and he'd preach in these
sort of derelict missions

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and the scrabbly churches

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with dogs in the sandy front yards.

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And as a friend said,
"He'd preach to anything

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that would stand still."

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The confidence, the
ambition grew when he realized

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that he was actually really
good at preaching.

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It was when those first people
stepped forward

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and converted to Christ
because of his preaching

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that he got the recognition
that was so important

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to keep him going.

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When Billy Graham
graduated, the president noted,

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"Billy just wants to do
something big for God.

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"He's not sure what it is yet,

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but he wants it to be
really big."

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After he graduates
from Florida Bible Institute,

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he says to himself, "I still need

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more preparation, more training,"

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so he heads off to Wheaton College.

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He's trying, I think,
at that point to accumulate

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a bit of theological ballast.

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But the big thing that happens
for Billy Graham

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at Wheaton College is that he meets Ruth.

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Ruth Bell was the daughter
of a Presbyterian medical missionary

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who had led the medical mission
in Qingjiang, China.

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As a child, she had dreamed
of being a missionary

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and hoped to die a martyr's death.

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She wanted to
be a single woman in the plain of Tibet

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in the thin air...

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...by herself,

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preaching the Gospel to nomads.

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So she wanted to be as solitary,

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as challenged by a kind of
Christian work, as she could be.

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Billy wrote Mother a
letter and told her about Ruth.

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And said, "Mother, I know
I'm going to marry her."

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Ruth was a good student.

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00:15:47,739 --> 00:15:50,121
Pretty much everybody
acknowledged that she was

259
00:15:50,190 --> 00:15:52,675
a better student than he was.

260
00:15:53,987 --> 00:15:56,162
He told her on the third date

261
00:15:56,231 --> 00:15:59,510
that he did not feel the call
to be a missionary.

262
00:16:01,684 --> 00:16:06,586
She eventually surrendered
her missionary vocation,

263
00:16:06,655 --> 00:16:09,554
but nobody who knew Ruth Bell Graham

264
00:16:09,623 --> 00:16:14,421
ever thought she surrendered her will.

265
00:16:34,234 --> 00:16:37,651
This was a
portentous time in American life.

266
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:39,584
We're coming out of the Depression

267
00:16:39,653 --> 00:16:42,656
and then going into war.

268
00:16:42,725 --> 00:16:45,694
These were years and years
of troubled times.

269
00:16:45,763 --> 00:16:47,730
Prior to World War II,

270
00:16:47,799 --> 00:16:50,285
what we now know as
evangelical Protestantism

271
00:16:50,354 --> 00:16:54,461
wore the label of fundamentalism.

272
00:16:54,530 --> 00:16:57,050
As the nation mobilizes,

273
00:16:57,119 --> 00:16:59,225
many conservative Christians

274
00:16:59,294 --> 00:17:02,021
relabel themselves as Evangelicals.

275
00:17:05,231 --> 00:17:06,473
Youth for Christ was

276
00:17:06,542 --> 00:17:10,098
a by-product of this emerging
new evangelicalism.

277
00:17:14,205 --> 00:17:17,001
Youth for Christ was a more optimistic

278
00:17:17,070 --> 00:17:21,074
conservative Protestantism,
much more forward-looking,

279
00:17:21,143 --> 00:17:23,594
something that is in tune

280
00:17:23,663 --> 00:17:26,597
with the kind of spirit of the day,

281
00:17:26,666 --> 00:17:29,117
one in which America
is emerging from a war

282
00:17:29,186 --> 00:17:30,325
and rebuilding itself.

283
00:17:32,016 --> 00:17:34,432
Youth for Christ events

284
00:17:34,501 --> 00:17:38,229
resembled a kind of a Christian
vaudeville show.

285
00:17:38,298 --> 00:17:40,852
The preachers themselves,
they would dress very flashily,

286
00:17:40,921 --> 00:17:43,614
with bright-colored suits and bright ties,

287
00:17:43,683 --> 00:17:47,273
and sometimes bowties that would light up.

288
00:17:47,342 --> 00:17:48,550
Their slogan was

289
00:17:48,619 --> 00:17:51,173
"Geared to the times,
but anchored to the rock."

290
00:17:51,242 --> 00:17:55,315
You don't have to be
considered a bumpkin anymore.

291
00:17:55,384 --> 00:17:59,388
You don't have to be considered
intellectually retrograde.

292
00:17:59,457 --> 00:18:01,528
Become a part of American life.

293
00:18:03,427 --> 00:18:08,363
Billy is drawn in to Youth for
Christ as an evangelist.

294
00:18:08,432 --> 00:18:10,744
He was offered a position
to be a full-time

295
00:18:10,813 --> 00:18:13,333
evangelist working for them.

296
00:18:15,059 --> 00:18:17,820
Youth for Christ is, for
Graham, a kind of halfway house

297
00:18:17,889 --> 00:18:21,341
out of the kind of strict,

298
00:18:21,410 --> 00:18:27,140
starchy fundamentalism of his
childhood into a larger arena.

299
00:18:29,591 --> 00:18:33,146
I can still
remember going to Winona Lake, Indiana,

300
00:18:33,215 --> 00:18:35,355
when they had the annual
Youth for Christ conference

301
00:18:35,424 --> 00:18:38,427
and a different preacher every night.

302
00:18:38,496 --> 00:18:41,568
But Billy was different than the others.

303
00:18:43,708 --> 00:18:46,504
The power of that voice to make
people just listen

304
00:18:46,573 --> 00:18:49,335
was very striking.

305
00:18:49,404 --> 00:18:52,648
I once said it was like
a train whistle on a prairie.

306
00:18:52,717 --> 00:18:55,617
We could hear it like a sound
of something in the distance,

307
00:18:55,686 --> 00:18:58,965
but very, very powerful.

308
00:18:59,034 --> 00:19:00,691
He loved the stage.

309
00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:02,900
He liked exciting people

310
00:19:02,969 --> 00:19:07,146
and getting them to commit to Christ.

311
00:19:07,215 --> 00:19:08,768
He did have that

312
00:19:08,837 --> 00:19:11,978
personal ability to sense, I think,

313
00:19:12,047 --> 00:19:14,981
people that he spoke with
who were open to the message

314
00:19:15,050 --> 00:19:17,466
and open to him.

315
00:19:19,192 --> 00:19:22,126
He was incredibly
energetic, and in three years,

316
00:19:22,195 --> 00:19:25,785
he went through doing revivals in some

317
00:19:25,854 --> 00:19:28,822
47 states and all Canadian provinces.

318
00:19:34,034 --> 00:19:37,969
The audience was
never big enough for Graham.

319
00:19:38,038 --> 00:19:40,213
Always had this sense of reaching out,

320
00:19:40,282 --> 00:19:44,735
have to do more and find
different ways to do it.

321
00:19:44,804 --> 00:19:47,082
Graham comes to a point when he recognizes

322
00:19:47,151 --> 00:19:50,603
that even Youth for Christ
is too confining for him,

323
00:19:50,672 --> 00:19:53,433
and this is when he decides

324
00:19:53,502 --> 00:19:56,505
to strike out on his own.

325
00:19:56,574 --> 00:20:01,752
He chooses, of all places, Los
Angeles, the home of Hollywood,

326
00:20:01,821 --> 00:20:04,203
and this is going to be his launching pad

327
00:20:04,272 --> 00:20:07,930
into his own career.

328
00:20:09,484 --> 00:20:12,487
He has been in this spiritual battle,

329
00:20:12,556 --> 00:20:15,455
both internally
and with his fellow evangelist

330
00:20:15,524 --> 00:20:17,699
and friend Charles Templeton.

331
00:20:17,768 --> 00:20:19,873
Templeton's argument is,

332
00:20:19,942 --> 00:20:23,877
"You know, look, your really
hardcore fundamentalist Gospel

333
00:20:23,946 --> 00:20:25,879
"is out of date.

334
00:20:25,948 --> 00:20:28,606
"People don't believe that the
world was literally created

335
00:20:28,675 --> 00:20:33,162
"in six days, and you need
to update your message

336
00:20:33,232 --> 00:20:34,819
if you're going to get through
to people."

337
00:20:34,888 --> 00:20:37,822
And it creates something of
a crisis of faith

338
00:20:37,891 --> 00:20:41,032
for a now 30-year-old Billy Graham,

339
00:20:41,101 --> 00:20:43,103
who is going into what is meant to be

340
00:20:43,172 --> 00:20:46,555
the biggest attempt he has ever undertaken

341
00:20:46,624 --> 00:20:48,488
to reach a lot of people.

342
00:20:48,557 --> 00:20:50,352
To him, the choice was, "I either preach

343
00:20:50,421 --> 00:20:52,181
"the Bible as the literal word of God,

344
00:20:52,251 --> 00:20:54,218
or I leave the ministry."

345
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:58,981
In a sense, Templeton is the acid

346
00:20:59,050 --> 00:21:03,572
eating away at Graham's self-confidence.

347
00:21:03,641 --> 00:21:06,437
Graham himself begins to think

348
00:21:06,506 --> 00:21:09,751
that he's got to come to terms
with this message

349
00:21:09,820 --> 00:21:10,855
that he is preaching.

350
00:21:15,135 --> 00:21:17,759
He goes out into the woods

351
00:21:17,828 --> 00:21:21,210
and he climbs the mountain a ways.

352
00:21:23,661 --> 00:21:29,460
And as the story goes,
he has a kind of revelation.

353
00:21:32,014 --> 00:21:36,847
He talks about having
really asked God to guide him

354
00:21:36,916 --> 00:21:40,782
in this moment, at this crossroads,

355
00:21:40,851 --> 00:21:46,408
and feeling this sense of peace
and conviction that, no,

356
00:21:46,477 --> 00:21:51,033
he is right to continue on this path,

357
00:21:51,102 --> 00:21:53,622
where he is not to be questioning

358
00:21:53,691 --> 00:21:56,418
any of the literal truths of the Bible,

359
00:21:56,487 --> 00:22:02,321
but to preach it as God's holy word.

360
00:22:02,390 --> 00:22:07,567
And then he goes into the Los
Angeles Crusade a liberated man,

361
00:22:07,636 --> 00:22:09,362
with a conviction about what it is

362
00:22:09,431 --> 00:22:13,677
that he is being called to do,
and he never looks back.

363
00:22:26,517 --> 00:22:28,208
We hoped that the Soviet Union

364
00:22:28,277 --> 00:22:30,556
would cooperate in this effort

365
00:22:30,625 --> 00:22:33,628
to build a lasting peace.

366
00:22:33,697 --> 00:22:36,147
But Communist imperialism

367
00:22:36,216 --> 00:22:39,358
would not have it so.

368
00:22:39,427 --> 00:22:40,773
Late September of 1949,

369
00:22:40,842 --> 00:22:43,672
a series of events

370
00:22:43,741 --> 00:22:49,333
in the outside world come
together the same time

371
00:22:49,402 --> 00:22:51,646
that Billy Graham starts his revival.

372
00:22:53,406 --> 00:22:55,063
So it's a perfect storm.

373
00:22:55,132 --> 00:22:57,410
And for his career,

374
00:22:57,479 --> 00:23:01,828
it is the catapult.

375
00:23:01,897 --> 00:23:03,589
I believe that tonight,

376
00:23:03,658 --> 00:23:07,524
we're living in the most tragic hour

377
00:23:07,593 --> 00:23:09,698
in the history of the entire world.

378
00:23:09,767 --> 00:23:12,045
Our newspapers tell us today

379
00:23:12,114 --> 00:23:17,430
that rockets are being ringed
around Western Europe,

380
00:23:17,499 --> 00:23:19,812
and these rockets can shoot

381
00:23:19,881 --> 00:23:23,229
atomic missiles 5,000 miles,

382
00:23:23,298 --> 00:23:29,684
that could reach American cities
from the Soviet Union.

383
00:23:29,753 --> 00:23:32,376
He was conscious of the
importance of relevance.

384
00:23:32,445 --> 00:23:36,069
So even though his message was
absolutely grounded

385
00:23:36,138 --> 00:23:38,417
in a literal reading of the Bible,

386
00:23:38,486 --> 00:23:42,938
he made it a point to connect
those lessons

387
00:23:43,007 --> 00:23:48,944
with what was happening
in the news that day.

388
00:23:49,013 --> 00:23:52,154
He understands people are scared.

389
00:23:52,223 --> 00:23:54,087
Who's behind all this?

390
00:23:54,156 --> 00:23:56,918
What's behind all this?
Communism!

391
00:23:56,987 --> 00:24:00,162
They're strong, they're disciplined,

392
00:24:00,231 --> 00:24:04,512
and they're atheistic.

393
00:24:04,581 --> 00:24:06,962
He would use
those fears as a way of lending

394
00:24:07,031 --> 00:24:11,622
a sense of urgency to his
message and to his invitation

395
00:24:11,691 --> 00:24:16,040
to become part of the Christian faith.

396
00:24:16,109 --> 00:24:19,561
I believe this sincerely
from the depths of my heart,

397
00:24:19,630 --> 00:24:23,703
that unless the Western world
has an old-fashioned revival,

398
00:24:23,772 --> 00:24:25,325
we are done for.

399
00:24:25,394 --> 00:24:26,982
We cannot last.

400
00:24:27,051 --> 00:24:30,572
We cannot stand the tremendous strain

401
00:24:30,641 --> 00:24:34,749
and stress of future days
in our battle with communism

402
00:24:34,818 --> 00:24:37,303
unless we have a spiritual revival.

403
00:24:39,995 --> 00:24:43,482
People are coming,
but not a lot of people,

404
00:24:43,551 --> 00:24:44,483
and probably not people

405
00:24:44,552 --> 00:24:48,556
who are not already Christians.

406
00:24:48,625 --> 00:24:52,732
The Salvation Army PR man
is helping get the word out

407
00:24:52,801 --> 00:24:55,942
and is urging reporters to come
to a press conference,

408
00:24:56,011 --> 00:24:59,636
which they do, and no one writes anything.

409
00:24:59,705 --> 00:25:01,465
After a few weeks,

410
00:25:01,534 --> 00:25:04,641
they were thinking, "Well, maybe
we'll bring it to a close."

411
00:25:06,539 --> 00:25:09,473
And he had the sense that he had failed.

412
00:25:15,203 --> 00:25:21,002
That evening,
Billy was driving up to the tent,

413
00:25:21,071 --> 00:25:24,971
and there were cars all over.

414
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:27,146
And he said,
"What has happened?"

415
00:25:30,736 --> 00:25:33,048
One of them said, "You have been kissed

416
00:25:33,117 --> 00:25:35,154
by William Randolph Hearst."

417
00:25:35,223 --> 00:25:37,639
Now, at this point, Hearst

418
00:25:37,708 --> 00:25:42,368
is one of the most prominent
newspapermen in the country.

419
00:25:42,437 --> 00:25:44,094
What Hearst saw in Graham

420
00:25:44,163 --> 00:25:48,029
is a man who is fervently anti-communist,

421
00:25:48,098 --> 00:25:50,894
a man who believes in law and order.

422
00:25:50,963 --> 00:25:52,516
But I think, even more important,

423
00:25:52,585 --> 00:25:56,347
Hearst saw a way to sell papers.

424
00:25:56,416 --> 00:25:59,005
Graham was flamboyant, he was attractive,

425
00:25:59,074 --> 00:26:01,180
he made great pictures on the front page.

426
00:26:22,166 --> 00:26:25,860
Things are happening inside the big tent,

427
00:26:25,929 --> 00:26:29,173
as thousands come from the home,
the schools, offices, stores,

428
00:26:29,242 --> 00:26:30,968
and factories.

429
00:26:31,037 --> 00:26:33,039
They come from Greater Los Angeles,

430
00:26:33,108 --> 00:26:35,835
and from cities and towns in
surrounding counties,

431
00:26:35,904 --> 00:26:39,321
filling the tent day after day.

432
00:26:39,390 --> 00:26:43,774
There are problems of fear,
there are problems of sex,

433
00:26:43,843 --> 00:26:46,294
there are problems that face us tonight

434
00:26:46,363 --> 00:26:49,228
that will never be solved unless
we bring them

435
00:26:49,297 --> 00:26:53,681
to the Lord Jesus Christ
and turn our life, our burdens,

436
00:26:53,750 --> 00:26:56,131
our problems over to Him.

437
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:59,514
It all came together then.

438
00:26:59,583 --> 00:27:01,689
By that fall, that meeting,

439
00:27:01,758 --> 00:27:05,658
and the crowds, the situation,
things coalesced.

440
00:27:05,727 --> 00:27:10,663
The enormous results of that
meeting cemented in his mind

441
00:27:10,732 --> 00:27:15,150
his own mission in shaping
American Christianity.

442
00:27:20,293 --> 00:27:23,262
As he went home,
other travelers spoke to him,

443
00:27:23,331 --> 00:27:24,953
wanted his autograph.

444
00:27:25,022 --> 00:27:28,129
And he was just astonished.

445
00:27:28,198 --> 00:27:31,132
Wherever he went, people knew
who Billy Graham was.

446
00:27:31,201 --> 00:27:33,375
And he soon tours the country
like a rock star.

447
00:27:36,171 --> 00:27:39,209
He goes to Boston and has a huge
string of revivals there,

448
00:27:39,278 --> 00:27:40,555
takes the city by storm.

449
00:27:40,624 --> 00:27:42,453
Mr. Graham
has preached to more than

450
00:27:42,522 --> 00:27:45,318
two million persons in great
citywide campaigns

451
00:27:45,387 --> 00:27:47,907
in Columbia, South Carolina,
Portland, Oregon,

452
00:27:47,976 --> 00:27:49,564
Minneapolis, Minnesota,

453
00:27:49,633 --> 00:27:51,221
and Atlanta, Georgia.

454
00:27:51,290 --> 00:27:53,223
The Lord Jesus
Christ takes the hand of God,

455
00:27:53,292 --> 00:27:55,535
and He takes your hand,

456
00:27:55,604 --> 00:28:00,023
and He brings you together
in reconciliation.

457
00:28:00,092 --> 00:28:02,784
He revels in these
crowds, he revels in these moments,

458
00:28:02,853 --> 00:28:05,028
and he revels in the attention,
and he's very good at it.

459
00:28:05,097 --> 00:28:07,651
He has an ability to connect
with individuals,

460
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:09,066
with small groups,

461
00:28:09,135 --> 00:28:11,586
and to hold of hundreds of thousands,

462
00:28:11,655 --> 00:28:13,139
really, in sway as he talks.

463
00:28:13,208 --> 00:28:16,315
The most thrilling experience to me

464
00:28:16,384 --> 00:28:20,181
is to look out upon a vast sea of faces,

465
00:28:20,250 --> 00:28:23,460
and to see thousands of men
and women and boys and girls

466
00:28:23,529 --> 00:28:25,600
gathered under one roof,

467
00:28:25,669 --> 00:28:29,259
to see the mood of an audience
change during the service.

468
00:28:30,847 --> 00:28:33,677
The Graham strategy was very much

469
00:28:33,746 --> 00:28:37,439
to associate crusades
with influential leaders...

470
00:28:37,508 --> 00:28:40,753
with civic leaders, politicians,
celebrities,

471
00:28:40,822 --> 00:28:43,307
so as to have a kind of ripple effect

472
00:28:43,376 --> 00:28:46,863
upon the broader populace.

473
00:28:46,932 --> 00:28:49,866
For fundamentalists who had been operating

474
00:28:49,935 --> 00:28:53,904
around the margins of public
life and public communication,

475
00:28:53,973 --> 00:28:57,114
it was a surprising thing to them to see

476
00:28:57,183 --> 00:28:59,979
Billy Graham engaging this directly

477
00:29:00,048 --> 00:29:02,671
in this very secular world.

478
00:29:10,300 --> 00:29:11,888
The next logical step

479
00:29:11,957 --> 00:29:14,476
is to show all of his followers

480
00:29:14,545 --> 00:29:18,101
that he actually has
the ear of the powerful.

481
00:29:18,170 --> 00:29:20,448
And there's no better way to do that

482
00:29:20,517 --> 00:29:22,795
than receiving a White House invitation.

483
00:29:24,521 --> 00:29:28,283
In early 1950, Graham is
peppering President Harry Truman

484
00:29:28,352 --> 00:29:31,493
with letters and telegrams
begging for a visit.

485
00:29:31,562 --> 00:29:33,081
Truman ignores them all.

486
00:29:33,150 --> 00:29:35,877
Truman was a Baptist,

487
00:29:35,946 --> 00:29:38,362
and in keeping with the
traditions of his faith

488
00:29:38,431 --> 00:29:40,399
at that point in time, was a firm believer

489
00:29:40,468 --> 00:29:42,435
in the separation of church and state.

490
00:29:42,504 --> 00:29:45,335
He didn't like public displays
of religion.

491
00:29:45,404 --> 00:29:47,406
He in fact writes in his diary

492
00:29:47,475 --> 00:29:50,719
that he takes guidance from the
Book of Matthew,

493
00:29:50,789 --> 00:29:52,273
chapters five, six, and seven,

494
00:29:52,342 --> 00:29:53,792
which are known for their injunctions

495
00:29:53,861 --> 00:29:55,966
against showy displays of faith.

496
00:29:57,761 --> 00:30:00,108
Finally, House majority leader
John McCormack

497
00:30:00,177 --> 00:30:03,594
puts in a good word with President Truman,

498
00:30:03,663 --> 00:30:06,114
and Truman relents
and lets Graham come to visit.

499
00:30:08,530 --> 00:30:12,983
Graham came to the
meeting with three of his associates.

500
00:30:13,052 --> 00:30:15,675
They went to see the president

501
00:30:15,744 --> 00:30:18,333
with their white suits
and hand-painted ties,

502
00:30:18,402 --> 00:30:21,578
and they looked like hospital
orderlies at the racetrack.

503
00:30:21,647 --> 00:30:24,167
Toward the end of the meeting,

504
00:30:24,236 --> 00:30:29,068
Graham asked Truman if he could
pray with Truman,

505
00:30:29,137 --> 00:30:33,728
and through secondhand accounts,
Truman evidently said, "Well,

506
00:30:33,797 --> 00:30:36,317
I suppose
it couldn't do any harm."

507
00:30:36,386 --> 00:30:38,112
Graham grabs Truman by the shoulder

508
00:30:38,181 --> 00:30:42,910
and is calling down a prayer
for the president.

509
00:30:42,979 --> 00:30:45,671
Truman is uncomfortable the
entire time, can't handle it.

510
00:30:47,293 --> 00:30:49,744
Things get worse when they leave.

511
00:30:49,813 --> 00:30:53,299
When Billy and his team
came out of the president's office,

512
00:30:53,368 --> 00:30:55,405
the reporters were all there
and talking, "What did he say?

513
00:30:55,474 --> 00:30:57,545
What'd he say, was it good?"

514
00:30:57,614 --> 00:31:01,756
Graham made the
grievous mistake of rehearsing,

515
00:31:01,825 --> 00:31:05,242
as best he could remember,
every word Truman had uttered

516
00:31:05,311 --> 00:31:07,935
in the course of that hour conversation.

517
00:31:09,419 --> 00:31:12,456
But then they went
out on the White House lawn

518
00:31:12,525 --> 00:31:14,217
and thanked God for the privilege

519
00:31:14,286 --> 00:31:18,152
of having met with the president.

520
00:31:18,221 --> 00:31:22,708
And the next day,
that was on the front page

521
00:31:22,777 --> 00:31:25,159
of all kinds of newspapers
all over the country.

522
00:31:41,692 --> 00:31:45,455
Truman reacted very
badly to what he took to be a show.

523
00:31:45,524 --> 00:31:47,250
He said, "All Billy Graham
is interested in

524
00:31:47,319 --> 00:31:48,907
is just getting his
name in the paper."

525
00:31:50,667 --> 00:31:55,292
We have a letter from
Truman to his secretary in which he said,

526
00:31:55,361 --> 00:32:00,988
"Do not ever let that man into
the Oval Office again."

527
00:32:01,057 --> 00:32:03,231
He's very green.

528
00:32:03,300 --> 00:32:04,474
He's a famous preacher by then,

529
00:32:04,543 --> 00:32:06,545
but he's very green

530
00:32:06,614 --> 00:32:08,892
when it comes to understanding
the ways of the world.

531
00:32:10,790 --> 00:32:14,311
But he has a thick skin.

532
00:32:14,380 --> 00:32:16,210
And when people would say no to him,

533
00:32:16,279 --> 00:32:18,971
he'd just come right back at 'em.

534
00:32:26,737 --> 00:32:28,118
Hello, how do you do?

535
00:32:29,809 --> 00:32:32,019
And one of our
staff of security. How do you do?

536
00:32:32,088 --> 00:32:33,158
Thank you, sir.

537
00:32:33,227 --> 00:32:35,367
Well, I love that part of Texas.

538
00:32:37,852 --> 00:32:39,233
It's important for Billy Graham

539
00:32:39,302 --> 00:32:43,409
not to be perceived
as a backwater revivalist.

540
00:32:43,478 --> 00:32:47,862
He's not some sort of snake handler.

541
00:32:47,931 --> 00:32:51,210
He's trying to bring this nation to Christ

542
00:32:51,279 --> 00:32:55,732
with all of the most powerful,
influential figures

543
00:32:55,801 --> 00:32:57,768
of American society.

544
00:32:57,837 --> 00:33:01,013
Unless this country is called
back to God's moral law,

545
00:33:01,082 --> 00:33:03,257
there will be a national catastrophe.

546
00:33:03,326 --> 00:33:05,086
Well, the difficulty is, I think,

547
00:33:05,155 --> 00:33:08,503
that we forget that while we
want to do good

548
00:33:08,572 --> 00:33:10,678
and we want to live by high standards,

549
00:33:10,747 --> 00:33:12,749
and there are many thousands
of people that want to obey

550
00:33:12,818 --> 00:33:15,407
the Ten Commandments and live up
to the Sermon on the Mount,

551
00:33:15,476 --> 00:33:16,615
but they don't find within themselves

552
00:33:16,684 --> 00:33:19,169
the qualities and the power to do it.

553
00:33:19,238 --> 00:33:23,553
Billy Graham is an
ardent supporter of capitalism.

554
00:33:23,622 --> 00:33:25,520
He sees capitalism and Christianity

555
00:33:25,589 --> 00:33:27,591
as essentially one and the same.

556
00:33:27,660 --> 00:33:29,697
They're both doing good in the world.

557
00:33:29,766 --> 00:33:33,459
For the businessman, it is great to have

558
00:33:33,528 --> 00:33:36,773
a revivalist preacher
legitimizing capitalism,

559
00:33:36,842 --> 00:33:39,672
endorsing free-market capitalism.

560
00:33:39,741 --> 00:33:42,882
In Europe, we see preachers

561
00:33:42,951 --> 00:33:44,815
preaching in favor of the welfare state.

562
00:33:44,884 --> 00:33:46,265
And that is exactly

563
00:33:46,334 --> 00:33:49,786
what businessmen don't want in
the U.S. in the 1950s.

564
00:33:49,855 --> 00:33:52,133
Communism says the state
is to own everything,

565
00:33:52,202 --> 00:33:54,342
and when the state owns everything,

566
00:33:54,411 --> 00:33:56,275
I believe you destroy individuality

567
00:33:56,344 --> 00:33:58,001
and you destroy character.

568
00:33:58,070 --> 00:34:01,660
When Graham complains
about communism, it's not just

569
00:34:01,729 --> 00:34:04,076
Stalin, it's FDR, it's Truman,

570
00:34:04,145 --> 00:34:07,528
it's people who are putting
new laws on the books

571
00:34:07,597 --> 00:34:09,909
that regulate industry.

572
00:34:09,978 --> 00:34:12,464
Putting new laws in the books
that uphold unions,

573
00:34:12,533 --> 00:34:14,431
that elevate workers' rights.

574
00:34:14,500 --> 00:34:16,882
These he sees are a threat
to the American way of life.

575
00:34:16,951 --> 00:34:20,644
It will be a time of world
revolution and lawlessness

576
00:34:20,713 --> 00:34:25,235
and crime and corruption such as
the world has never known!

577
00:34:27,893 --> 00:34:29,412
Billy Graham himself was a salesman.

578
00:34:29,481 --> 00:34:33,623
He saw himself as a salesman of faith.

579
00:34:33,692 --> 00:34:36,384
He said, "I'm selling

580
00:34:36,453 --> 00:34:38,317
"the most important thing on Earth.

581
00:34:38,386 --> 00:34:40,802
Why shouldn't I promote it
as well as soap?"

582
00:34:40,871 --> 00:34:42,977
Want your problems solved?

583
00:34:43,046 --> 00:34:44,944
Want that burden lifted?

584
00:34:45,013 --> 00:34:48,776
Right now, you want those
frustrations and inner conflicts

585
00:34:48,845 --> 00:34:51,675
quieted and you want
inner serenity in your soul?

586
00:34:51,744 --> 00:34:52,711
Do you want that?

587
00:34:52,780 --> 00:34:53,746
You really do?

588
00:34:53,815 --> 00:34:55,817
All right, you can, right now,

589
00:34:55,886 --> 00:34:57,371
if you let Christ come into your heart.

590
00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:59,959
He'll bring you inner pleasure
and inner joy

591
00:35:00,028 --> 00:35:01,685
that nothing else can bring.

592
00:35:03,584 --> 00:35:05,724
Graham surrounds himself with a team

593
00:35:05,793 --> 00:35:10,142
that can act very much like
a sophisticated corporation

594
00:35:10,211 --> 00:35:11,454
to sell their message

595
00:35:11,523 --> 00:35:13,594
and to win over converts.

596
00:35:13,663 --> 00:35:16,183
They start very modestly

597
00:35:16,252 --> 00:35:18,495
by setting up the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association

598
00:35:18,564 --> 00:35:23,362
in 1950, just an office in Minneapolis.

599
00:35:23,431 --> 00:35:27,987
But over the next four years,
there's already an increase

600
00:35:28,056 --> 00:35:30,093
to 80 full-time staff members.

601
00:35:30,162 --> 00:35:31,681
And this tells the story

602
00:35:31,750 --> 00:35:34,132
of revivalism turning into a business.

603
00:35:34,201 --> 00:35:37,445
I wonder if you'd take time
to write that letter this week.

604
00:35:37,514 --> 00:35:40,034
Remember, our mailing address
is just "Billy Graham,

605
00:35:40,103 --> 00:35:43,106
Minneapolis, Minnesota,"
that's all you need,

606
00:35:43,175 --> 00:35:46,178
just "Billy Graham,
Minneapolis, Minnesota."

607
00:35:48,146 --> 00:35:51,218
Giving is a quintessential Christian duty,

608
00:35:51,287 --> 00:35:54,082
and everyone who attended
the crusade meetings

609
00:35:54,152 --> 00:35:57,707
knew they were expected
to make an offering.

610
00:35:57,776 --> 00:35:59,295
When he founded the association,

611
00:35:59,364 --> 00:36:02,125
he made rules for it,

612
00:36:02,194 --> 00:36:05,853
that they run their finances perfectly,

613
00:36:05,922 --> 00:36:07,786
and so he had outside

614
00:36:07,855 --> 00:36:09,960
auditors and so forth coming in

615
00:36:10,029 --> 00:36:11,410
and running through them
with a fine-toothed comb.

616
00:36:13,171 --> 00:36:15,138
There were a lot
of other kinds of evangelists

617
00:36:15,207 --> 00:36:18,693
that preyed upon their members
and people who came to the shows

618
00:36:18,762 --> 00:36:22,559
and took their money and were not sincere.

619
00:36:22,628 --> 00:36:24,975
Billy Graham is
aware that an early scandal

620
00:36:25,044 --> 00:36:26,770
could destroy the mission.

621
00:36:26,839 --> 00:36:28,324
And that is why he's setting up

622
00:36:28,393 --> 00:36:30,947
his organization as a nonprofit.

623
00:36:31,016 --> 00:36:34,502
He proudly claimed that he only
received the salary

624
00:36:34,571 --> 00:36:37,816
of an ordinary minister
throughout his career.

625
00:36:37,885 --> 00:36:41,613
Now, what about the radio
and the television?

626
00:36:41,682 --> 00:36:43,925
Well, this radio broadcast on June 4 is...

627
00:36:43,994 --> 00:36:49,310
Graham was incredibly
careful about the kind of moral hygiene

628
00:36:49,379 --> 00:36:52,555
of his operation and his daily life,

629
00:36:52,624 --> 00:36:54,833
where, you know, his rule was

630
00:36:54,902 --> 00:36:57,594
about, you know,
never being in a room alone

631
00:36:57,663 --> 00:37:01,011
with a woman other than his wife,

632
00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:03,462
which can sound incredibly archaic,

633
00:37:03,531 --> 00:37:06,327
except when they were
traveling on the crusades,

634
00:37:06,396 --> 00:37:08,812
that his companions would have
to go into his hotel room first

635
00:37:08,881 --> 00:37:11,298
and search it, because they might find

636
00:37:11,367 --> 00:37:13,576
women hiding in his hotel room.

637
00:37:15,129 --> 00:37:17,752
This is "The Hour of Decision"!

638
00:37:17,821 --> 00:37:19,927
"The Hour of Decision"
has come to you today

639
00:37:19,996 --> 00:37:22,826
from the crusade auditorium
in Atlanta, Georgia.

640
00:37:22,895 --> 00:37:28,073
This is ABC, the American
Broadcasting Company.

641
00:37:28,142 --> 00:37:32,491
In November 1950, Billy
Graham launches his radio program.

642
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:34,010
An Associated Press dispatch

643
00:37:34,079 --> 00:37:35,805
in an Atlanta paper this morning

644
00:37:35,874 --> 00:37:38,497
states that many feel
that the Third World War

645
00:37:38,566 --> 00:37:40,672
is just around the corner.

646
00:37:40,741 --> 00:37:44,503
It's eventually broadcast
out on three different networks,

647
00:37:44,572 --> 00:37:46,333
about 850 stations,

648
00:37:46,402 --> 00:37:49,336
and reaches an audience of about
20 million Americans a week.

649
00:37:49,405 --> 00:37:50,716
It's hugely influential.

650
00:37:50,785 --> 00:37:55,307
I believe that the heart
of our society is our home.

651
00:37:55,376 --> 00:37:57,067
When Graham starts on television,

652
00:37:57,136 --> 00:37:58,931
it's still a fairly new medium.

653
00:38:03,384 --> 00:38:05,386
Billy Graham's media empire takes root

654
00:38:05,455 --> 00:38:07,077
with incredible speed.

655
00:38:07,146 --> 00:38:10,529
Soon after starting his radio
program and his TV show,

656
00:38:10,598 --> 00:38:13,567
he establishes a movie studio
called World Wide Pictures.

657
00:38:13,636 --> 00:38:16,742
Hello, welcome to World Wide Pictures.

658
00:38:16,811 --> 00:38:19,469
I'm glad we're going to have
a few moments together.

659
00:38:28,167 --> 00:38:31,861
He and his team were able to use

660
00:38:31,930 --> 00:38:36,003
those new media technologies brilliantly

661
00:38:36,072 --> 00:38:39,731
to create Graham as a religious celebrity.

662
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:42,975
One of the most amazing things
in all the universe

663
00:38:43,044 --> 00:38:45,599
is that God loves us.

664
00:38:45,668 --> 00:38:49,016
I want you to bow your head
right now and let me lead you

665
00:38:49,085 --> 00:38:50,397
in a word of prayer, will you?

666
00:38:50,466 --> 00:38:52,847
Repent of your sins,
confess that you're a sinner.

667
00:38:52,916 --> 00:38:54,262
You can do it right where you are,

668
00:38:54,332 --> 00:38:55,747
right now!

669
00:38:57,542 --> 00:38:59,233
It's important to
understand that there's a strand

670
00:38:59,302 --> 00:39:01,822
of conservative American evangelicalism

671
00:39:01,891 --> 00:39:05,860
that have always viewed advanced
technologies as sinful.

672
00:39:05,929 --> 00:39:07,241
The radio.

673
00:39:07,310 --> 00:39:08,242
Television.

674
00:39:08,311 --> 00:39:09,795
Movie industries.

675
00:39:09,864 --> 00:39:12,833
These are all just kind of paths
to Hell... they'll take us

676
00:39:12,902 --> 00:39:14,144
to Hell in a handbasket.

677
00:39:14,213 --> 00:39:15,801
Please get in the car.

678
00:39:15,870 --> 00:39:19,011
But there was another
group of evangelicals that came along

679
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:20,979
and said, "It's not the technology itself.

680
00:39:21,048 --> 00:39:24,983
"The technologies are morally neutral.

681
00:39:25,052 --> 00:39:26,364
It's what you do with them."

682
00:39:26,433 --> 00:39:29,367
Jim, look.

683
00:39:29,436 --> 00:39:31,955
Let's go hear him.

684
00:39:32,024 --> 00:39:33,267
What?

685
00:39:33,336 --> 00:39:36,753
I can't explain it, I,
I just have a feeling

686
00:39:36,822 --> 00:39:38,376
it's something I need.

687
00:39:38,445 --> 00:39:40,205
With these movies,

688
00:39:40,274 --> 00:39:43,622
he's saying, "We're spreading
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

689
00:39:43,691 --> 00:39:46,763
"We are fulfilling our evangelical mission

690
00:39:46,832 --> 00:39:52,113
"by giving content to a sin-sick society,

691
00:39:52,182 --> 00:39:55,185
"where they can go to the picture show

692
00:39:55,254 --> 00:39:58,188
and hear a message
that Christ loves them."

693
00:40:02,986 --> 00:40:04,160
Tonight,

694
00:40:04,229 --> 00:40:06,473
Cliff Barrows has a very special guest,

695
00:40:06,542 --> 00:40:08,026
at least to me.

696
00:40:08,095 --> 00:40:09,614
Ladies and gentlemen,
tonight it's my privilege

697
00:40:09,683 --> 00:40:12,548
to introduce to you
Mrs. Billy Graham.

698
00:40:12,617 --> 00:40:14,619
Ruth, we're glad that you've taken time

699
00:40:14,688 --> 00:40:16,483
out of your busy household duties

700
00:40:16,552 --> 00:40:18,968
to spend a few minutes with
us this evening on the program.

701
00:40:19,037 --> 00:40:20,279
Thank you, Cliff.

702
00:40:20,348 --> 00:40:21,557
You know, many folks have asked

703
00:40:21,626 --> 00:40:23,904
why you don't take more time
to be with your husband.

704
00:40:23,973 --> 00:40:25,284
Do you have a good reason?

705
00:40:25,353 --> 00:40:27,321
I have four good reasons. Four of them,
what are they?

706
00:40:27,390 --> 00:40:30,773
Virginia, Anne, Ruth,
and Franklin. Virginia, Anne...

707
00:40:30,842 --> 00:40:33,914
While he was traveling around

708
00:40:33,983 --> 00:40:37,124
and his career was really
starting to take off,

709
00:40:37,193 --> 00:40:41,197
Ruth was at home having children.

710
00:40:47,997 --> 00:40:53,071
What Graham is
exhibiting is what I would say

711
00:40:53,140 --> 00:40:56,074
is pristine American white masculinity.

712
00:40:56,143 --> 00:40:58,628
That masculinity of, "I'm handsome,

713
00:40:58,697 --> 00:40:59,871
"I have a beautiful wife,

714
00:40:59,940 --> 00:41:04,013
I have beautiful children,
my life is in control."

715
00:41:10,709 --> 00:41:12,987
There's a glamour boost

716
00:41:13,056 --> 00:41:17,129
that the two of them deliver to
American Protestantism

717
00:41:17,198 --> 00:41:18,959
that, you know,

718
00:41:19,028 --> 00:41:21,686
"Maybe I can't be quite as beautiful,

719
00:41:21,755 --> 00:41:24,861
but I can try,
I can aspire to that."

720
00:41:28,037 --> 00:41:30,418
Every time that he was photographed,

721
00:41:30,488 --> 00:41:33,318
he was saying to all of his followers,

722
00:41:33,387 --> 00:41:36,701
"This is who we are,

723
00:41:36,770 --> 00:41:40,463
and this is how Christians
should live."

724
00:41:40,532 --> 00:41:41,637
For fundamentalists,

725
00:41:41,706 --> 00:41:43,362
Billy Graham took them

726
00:41:43,431 --> 00:41:45,779
from the fringes of society
and put them right

727
00:41:45,848 --> 00:41:49,161
into the center of American Protestantism.

728
00:41:51,405 --> 00:41:54,097
Billy Graham becomes a household name,

729
00:41:54,166 --> 00:41:57,273
and he ends up making
American evangelicalism

730
00:41:57,342 --> 00:41:59,793
a household name, as well.

731
00:42:07,594 --> 00:42:10,735
For the first
time in history, a revival meeting is

732
00:42:10,804 --> 00:42:14,393
held on the steps of the
Capitol Building in Washington.

733
00:42:14,462 --> 00:42:17,224
40,000 braved drizzling weather
to hear evangelist Billy Graham

734
00:42:17,293 --> 00:42:20,538
pronounce his cures for today's evils.

735
00:42:20,607 --> 00:42:24,783
When Billy Graham
thought about the United States,

736
00:42:24,852 --> 00:42:27,441
he thought about it as a Christian nation

737
00:42:27,510 --> 00:42:31,134
fallen from grace,
so a Christian nation that had

738
00:42:31,203 --> 00:42:34,344
to be redirected.

739
00:42:34,413 --> 00:42:38,141
The Oval Office meeting
with Truman went very poorly.

740
00:42:38,210 --> 00:42:40,730
He quickly sets his sights
on a return visit

741
00:42:40,799 --> 00:42:43,284
about 18 months later.

742
00:42:43,353 --> 00:42:44,285
There's a clear difference in these

743
00:42:44,354 --> 00:42:46,253
two Washington events.

744
00:42:46,322 --> 00:42:48,945
I ask the United States Senate
and Congress

745
00:42:49,014 --> 00:42:54,848
to request the president, once
again in our hour of crisis,

746
00:42:54,917 --> 00:42:56,884
when we stand on the abyss

747
00:42:56,953 --> 00:42:59,093
of national destruction and catastrophe,

748
00:42:59,162 --> 00:43:02,165
to call our people to prayer.

749
00:43:02,234 --> 00:43:04,720
The rally on the
steps of the U.S. Capitol

750
00:43:04,789 --> 00:43:08,102
put Graham's strength on display.

751
00:43:08,171 --> 00:43:09,552
And it shows political leaders

752
00:43:09,621 --> 00:43:11,381
how powerful and how popular he can be.

753
00:43:11,450 --> 00:43:16,283
We have been the recipients of
the choicest bounties of Heaven.

754
00:43:16,352 --> 00:43:18,354
We have been preserved these many years

755
00:43:18,423 --> 00:43:20,701
in peace and prosperity.

756
00:43:20,770 --> 00:43:22,461
We've grown in number, wealth, and power

757
00:43:22,530 --> 00:43:24,532
as no other nation has grown.

758
00:43:24,602 --> 00:43:26,949
But we have forgotten God.

759
00:43:29,779 --> 00:43:33,852
He firmly believes the
country needs a religious revival,

760
00:43:33,921 --> 00:43:37,822
and he's now set himself up to
do whatever he can to do that,

761
00:43:37,891 --> 00:43:40,825
to lobby political leaders,
to influence them,

762
00:43:40,894 --> 00:43:42,481
to call on their citizens
and his followers

763
00:43:42,550 --> 00:43:44,932
to make demands upon them.

764
00:43:45,001 --> 00:43:48,591
He wants Harry Truman to come
to the Washington crusade.

765
00:43:48,660 --> 00:43:51,387
Truman refuses.

766
00:43:51,456 --> 00:43:52,940
Congress is much more receptive.

767
00:43:53,009 --> 00:43:57,393
I have been amazed
and gratified and thrilled

768
00:43:57,462 --> 00:44:01,880
to find that among many of our
great leaders in the Congress

769
00:44:01,949 --> 00:44:02,881
and throughout the government

770
00:44:02,950 --> 00:44:04,331
are devout Christians.

771
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:08,784
Two of these distinguished
gentlemen are with us tonight.

772
00:44:08,853 --> 00:44:11,821
Congressman, I've been trying
to get Christian men

773
00:44:11,890 --> 00:44:13,098
to run for political office

774
00:44:13,167 --> 00:44:14,134
around the country.

775
00:44:14,203 --> 00:44:15,445
What do you think about that?

776
00:44:15,514 --> 00:44:18,897
I firmly believe that you
expressed it well when you said

777
00:44:18,966 --> 00:44:22,004
God is working here in the
national capital.

778
00:44:24,075 --> 00:44:28,079
This was the first
time Graham really soaked in

779
00:44:28,148 --> 00:44:31,841
the political dynamics of Washington,

780
00:44:31,910 --> 00:44:34,741
whether it was with the Senate

781
00:44:34,810 --> 00:44:38,434
or the House, or Supreme Court justices.

782
00:44:38,503 --> 00:44:40,367
People were really listening to him.

783
00:44:40,436 --> 00:44:41,920
And these people who were themselves,

784
00:44:41,989 --> 00:44:44,751
you know, among the most
powerful people in the country,

785
00:44:44,820 --> 00:44:49,721
were affirming and validating his power.

786
00:44:49,790 --> 00:44:54,070
It kind of went to his head.

787
00:44:54,139 --> 00:44:57,971
I was talking to a
presidential candidate just the other day,

788
00:44:58,040 --> 00:44:59,938
you know, we have quite a few these days,

789
00:45:00,007 --> 00:45:04,563
and I was telling him, if
I wanted to win the election,

790
00:45:04,632 --> 00:45:08,982
and call the people back to God
and back to Christ

791
00:45:09,051 --> 00:45:13,676
and back to the Bible, I said,
"I believe I'd be elected."

792
00:45:13,745 --> 00:45:15,126
He says, you know,
"Evangelicals are, you know,

793
00:45:15,195 --> 00:45:18,232
"will vote one way, and I could
swing 16 million evangelicals

794
00:45:18,301 --> 00:45:20,372
with a single word."

795
00:45:20,441 --> 00:45:24,445
Which, whether or not there
is truth to that,

796
00:45:24,514 --> 00:45:26,137
it was a remarkable thing to say.

797
00:45:27,932 --> 00:45:31,487
Graham makes it
clear that he and his followers

798
00:45:31,556 --> 00:45:35,456
are going to have some influence.

799
00:45:35,525 --> 00:45:37,389
That the nation needs to turn to God,

800
00:45:37,458 --> 00:45:39,322
and that that needs to be a
campaign issue,

801
00:45:39,391 --> 00:45:41,290
and he wants the country
to rally around a candidate

802
00:45:41,359 --> 00:45:43,257
who can deliver that.

803
00:45:43,326 --> 00:45:45,087
Out of the heartland of America,

804
00:45:45,156 --> 00:45:48,159
out of this small-frame house
in Abilene, Kansas,

805
00:45:48,228 --> 00:45:50,782
came a man,
Dwight D. Eisenhower.

806
00:45:50,851 --> 00:45:53,164
Through the crucial hour of
historic D-Day,

807
00:45:53,233 --> 00:45:56,270
he brought us to the triumph
and peace of V.E.-Day.

808
00:45:58,583 --> 00:45:59,860
Billy Graham had taken a real appreciation

809
00:45:59,929 --> 00:46:03,208
for Dwight Eisenhower,

810
00:46:03,277 --> 00:46:05,521
as of course had most Americans.

811
00:46:05,590 --> 00:46:09,214
A Texas oilman named Sid Richardson

812
00:46:09,283 --> 00:46:12,390
wanted Eisenhower to become president,

813
00:46:12,459 --> 00:46:14,392
and he so enlisted Billy Graham.

814
00:46:14,461 --> 00:46:17,360
So here he is, this very young man,

815
00:46:17,429 --> 00:46:19,397
he's knocking on the door of

816
00:46:19,466 --> 00:46:21,640
the five-star general.

817
00:46:21,709 --> 00:46:25,955
He told Eisenhower that the fate
of the Western world

818
00:46:26,024 --> 00:46:30,270
hinged upon Eisenhower's decision.

819
00:46:30,339 --> 00:46:33,445
Eisenhower's astonished by this young guy.

820
00:46:33,514 --> 00:46:36,034
But as it happens, Eisenhower liked it.

821
00:46:36,103 --> 00:46:38,071
♪ <i>You like Ike, I like Ike</i> ♪

822
00:46:38,140 --> 00:46:40,004
♪ <i>Everybody likes Ike
for president</i> ♪

823
00:46:40,073 --> 00:46:42,144
♪ <i>Hang out the banner,
beat the drum</i> ♪

824
00:46:42,213 --> 00:46:43,490
♪ <i>We'll take Ike to Washington</i> ♪

825
00:46:45,423 --> 00:46:48,115
Billy Graham serves
as Eisenhower's spiritual adviser

826
00:46:48,184 --> 00:46:49,737
on the campaign.

827
00:46:49,807 --> 00:46:52,361
And he offers Eisenhower
some scriptural references

828
00:46:52,430 --> 00:46:54,190
he can drop into speeches,

829
00:46:54,259 --> 00:46:57,297
some themes he might want to hit
on the campaign trail.

830
00:46:57,366 --> 00:46:59,126
And I want to say something to
you tonight,

831
00:46:59,195 --> 00:47:03,061
to you church members, you
people who profess Christianity.

832
00:47:03,130 --> 00:47:05,408
I believe it's your duty more
than any other group

833
00:47:05,477 --> 00:47:07,169
to go to the polls and vote.

834
00:47:07,238 --> 00:47:09,481
You owe your country.

835
00:47:09,550 --> 00:47:14,314
You owe unborn generations
your vote at this election.

836
00:47:14,383 --> 00:47:16,764
You say, "Well, Billy,
who shall we vote for?"

837
00:47:16,834 --> 00:47:19,457
Now, I'm not entering partisan politics.

838
00:47:19,526 --> 00:47:21,977
Of course, I have my own opinion,

839
00:47:22,046 --> 00:47:25,359
and I'm going to register my
opinion next Tuesday

840
00:47:25,428 --> 00:47:29,467
at the poll, but nobody'll
know but myself and God.

841
00:47:29,536 --> 00:47:33,195
I think it's fair to say
he feigned an impartiality,

842
00:47:33,264 --> 00:47:35,991
but his preferences were clear.

843
00:47:37,475 --> 00:47:39,684
America speaks at the polling booths

844
00:47:39,753 --> 00:47:42,790
from coast to coast, as 55
million from all walks of life

845
00:47:42,860 --> 00:47:45,621
cast their votes for the 33rd man

846
00:47:45,690 --> 00:47:47,554
to become president of the United States.

847
00:47:49,349 --> 00:47:53,387
Eisenhower wins
a resounding victory in 1952.

848
00:47:53,456 --> 00:47:56,321
He calls Graham to his hotel in
New York City after the election

849
00:47:56,390 --> 00:47:58,082
and has a meeting with him.

850
00:47:58,151 --> 00:47:59,704
And he says, "I think one
of the reasons I was elected

851
00:47:59,773 --> 00:48:04,088
was that we need spiritual
renewal in this country."

852
00:48:04,157 --> 00:48:08,161
...preserve, protect,
and defend the Constitution...

853
00:48:08,230 --> 00:48:10,818
Eisenhower firmly believed that religion

854
00:48:10,888 --> 00:48:12,786
needed to be worn on one's sleeve.

855
00:48:12,855 --> 00:48:14,201
So help me, God.

856
00:48:14,270 --> 00:48:16,721
That faith had to be manifested in public

857
00:48:16,790 --> 00:48:19,517
in order to inspire people in private.

858
00:48:24,073 --> 00:48:25,143
My friends,

859
00:48:25,212 --> 00:48:28,284
would you permit me the privilege

860
00:48:28,353 --> 00:48:32,081
of uttering a little private
prayer of my own?

861
00:48:32,150 --> 00:48:35,982
Eisenhower believed that national success

862
00:48:36,051 --> 00:48:38,639
depends on shared sacrifice

863
00:48:38,708 --> 00:48:40,227
and that the Cold War, at some level,

864
00:48:40,296 --> 00:48:44,887
was a spiritual battle, and
that, in order to summon people

865
00:48:44,956 --> 00:48:47,614
into alliance, depended on
having a larger spiritual

866
00:48:47,683 --> 00:48:50,893
purpose that was explicit.

867
00:48:52,584 --> 00:48:55,725
Communism is a religion.

868
00:48:55,794 --> 00:48:58,383
At this moment, it appears that communism

869
00:48:58,452 --> 00:49:01,524
has all the earmarks of Antichrist.

870
00:49:01,593 --> 00:49:04,596
It is mastermind by Satan himself.

871
00:49:04,665 --> 00:49:08,600
Who is greater:
Marx or Christ?

872
00:49:08,669 --> 00:49:12,432
What Billy Graham
could provide to Eisenhower is a way

873
00:49:12,501 --> 00:49:16,263
to deploy certain kinds of ideas
about nationalism,

874
00:49:16,332 --> 00:49:17,816
and Christianity,

875
00:49:17,885 --> 00:49:19,922
and pushing back against
the communist threat.

876
00:49:19,991 --> 00:49:22,821
The communist philosophy has infiltrated

877
00:49:22,890 --> 00:49:26,584
into every country of the world,
including America.

878
00:49:26,653 --> 00:49:29,449
Billy Graham thinks
that America is a special nation.

879
00:49:29,518 --> 00:49:33,453
He believes that it is a nation
that is supposed to lead

880
00:49:33,522 --> 00:49:36,974
the rest of the
world in terms of democracy,

881
00:49:37,043 --> 00:49:39,183
in terms of Christianity.

882
00:49:39,252 --> 00:49:43,532
I want to tell you it's more
patriotic... more patriotic...

883
00:49:43,601 --> 00:49:45,844
to be a Christian, to live for God,

884
00:49:45,913 --> 00:49:48,537
than it is to carry a gun in time of war.

885
00:49:48,606 --> 00:49:51,229
America is the greatest force that God

886
00:49:51,298 --> 00:49:54,025
has ever allowed to exist
on his footstool.

887
00:49:54,094 --> 00:49:55,578
I believe that America

888
00:49:55,647 --> 00:49:58,029
is the great spiritual arsenal
of the world.

889
00:49:59,824 --> 00:50:02,723
Eisenhower was
pleased by thinking of Graham

890
00:50:02,792 --> 00:50:05,416
as the sort of religious leader
of the country.

891
00:50:08,281 --> 00:50:09,213
Together, they help effect

892
00:50:09,282 --> 00:50:13,010
a new set of ceremonies and symbols

893
00:50:13,079 --> 00:50:14,873
that conflate piety and patriotism

894
00:50:14,942 --> 00:50:16,634
to a degree never seen before.

895
00:50:18,325 --> 00:50:20,293
It's during Eisenhower's
presidency, for instance,

896
00:50:20,362 --> 00:50:23,606
that the prayer breakfast became
an annual event,

897
00:50:23,675 --> 00:50:26,713
an event at which clerics and politicians

898
00:50:26,782 --> 00:50:32,098
of all political stripes come
together to pray for the nation.

899
00:50:32,167 --> 00:50:36,447
I pledge allegiance to the flag...

900
00:50:36,516 --> 00:50:38,518
We get the addition of "under God"

901
00:50:38,587 --> 00:50:40,037
to the Pledge of Allegiance

902
00:50:40,106 --> 00:50:42,280
for the first time, when it
previously had been secular,

903
00:50:42,349 --> 00:50:44,455
had no mention of God.

904
00:50:44,524 --> 00:50:48,045
...one nation, indivisible...

905
00:50:48,114 --> 00:50:50,875
We get the adoption of "In God We Trust"

906
00:50:50,944 --> 00:50:53,809
as the nation's first official
motto in 1956.

907
00:50:53,878 --> 00:50:57,468
It's added to paper currency
for the first time in 1957.

908
00:50:57,537 --> 00:51:00,091
President Eisenhower
and Postmaster Summerfield take part

909
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:03,508
in the introduction of the first
stamp with a religious message.

910
00:51:03,577 --> 00:51:06,270
The new stamp will carry to the
world America's message

911
00:51:06,339 --> 00:51:08,479
of liberty and faith.

912
00:51:11,309 --> 00:51:16,073
Our forefathers came
to this country seeking freedom,

913
00:51:16,142 --> 00:51:20,698
and they brought in their hands
a Bible, and they said,

914
00:51:20,767 --> 00:51:23,045
"On this book, we shall build

915
00:51:23,114 --> 00:51:24,736
a nation."

916
00:51:24,805 --> 00:51:26,048
Many Americans think of America

917
00:51:26,117 --> 00:51:29,189
as a Christian nation,

918
00:51:29,258 --> 00:51:31,226
but in the Constitution, the
only references

919
00:51:31,295 --> 00:51:33,573
to Christianity are ones that keep it

920
00:51:33,642 --> 00:51:34,850
removed from the state,

921
00:51:34,919 --> 00:51:37,715
that there should be no
religious test for office,

922
00:51:37,784 --> 00:51:39,441
that there should be no

923
00:51:39,510 --> 00:51:41,546
established state religion,

924
00:51:41,615 --> 00:51:43,928
that there should be no government control

925
00:51:43,997 --> 00:51:46,033
over what private citizens can believe.

926
00:51:46,103 --> 00:51:48,588
The president
and Mrs. Eisenhower

927
00:51:48,657 --> 00:51:50,210
hear evangelist Billy Graham

928
00:51:50,279 --> 00:51:51,729
preach at the National Presbyterian Church

929
00:51:51,798 --> 00:51:54,076
in Washington.

930
00:51:54,145 --> 00:51:57,459
Eisenhower and
Graham completely turn this around

931
00:51:57,528 --> 00:51:59,599
and to make it clear that America is,

932
00:51:59,668 --> 00:52:01,256
if not a Christian nation,

933
00:52:01,325 --> 00:52:03,810
perhaps a Judeo-Christian nation,

934
00:52:03,879 --> 00:52:09,022
one that has a religious faith
at its core.

935
00:52:10,817 --> 00:52:13,889
This new religious nationalism
is a remarkable change,

936
00:52:13,958 --> 00:52:18,376
a stark shift from the norms
of American life before.

937
00:52:18,445 --> 00:52:22,449
Eisenhower is the first
genuine relationship Graham has

938
00:52:22,518 --> 00:52:24,313
with someone with that much power.

939
00:52:24,382 --> 00:52:27,005
It's the start of a learning curve

940
00:52:27,074 --> 00:52:29,698
that then develops
with each successive president.

941
00:52:35,393 --> 00:52:37,154
American Billy Graham

942
00:52:37,223 --> 00:52:39,742
faces a battery of press cameras as,

943
00:52:39,811 --> 00:52:40,950
with his young wife, Ruth,

944
00:52:41,019 --> 00:52:42,814
he comes to Britain on board
the luxury liner

945
00:52:42,883 --> 00:52:44,609
SS United States.

946
00:52:44,678 --> 00:52:47,094
Billy Graham looks at London

947
00:52:47,164 --> 00:52:49,476
as a very secular place.

948
00:52:49,545 --> 00:52:52,203
He doesn't know if revivalism

949
00:52:52,272 --> 00:52:54,516
will work in the U.K. the way
it does

950
00:52:54,585 --> 00:52:57,104
in the U.S.

951
00:52:57,174 --> 00:52:59,969
But there is the ambition
to change the world,

952
00:53:00,038 --> 00:53:01,626
to tackle this obstacle.

953
00:53:03,387 --> 00:53:04,940
Church attendance in the United States

954
00:53:05,009 --> 00:53:06,597
is about three times that which it is

955
00:53:06,666 --> 00:53:09,807
in Britain, and now
these British clergymen have

956
00:53:09,876 --> 00:53:11,498
invited us to come and use the method

957
00:53:11,567 --> 00:53:13,155
that, to some extent at least,

958
00:53:13,224 --> 00:53:16,572
they feel has been successful
in the United States.

959
00:53:16,641 --> 00:53:18,298
You mentioned Harringay Arena.

960
00:53:18,367 --> 00:53:21,543
Now, that seats about 11-and-a-
half thousand people... That's right.

961
00:53:21,612 --> 00:53:22,544
And you've
booked it for 12 weeks, does that

962
00:53:22,613 --> 00:53:24,201
seem optimistic to you?

963
00:53:24,270 --> 00:53:25,823
I think that, from all indications,

964
00:53:25,892 --> 00:53:27,997
Harringay Arena is going to be too small.

965
00:53:28,066 --> 00:53:29,551
Small?

966
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:33,969
The British press
was surprised that an American

967
00:53:34,038 --> 00:53:37,041
revival preacher would be bold enough

968
00:53:37,110 --> 00:53:38,939
to plan a campaign which would
run for 12 weeks

969
00:53:39,008 --> 00:53:41,218
in London.

970
00:53:41,287 --> 00:53:43,599
There were all these stereotypes

971
00:53:43,668 --> 00:53:45,291
about American revival preachers,

972
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:46,775
them just being too loud,

973
00:53:46,844 --> 00:53:50,123
and just a little bit too much
fire and brimstone

974
00:53:50,192 --> 00:53:52,953
for the more reserved British.

975
00:53:58,856 --> 00:54:01,030
I went with one of the other young men

976
00:54:01,099 --> 00:54:03,585
who was training to be
an engineer, as I was.

977
00:54:05,172 --> 00:54:08,417
So here we're walking up to
this huge structure

978
00:54:08,486 --> 00:54:11,696
with the crowds pouring in.

979
00:54:11,765 --> 00:54:16,114
And then when we got inside,
it was so crowded already,

980
00:54:16,183 --> 00:54:21,568
we had to sit toward the back
on the ground floor level.

981
00:54:21,637 --> 00:54:25,745
So that put you quite a long way
away from the podium.

982
00:54:25,814 --> 00:54:28,023
We are diseased.

983
00:54:28,092 --> 00:54:32,096
The Bible teaches that we have
a spiritual disease.

984
00:54:32,165 --> 00:54:35,030
Every person in this audience tonight

985
00:54:35,099 --> 00:54:37,239
is infected with this disease.

986
00:54:37,308 --> 00:54:38,861
What's wrong?

987
00:54:38,930 --> 00:54:43,038
The whole world, you, you here tonight,

988
00:54:43,107 --> 00:54:44,971
are searching for peace.

989
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:46,179
I believe that we...

990
00:54:46,248 --> 00:54:48,526
He immediately had my attention.

991
00:54:48,595 --> 00:54:50,217
...of moral revolution.

992
00:54:51,874 --> 00:54:57,017
I ran with a pretty
hardheaded group of young lads.

993
00:54:57,086 --> 00:55:02,540
Done some shoplifting, had one
idea about what a girl was for.

994
00:55:02,609 --> 00:55:05,405
I was ashamed of myself,
if you really wanted to know.

995
00:55:05,474 --> 00:55:08,719
You thought that
perhaps prosperity would bring it.

996
00:55:08,788 --> 00:55:11,963
You think perhaps
a sex experience will bring it.

997
00:55:12,032 --> 00:55:14,172
You think that getting drunk may bring it.

998
00:55:14,241 --> 00:55:16,658
You try a thousand ways.

999
00:55:16,727 --> 00:55:18,867
Why?

1000
00:55:18,936 --> 00:55:25,874
Because sin has gradually dulled
your conscience until now,

1001
00:55:25,943 --> 00:55:29,015
sin no longer bothers you.

1002
00:55:29,084 --> 00:55:33,364
Sin has become your master.

1003
00:55:33,433 --> 00:55:38,507
So when Billy Graham
spoke about Jesus dying for our sins,

1004
00:55:38,576 --> 00:55:41,821
if you ask Christ to come into your life,

1005
00:55:41,890 --> 00:55:44,064
you could be forgiven,

1006
00:55:44,133 --> 00:55:47,827
begin again.

1007
00:55:47,896 --> 00:55:51,209
Jesus went to the cross for you.

1008
00:55:51,278 --> 00:55:54,730
He hung openly in front
of a crowd for you.

1009
00:55:54,799 --> 00:55:57,215
Certainly you can come a few feet for Him.

1010
00:55:57,284 --> 00:55:59,563
You come, we're going to wait on you.

1011
00:55:59,632 --> 00:56:03,118
Every head bow while we wait.

1012
00:56:03,187 --> 00:56:05,396
Just get up right now, quickly,
hundreds of you,

1013
00:56:05,465 --> 00:56:07,156
from all over the place, come.

1014
00:56:07,225 --> 00:56:11,989
Men, women, young people, their
whole families need to come.

1015
00:56:12,058 --> 00:56:15,337
To myself I'm thinking,
"That's what I'm looking for!

1016
00:56:15,406 --> 00:56:17,546
That's what I want!"

1017
00:56:17,615 --> 00:56:20,411
To put it plainly,

1018
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:23,518
it was the first time
in my whole human experience

1019
00:56:23,587 --> 00:56:26,521
that I felt clean on the inside.

1020
00:56:47,300 --> 00:56:50,476
This large arena was entirely packed

1021
00:56:50,545 --> 00:56:52,339
for weeks and weeks and weeks.

1022
00:56:54,376 --> 00:56:55,929
So many people wanted to come
that couldn't get into it,

1023
00:56:55,998 --> 00:56:58,276
they established what
they called landline relays,

1024
00:56:58,345 --> 00:57:00,969
where his voice was carried
over telephone lines

1025
00:57:01,038 --> 00:57:03,523
to theaters and churches all over.

1026
00:57:08,494 --> 00:57:10,116
Both the American ambassador

1027
00:57:10,185 --> 00:57:12,221
and the British home secretary said

1028
00:57:12,290 --> 00:57:14,189
that Billy Graham had done more

1029
00:57:14,258 --> 00:57:16,778
for Anglo-American relationships

1030
00:57:16,847 --> 00:57:19,988
than any other person had done
since the end of World War II.

1031
00:57:20,057 --> 00:57:21,679
Our destinies

1032
00:57:21,748 --> 00:57:24,579
as two nations are linked together,

1033
00:57:24,648 --> 00:57:28,652
and I sincerely believe
that this is a demonstration

1034
00:57:28,721 --> 00:57:33,380
on the moral and spiritual level
that our two nations are one.

1035
00:57:35,866 --> 00:57:37,592
As the crusade came to a close,

1036
00:57:37,661 --> 00:57:39,663
Billy Graham realized

1037
00:57:39,732 --> 00:57:42,320
that his life had changed.

1038
00:57:42,389 --> 00:57:44,530
He was not only now the most
famous preacher

1039
00:57:44,599 --> 00:57:47,084
in the United States,

1040
00:57:47,153 --> 00:57:49,742
he was now the most famous in London.

1041
00:57:49,811 --> 00:57:52,607
And if you're famous in London,

1042
00:57:52,676 --> 00:57:55,748
you're famous all over the world.

1043
00:57:59,752 --> 00:58:05,102
There's a point sometime in the
1950s when it's arguable

1044
00:58:05,171 --> 00:58:07,725
that Billy Graham becomes the
most famous person in the world.

1045
00:58:09,624 --> 00:58:13,351
And the kind of global celebrity
that he had

1046
00:58:13,420 --> 00:58:17,908
shapes everything that followed.

1047
00:58:26,537 --> 00:58:28,677
New York is the big place.

1048
00:58:28,746 --> 00:58:30,507
Billy Graham

1049
00:58:30,576 --> 00:58:34,062
specifically likened New York
to Sodom and Gomorrah

1050
00:58:34,131 --> 00:58:35,097
from the Hebrew Bible.

1051
00:58:35,166 --> 00:58:36,582
One dollar here, one dollar!

1052
00:58:36,651 --> 00:58:40,689
This in many ways
was the last frontier for him.

1053
00:58:42,864 --> 00:58:44,728
New York City

1054
00:58:44,797 --> 00:58:49,353
symbolized many things that
fundamentalism was not,

1055
00:58:49,422 --> 00:58:50,665
from its religious diversity,

1056
00:58:50,734 --> 00:58:55,601
to its racial diversity,
to its comparative secularism.

1057
00:58:57,395 --> 00:59:02,262
In the late
summer of 1956, Billy said, "Next year,

1058
00:59:02,331 --> 00:59:04,782
we're going to
Madison Square Garden."

1059
00:59:08,441 --> 00:59:13,342
Billy asked us to go to New York.

1060
00:59:13,411 --> 00:59:15,310
We were 23, 24 years old.

1061
00:59:15,379 --> 00:59:17,312
Billy said, "I want you to go
and work with the churches

1062
00:59:17,381 --> 00:59:18,727
"up there and tell them what
this is about,

1063
00:59:18,796 --> 00:59:23,180
and recruit them and encourage
them to be part of it."

1064
00:59:26,286 --> 00:59:29,669
We had a pretty
big office down near Times Square.

1065
00:59:32,845 --> 00:59:35,054
And I ran the switchboard
some of the time.

1066
00:59:35,123 --> 00:59:37,263
Just a moment, please.

1067
00:59:37,332 --> 00:59:39,645
Judson 2-1790.

1068
00:59:39,714 --> 00:59:41,888
Yes, it is, thank you, I'll connect you.

1069
00:59:41,957 --> 00:59:44,753
I guess there were about a dozen people

1070
00:59:44,822 --> 00:59:48,515
or more that worked there.

1071
00:59:48,585 --> 00:59:51,001
I went to Baptists and Lutherans
and Pentecostals

1072
00:59:51,070 --> 00:59:52,727
and Seventh-Day Adventists,

1073
00:59:52,796 --> 00:59:54,763
and Hispanic churches.

1074
00:59:54,832 --> 00:59:56,282
Took the buses, took the subway,

1075
00:59:56,351 --> 00:59:59,630
drove around.

1076
01:00:00,838 --> 01:00:02,115
I was supposed to go to the churches

1077
01:00:02,184 --> 01:00:06,292
and say, "This is your crusade,
not Billy Graham's.

1078
01:00:06,361 --> 01:00:09,813
This is God's work,
and we're here to serve."

1079
01:00:09,882 --> 01:00:14,403
He refused to be
sponsored by the fundamentalists there.

1080
01:00:14,472 --> 01:00:15,957
He insisted on being

1081
01:00:16,026 --> 01:00:18,960
sponsored by the mainline denominations.

1082
01:00:19,029 --> 01:00:21,065
He reached out to the Catholic churches,

1083
01:00:21,134 --> 01:00:23,550
he even reached out to the
Jewish community in New York,

1084
01:00:23,620 --> 01:00:25,207
and he invited

1085
01:00:25,276 --> 01:00:29,487
all these people of faith
to come together.

1086
01:00:29,556 --> 01:00:31,317
Let's get everybody together

1087
01:00:31,386 --> 01:00:33,388
because everybody needs Jesus,
and some of these

1088
01:00:33,457 --> 01:00:37,288
divisions that we've created are
preventing the Gospel of Jesus

1089
01:00:37,357 --> 01:00:40,809
from going out to the largest
possible audience.

1090
01:00:42,397 --> 01:00:44,192
It was very controversial,

1091
01:00:44,261 --> 01:00:47,989
I'd say both theologically
on the left and on the right.

1092
01:00:48,058 --> 01:00:52,545
Reinhold Niebuhr,
the great ethicist and theologian,

1093
01:00:52,614 --> 01:00:56,376
was one of Billy Graham's most
consistent and caustic critics.

1094
01:00:56,445 --> 01:01:00,760
Niebuhr believed that the
message that Graham was giving

1095
01:01:00,829 --> 01:01:03,349
was that society was nothing more

1096
01:01:03,418 --> 01:01:05,731
than a collection of individuals.

1097
01:01:05,800 --> 01:01:09,320
And Niebuhr believed that
the techniques of revivalism,

1098
01:01:09,389 --> 01:01:11,495
the very message itself,

1099
01:01:11,564 --> 01:01:15,810
oversimplified the dynamics
of a modern society.

1100
01:01:15,879 --> 01:01:21,643
I criticize the revival wherever it...

1101
01:01:21,712 --> 01:01:25,302
it gives petty and trivial answers

1102
01:01:25,371 --> 01:01:27,407
to very great and ultimate questions

1103
01:01:27,476 --> 01:01:30,100
about the meaning of our life.

1104
01:01:37,832 --> 01:01:41,628
I can remember
standing in Madison Square Garden.

1105
01:01:41,698 --> 01:01:46,530
I stood there looking at that
cavernous stadium,

1106
01:01:46,599 --> 01:01:49,257
the day before it all started,

1107
01:01:49,326 --> 01:01:52,053
and looking up at those empty
seats and saying,

1108
01:01:52,122 --> 01:01:53,433
"What is this going to be like?"

1109
01:01:56,091 --> 01:01:57,506
The contract to start with for three

1110
01:01:57,575 --> 01:01:59,232
or four weeks, it could be extended,

1111
01:01:59,301 --> 01:02:02,511
so it was extended a week and another week

1112
01:02:02,580 --> 01:02:04,444
and another week.

1113
01:02:05,687 --> 01:02:07,896
Went on 16-and-a-half weeks.

1114
01:02:11,762 --> 01:02:14,661
Coming from a small town in Missouri,

1115
01:02:14,731 --> 01:02:17,043
I had never seen that
many people in one place.

1116
01:02:18,907 --> 01:02:22,359
Madison Square Garden seated 18,000.

1117
01:02:22,428 --> 01:02:24,948
And I remember the lines.

1118
01:02:25,017 --> 01:02:27,295
The lines of people outside
trying to get in.

1119
01:02:27,364 --> 01:02:30,643
It was like a sporting event.

1120
01:02:36,753 --> 01:02:40,032
Tonight, we're delighted
to have from Montgomery, Alabama,

1121
01:02:40,101 --> 01:02:42,068
Dr. Martin Luther King,

1122
01:02:42,137 --> 01:02:45,934
the minister of the
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

1123
01:02:46,003 --> 01:02:47,246
Billy Graham invites this

1124
01:02:47,315 --> 01:02:51,319
young up-and-coming minister,
Martin Luther King, Jr.,

1125
01:02:51,388 --> 01:02:52,630
to be part of the program

1126
01:02:52,699 --> 01:02:55,530
as a way of reaching across
racial and ethnic lines.

1127
01:02:55,599 --> 01:03:00,086
Heavenly Father,

1128
01:03:00,155 --> 01:03:01,950
we thank Thee this evening

1129
01:03:02,019 --> 01:03:05,091
for the marvelous things that
have been done in this city

1130
01:03:05,160 --> 01:03:07,093
through the dynamic preaching

1131
01:03:07,162 --> 01:03:10,752
of this great evangelist.

1132
01:03:10,821 --> 01:03:14,480
We ask Thee, O God,
to continue blessing him.

1133
01:03:14,549 --> 01:03:17,932
Give him continued power and authority.

1134
01:03:18,001 --> 01:03:19,174
Billy Graham knows,

1135
01:03:19,243 --> 01:03:21,832
to his credit, that this

1136
01:03:21,901 --> 01:03:24,421
tall, white, blue-eyed preacher

1137
01:03:24,490 --> 01:03:28,839
is not going to bring in Black
people or Latinos and Latinas.

1138
01:03:28,908 --> 01:03:32,843
He needs other folks to help
bridge that gap.

1139
01:03:32,912 --> 01:03:35,328
He's also making
a statement about civil rights

1140
01:03:35,397 --> 01:03:37,192
in the Southern region.

1141
01:03:37,261 --> 01:03:39,125
He's trying to expand his audience

1142
01:03:39,194 --> 01:03:41,162
to include people of color,

1143
01:03:41,231 --> 01:03:43,716
saying that you are actually welcome

1144
01:03:43,785 --> 01:03:46,512
as part of this campaign.

1145
01:03:46,581 --> 01:03:49,411
We are praying that God is going
to give a new soul

1146
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:52,932
and new spirit to this great
city that leads the world

1147
01:03:53,001 --> 01:03:55,659
in so many ways, and we're praying that

1148
01:03:55,728 --> 01:03:59,594
in the next few weeks, it will
at least have started on its way

1149
01:03:59,663 --> 01:04:03,184
to world leadership in
moral and spiritual values.

1150
01:04:05,634 --> 01:04:06,739
The New York crusade

1151
01:04:06,808 --> 01:04:10,329
was a critical turning point.

1152
01:04:10,398 --> 01:04:13,988
It was really the final straw
for a generation

1153
01:04:14,057 --> 01:04:17,992
of fundamentalists, who then,
you know, pretty much publicly

1154
01:04:18,061 --> 01:04:21,581
divorced themselves from Billy Graham.

1155
01:04:23,549 --> 01:04:26,241
Bob Jones declared
that Billy had made a serious mistake

1156
01:04:26,310 --> 01:04:28,002
preaching with the support

1157
01:04:28,071 --> 01:04:31,350
of a whole range of unsound churches.

1158
01:04:31,419 --> 01:04:34,525
Billy Graham himself is aware

1159
01:04:34,594 --> 01:04:38,046
he is close to politics, he is
close to celebrity culture,

1160
01:04:38,115 --> 01:04:40,600
he is close to so many things

1161
01:04:40,669 --> 01:04:43,293
that Protestant fundamentalists despise.

1162
01:04:43,362 --> 01:04:44,466
And Bob Jones

1163
01:04:44,535 --> 01:04:46,952
is pushing Billy Graham to make
a decision.

1164
01:04:48,712 --> 01:04:51,922
However much he
wanted the support of fundamentalists,

1165
01:04:51,991 --> 01:04:54,718
for both strategic and emotional reasons,

1166
01:04:54,787 --> 01:04:58,239
he realized he could do without them.

1167
01:04:58,308 --> 01:05:02,519
At that moment, he turned in his card

1168
01:05:02,588 --> 01:05:04,521
to the card-carrying fundamentalists

1169
01:05:04,590 --> 01:05:07,834
and he said,
"I'm not one of you anymore."

1170
01:05:18,811 --> 01:05:22,228
One of the major developments
of the 1950s is the emergence of

1171
01:05:22,297 --> 01:05:25,162
the modern Civil Rights Movement.

1172
01:05:25,231 --> 01:05:27,371
And it becomes the real test

1173
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:29,166
of what American democracy is all about.

1174
01:05:32,998 --> 01:05:36,242
Billy Graham
was born into a South that was

1175
01:05:36,311 --> 01:05:38,072
heavily segregated.

1176
01:05:40,281 --> 01:05:43,870
Graham's evangelical circles
were overtly white.

1177
01:05:43,940 --> 01:05:46,666
Evangelicalism was defined
by its whiteness.

1178
01:05:48,772 --> 01:05:52,776
God is
the greatest of all segregationists.

1179
01:05:52,845 --> 01:05:55,882
He made the white man white,
and he made the Black man Black,

1180
01:05:55,952 --> 01:06:02,510
and I for one will honor
God's creative act.

1181
01:06:02,579 --> 01:06:05,340
By the early '50s,

1182
01:06:05,409 --> 01:06:08,447
Billy Graham has become more
progressive in his racial views,

1183
01:06:08,516 --> 01:06:10,276
so that by 1953,

1184
01:06:10,345 --> 01:06:15,040
he begins desegregating his revivals.

1185
01:06:15,109 --> 01:06:18,388
Billy Graham wants everybody to know

1186
01:06:18,457 --> 01:06:20,700
that they are the same in the eyes of God.

1187
01:06:20,769 --> 01:06:24,428
But he wants people to obey
the laws of the land.

1188
01:06:24,497 --> 01:06:27,500
And that's where things get
sticky, because it's one thing

1189
01:06:27,569 --> 01:06:29,364
to say you believe that all men and women

1190
01:06:29,433 --> 01:06:32,160
are created in God's image
and in the sight of God,

1191
01:06:32,229 --> 01:06:33,851
but at the same time,

1192
01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:35,267
tell them they can't use
the water fountain

1193
01:06:35,336 --> 01:06:39,823
and they can't go to the
same bathroom as a white person.

1194
01:06:39,892 --> 01:06:42,791
You cannot legislate morals.

1195
01:06:42,860 --> 01:06:45,277
You cannot make people love each other.

1196
01:06:45,346 --> 01:06:47,762
That can only come from within.

1197
01:06:47,831 --> 01:06:50,765
And whether you are of the white
race or the Negro race

1198
01:06:50,834 --> 01:06:54,286
in the United States, you have
an obligation as a Christian

1199
01:06:54,355 --> 01:06:58,117
to love your fellow man
no matter who he may be.

1200
01:06:59,705 --> 01:07:01,879
After the New York
campaign, Martin Luther King, Jr.,

1201
01:07:01,948 --> 01:07:04,227
sees an opportunity with Billy Graham,

1202
01:07:04,296 --> 01:07:07,471
to press him on civil rights.

1203
01:07:07,540 --> 01:07:12,062
Billy Graham is doing a
crusade in San Antonio, Texas,

1204
01:07:12,131 --> 01:07:15,721
and as is his common practice,

1205
01:07:15,790 --> 01:07:18,448
he's going to partner with
prominent political officials

1206
01:07:18,517 --> 01:07:20,795
to be part of it, and in this case,

1207
01:07:20,864 --> 01:07:24,971
he has the governor of Texas,
Price Daniel,

1208
01:07:25,041 --> 01:07:27,698
on the program to introduce him.

1209
01:07:27,767 --> 01:07:33,808
The problem is, Price Daniel
is a noted segregationist.

1210
01:07:33,877 --> 01:07:37,087
Martin Luther King hears about this.

1211
01:07:37,156 --> 01:07:38,951
And so he writes to Graham
and asks Graham,

1212
01:07:39,020 --> 01:07:41,160
would he please not appear on stage

1213
01:07:41,229 --> 01:07:42,886
with Governor Price Daniel?

1214
01:07:42,955 --> 01:07:46,165
Martin Luther King believes
that if Billy Graham

1215
01:07:46,234 --> 01:07:49,099
would rescind that appearance,
that it would mean

1216
01:07:49,168 --> 01:07:52,896
that Billy Graham was supportive
of the Civil Rights Movement

1217
01:07:52,965 --> 01:07:56,624
and would not support an
open segregationist.

1218
01:07:56,693 --> 01:07:57,901
Billy Graham refuses.

1219
01:08:07,566 --> 01:08:09,602
One of Graham's associates,

1220
01:08:09,671 --> 01:08:11,777
Grady Wilson, wrote a letter

1221
01:08:11,846 --> 01:08:15,953
saying, you know, essentially,
"Billy loves Price Daniel

1222
01:08:16,022 --> 01:08:18,611
"as a Christian brother.

1223
01:08:18,680 --> 01:08:20,096
"And frankly,

1224
01:08:20,165 --> 01:08:23,582
Dr. King, you should have a
similar perspective, as well."

1225
01:08:23,651 --> 01:08:26,792
♪ <i>The eyes
of Texas are upon you</i> ♪

1226
01:08:26,861 --> 01:08:31,348
♪ <i>Till Gabriel blows his horn</i> ♪

1227
01:08:36,284 --> 01:08:39,322
The eight years of
the Eisenhower administration

1228
01:08:39,391 --> 01:08:42,670
were crucially important for Billy Graham.

1229
01:08:42,739 --> 01:08:44,879
It opened the world up to him in a way

1230
01:08:44,948 --> 01:08:49,884
that would not have been done
otherwise, and he enjoyed that.

1231
01:08:52,645 --> 01:08:55,269
Billy Graham sees the 1960 election

1232
01:08:55,338 --> 01:08:57,961
as his opportunity to become

1233
01:08:58,030 --> 01:09:04,278
intimately engaged
in political machinations

1234
01:09:04,347 --> 01:09:07,350
which would lead to the election
of his friend Richard Nixon

1235
01:09:07,419 --> 01:09:09,145
over the Roman Catholic

1236
01:09:09,214 --> 01:09:11,871
John F. Kennedy.

1237
01:09:11,940 --> 01:09:16,186
Billy had met Nixon
all the way back to 1952 in the

1238
01:09:16,255 --> 01:09:19,983
U.S. Senate dining room,
and they immediately hit it off.

1239
01:09:20,052 --> 01:09:23,952
They simply liked each other.

1240
01:09:24,021 --> 01:09:26,369
Their views largely
synchronized, political views.

1241
01:09:26,438 --> 01:09:29,544
They were both moderately
conservative Republicans.

1242
01:09:29,613 --> 01:09:34,756
Nixon's more of a peer
and they sort of grew up together,

1243
01:09:34,825 --> 01:09:39,140
in a sense, that Nixon's arrival
as a famous public person,

1244
01:09:39,209 --> 01:09:40,590
as a senator and as a vice president,

1245
01:09:40,659 --> 01:09:43,489
corresponds with Graham's.

1246
01:09:47,355 --> 01:09:49,150
There's this extraordinary moment

1247
01:09:49,219 --> 01:09:51,152
during the New York crusade

1248
01:09:51,221 --> 01:09:54,707
where Nixon, now as vice
president, comes to the crusade,

1249
01:09:54,776 --> 01:09:58,677
and it's one of the gatherings
at Yankee Stadium.

1250
01:10:00,092 --> 01:10:03,751
And Graham and Nixon walk out
onto the field together.

1251
01:10:05,062 --> 01:10:07,720
And the crowd just roars.

1252
01:10:13,174 --> 01:10:16,936
And I think not only was it
the visceral encounter

1253
01:10:17,005 --> 01:10:19,387
with the power that Graham
had over people,

1254
01:10:19,456 --> 01:10:22,321
but it was an encounter with something

1255
01:10:22,390 --> 01:10:26,463
that Nixon himself had never
experienced in his public life.

1256
01:10:29,535 --> 01:10:33,125
Billy Graham knew what it was to be loved,

1257
01:10:33,194 --> 01:10:35,161
knew what it was to experience

1258
01:10:35,231 --> 01:10:40,443
public adulation, enormous respect.

1259
01:10:40,512 --> 01:10:41,754
And Nixon's respect for it,

1260
01:10:41,823 --> 01:10:44,378
maybe his envy of it, his understanding

1261
01:10:44,447 --> 01:10:47,622
of that that was the way Graham was seen,

1262
01:10:47,691 --> 01:10:51,039
I think had a real impact on Nixon.

1263
01:10:51,108 --> 01:10:54,836
So there is all
this background with Nixon,

1264
01:10:54,905 --> 01:10:57,425
but now Nixon becomes the alternative

1265
01:10:57,494 --> 01:11:01,084
to this Catholic candidate.

1266
01:11:04,087 --> 01:11:05,019
For John Kennedy

1267
01:11:05,088 --> 01:11:06,779
to be the Democratic nominee

1268
01:11:06,848 --> 01:11:10,611
and a Roman Catholic was
for many American Protestants

1269
01:11:10,680 --> 01:11:14,304
almost a kind of existential threat.

1270
01:11:14,373 --> 01:11:16,582
Protestants thought of Catholics

1271
01:11:16,651 --> 01:11:18,895
as being ruled by the pope,

1272
01:11:18,964 --> 01:11:22,243
having no sense of separation
of church and state.

1273
01:11:23,865 --> 01:11:27,110
All those Catholic monarchies in
Europe convinced them of that.

1274
01:11:30,078 --> 01:11:31,390
I think there are definite

1275
01:11:31,459 --> 01:11:34,980
problems for the American people
in a Roman Catholic

1276
01:11:35,049 --> 01:11:36,982
running for president.

1277
01:11:37,051 --> 01:11:38,259
However, I do not believe

1278
01:11:38,328 --> 01:11:40,226
this should be a time
for religious bigotry.

1279
01:11:40,296 --> 01:11:42,194
Graham says one thing publicly,

1280
01:11:42,263 --> 01:11:44,955
and he does something else privately.

1281
01:11:45,024 --> 01:11:46,923
This is one of Graham's

1282
01:11:46,992 --> 01:11:51,065
ongoing traits when it came to politics.

1283
01:11:51,134 --> 01:11:56,104
He convened a meeting of
prominent American evangelicals

1284
01:11:56,173 --> 01:12:00,212
at a chateau in Montreux, Switzerland.

1285
01:12:00,281 --> 01:12:02,007
Very influential evangelicals:

1286
01:12:02,076 --> 01:12:04,112
L. Nelson Bell,

1287
01:12:04,181 --> 01:12:06,252
who was Billy Graham's father-in-law,

1288
01:12:06,322 --> 01:12:08,738
and then Norman Vincent Peale.

1289
01:12:08,807 --> 01:12:11,672
MILLER Norman Vincent
Peale was a celebrity minister.

1290
01:12:11,741 --> 01:12:13,467
He was famous for a book called

1291
01:12:13,536 --> 01:12:14,709
"The Power of Positive
Thinking."

1292
01:12:16,193 --> 01:12:18,782
It's not clear exactly what was said,

1293
01:12:18,851 --> 01:12:22,579
but at some point in this meeting,

1294
01:12:22,648 --> 01:12:23,822
they decided that

1295
01:12:23,891 --> 01:12:27,377
they would work to derail Kennedy.

1296
01:12:27,446 --> 01:12:30,207
He wrote to Nixon and told him
everything he was doing.

1297
01:12:34,177 --> 01:12:37,318
There was a
meeting at the Mayflower Hotel,

1298
01:12:37,387 --> 01:12:39,285
one of the hotels in Washington,

1299
01:12:39,355 --> 01:12:41,736
and they came out with a statement

1300
01:12:41,805 --> 01:12:44,394
questioning whether
a Catholic should be president.

1301
01:12:44,463 --> 01:12:49,157
When Norman
Vincent Peale spoke to the press,

1302
01:12:49,226 --> 01:12:56,372
it was widely taken as an overt
manifesto of anti-Catholicism.

1303
01:12:58,615 --> 01:13:01,446
Peale was wildly criticized.

1304
01:13:02,930 --> 01:13:07,452
Billy wasn't there, he was in Europe.

1305
01:13:07,521 --> 01:13:10,731
He clearly was instrumental
in setting it up.

1306
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:13,112
But he doesn't say anything publicly

1307
01:13:13,181 --> 01:13:15,943
after the meeting goes awry.

1308
01:13:16,012 --> 01:13:21,500
At that point,
Peale was left out hanging to dry.

1309
01:13:21,569 --> 01:13:24,365
Peale was mortified.

1310
01:13:29,474 --> 01:13:32,304
Jack
Kennedy picks up "The Washington Post,"

1311
01:13:32,373 --> 01:13:35,031
sees the story.

1312
01:13:35,100 --> 01:13:37,309
He has an invitation to speak

1313
01:13:37,378 --> 01:13:40,346
to the Houston Ministerial Association.

1314
01:13:40,416 --> 01:13:42,487
When he read the story, he says,
"I got to go."

1315
01:13:42,556 --> 01:13:47,112
I believe in an America that is officially

1316
01:13:47,181 --> 01:13:50,046
neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish,

1317
01:13:50,115 --> 01:13:53,636
where no religious body seeks
to impose its will

1318
01:13:53,705 --> 01:13:56,466
directly or indirectly

1319
01:13:56,535 --> 01:13:59,124
upon the general populace
or the public acts

1320
01:13:59,193 --> 01:14:01,575
of its officials.

1321
01:14:01,644 --> 01:14:05,233
But if this election
is decided on the basis

1322
01:14:05,302 --> 01:14:10,066
that 40 million Americans lost
their chance of being president

1323
01:14:10,135 --> 01:14:12,413
on the day they were baptized,

1324
01:14:12,482 --> 01:14:15,140
then it is the whole nation
that will be the loser.

1325
01:14:15,209 --> 01:14:18,143
He gave that speech on religious freedom,

1326
01:14:18,212 --> 01:14:20,214
and without that, he would never have won.

1327
01:14:22,596 --> 01:14:26,116
And I was only 20 years old at that time,

1328
01:14:26,185 --> 01:14:30,258
but very politically active,
and I watched it carefully.

1329
01:14:30,327 --> 01:14:33,261
Billy, I know, was for Nixon,

1330
01:14:33,330 --> 01:14:38,508
but he right away goes
and plays golf with Kennedy.

1331
01:14:47,103 --> 01:14:52,039
I have great sympathy
for the need in this country

1332
01:14:52,108 --> 01:14:55,180
for racial understanding, racial justice,

1333
01:14:55,249 --> 01:14:56,595
but I don't believe it's going
to be settled in the street.

1334
01:14:56,664 --> 01:14:58,839
I think it's going to be settled
in the hearts of people.

1335
01:15:00,703 --> 01:15:04,707
Billy Graham sees
racial equality as an important issue.

1336
01:15:04,776 --> 01:15:06,778
At the same time,
he looks upon the activism

1337
01:15:06,847 --> 01:15:09,643
of civil rights leaders
like Martin Luther King, Jr.,

1338
01:15:09,712 --> 01:15:10,989
as troubling.

1339
01:15:13,578 --> 01:15:16,857
He believed in order.

1340
01:15:16,926 --> 01:15:19,445
Graham's really is a Gospel of obedience.

1341
01:15:19,515 --> 01:15:21,482
The whole fundamental principle
of civil disobedience,

1342
01:15:21,551 --> 01:15:23,898
I think, is a hard one for him

1343
01:15:23,967 --> 01:15:27,453
to really understand.

1344
01:15:29,594 --> 01:15:32,631
Martin Luther King and others are really

1345
01:15:32,700 --> 01:15:37,118
trying to provoke a response
from segregationists

1346
01:15:37,187 --> 01:15:40,984
in order to bring attention
to these injustices.

1347
01:15:41,053 --> 01:15:42,572
And so to that end,

1348
01:15:42,641 --> 01:15:44,470
they go to the hotspots.

1349
01:15:44,540 --> 01:15:47,473
And in 1963, Birmingham, Alabama,

1350
01:15:47,543 --> 01:15:49,579
was one of the hottest of the hotspots.

1351
01:15:52,099 --> 01:15:53,100
The Southern
Christian Leadership Conference

1352
01:15:53,169 --> 01:15:54,135
under the leadership

1353
01:15:54,204 --> 01:15:58,726
of Dr. King planned a mass
campaign

1354
01:15:58,795 --> 01:16:03,317
to hold city leaders accountable
for desegregating the city.

1355
01:16:06,631 --> 01:16:08,046
Graham urged King and other
civil rights activists

1356
01:16:08,115 --> 01:16:10,462
to, quote, "put the brakes
on it a little bit"

1357
01:16:10,531 --> 01:16:12,015
in Birmingham, to kind of slow down,

1358
01:16:12,084 --> 01:16:16,468
wait for things to get better.

1359
01:16:16,537 --> 01:16:19,298
I was there for CBS News.

1360
01:16:19,367 --> 01:16:22,129
Dr. King was arrested.

1361
01:16:22,198 --> 01:16:24,545
He was put in jail.

1362
01:16:24,614 --> 01:16:26,409
While in jail, he wrote the now-famous

1363
01:16:26,478 --> 01:16:29,170
"Letter From Birmingham Jail."

1364
01:16:29,239 --> 01:16:33,796
My dear fellow clergymen,

1365
01:16:33,865 --> 01:16:37,385
I have almost reached
the regrettable conclusion

1366
01:16:37,454 --> 01:16:40,526
that the Negro's great stumbling block

1367
01:16:40,596 --> 01:16:43,564
in his stride toward freedom is not

1368
01:16:43,633 --> 01:16:44,910
the White Citizens' Councilor

1369
01:16:44,979 --> 01:16:50,157
or the Ku Klux Klanner,
but the white moderate,

1370
01:16:50,226 --> 01:16:53,505
who is more devoted to "order"
than to justice,

1371
01:16:53,574 --> 01:16:56,750
who constantly says, "I agree
with you in the goal you seek,

1372
01:16:56,819 --> 01:17:02,445
but I cannot agree with your
methods of direct action."

1373
01:17:02,514 --> 01:17:04,792
Even though he's
speaking to those clergy members

1374
01:17:04,861 --> 01:17:08,969
from the city of Birmingham,
he's articulating

1375
01:17:09,038 --> 01:17:15,941
a larger critique of the white
evangelical movement, namely,

1376
01:17:16,010 --> 01:17:19,773
its moderates, of which Billy
Graham is at the forefront.

1377
01:17:19,842 --> 01:17:24,674
I have been disappointed with the church.

1378
01:17:24,743 --> 01:17:28,298
In the midst of blatant injustices

1379
01:17:28,367 --> 01:17:33,131
inflicted upon the Negro,
I have watched white churchmen

1380
01:17:33,200 --> 01:17:37,066
stand on the sideline
and mouth pious irrelevancies

1381
01:17:37,135 --> 01:17:42,347
and sanctimonious trivialities.

1382
01:17:46,523 --> 01:17:51,149
I asked myself,
"Where is Billy Graham?"

1383
01:17:51,218 --> 01:17:53,565
He could make a big difference.

1384
01:17:58,743 --> 01:18:02,919
I am not a right
winger, I'm not a left winger.

1385
01:18:02,988 --> 01:18:04,818
And I have tried to stay away

1386
01:18:04,887 --> 01:18:07,993
from being extremist on either side.

1387
01:18:08,062 --> 01:18:11,100
And sometimes this is difficult,
because I feel the pressure

1388
01:18:11,169 --> 01:18:14,482
from both right and left constantly.

1389
01:18:14,551 --> 01:18:18,072
When it really came
to expressing solidarity

1390
01:18:18,141 --> 01:18:21,179
with Black people and their
allies, it just didn't fit

1391
01:18:21,248 --> 01:18:25,562
with the larger project of
white evangelicalism.

1392
01:18:25,631 --> 01:18:26,702
I'm afraid that people are getting

1393
01:18:26,771 --> 01:18:30,257
a distorted idea about American democracy,

1394
01:18:30,326 --> 01:18:32,569
when they see, for example,
rubber hoses and police dogs

1395
01:18:32,638 --> 01:18:33,881
and all these things being used.

1396
01:18:33,950 --> 01:18:36,504
Because I think these
are isolated incidents,

1397
01:18:36,573 --> 01:18:39,715
do not really reflect

1398
01:18:39,784 --> 01:18:43,235
the mood of the entire country.

1399
01:18:43,304 --> 01:18:47,861
This moment captures the ways
that Billy Graham

1400
01:18:47,930 --> 01:18:52,106
often obscured his hunger,
thirst, and quest

1401
01:18:52,175 --> 01:18:54,074
for popularity and mass acclaim.

1402
01:18:54,143 --> 01:19:00,977
This was a moment where he would
have just had to lose

1403
01:19:01,046 --> 01:19:02,738
a critical mass of his followers
if he had taken

1404
01:19:02,807 --> 01:19:04,394
a definitive stand on

1405
01:19:04,463 --> 01:19:08,951
the side of civil rights protesters.

1406
01:19:09,020 --> 01:19:12,402
King is advocating for rights
for African Americans

1407
01:19:12,471 --> 01:19:14,750
and for all people.

1408
01:19:14,819 --> 01:19:17,891
Graham advocated for power.

1409
01:19:17,960 --> 01:19:21,135
Graham advocates for power for himself.

1410
01:19:34,562 --> 01:19:36,633
The 1960s

1411
01:19:36,702 --> 01:19:41,638
were a tumultuous time, climaxing in 1968.

1412
01:19:41,707 --> 01:19:44,400
The assassinations.

1413
01:19:44,469 --> 01:19:46,678
The tremendous divisions
over the war in Vietnam.

1414
01:19:46,747 --> 01:19:49,439
Literal race riots in the streets.

1415
01:19:49,508 --> 01:19:52,063
The chaos surrounding

1416
01:19:52,132 --> 01:19:55,376
the presidential nominating conventions.

1417
01:19:55,445 --> 01:19:59,139
So there was this sense of fatigue.

1418
01:19:59,208 --> 01:20:03,902
"Gosh, we just can't keep going
this way as a country.

1419
01:20:03,971 --> 01:20:07,147
"We'd had Democratic control
of the White House

1420
01:20:07,216 --> 01:20:11,151
"and both houses of Congress
for eight years.

1421
01:20:11,220 --> 01:20:13,049
Now we're going to try
something new."

1422
01:20:13,118 --> 01:20:17,536
Tonight, from
Atlanta, "The Nixon Answer."

1423
01:20:17,605 --> 01:20:20,125
Hi, how are you?

1424
01:20:20,194 --> 01:20:24,509
Thank you, thank you very much, thank you!

1425
01:20:24,578 --> 01:20:27,477
We have some other visitors
to Atlanta today.

1426
01:20:27,546 --> 01:20:29,963
An old friend, one who is visiting

1427
01:20:30,032 --> 01:20:31,240
his crusade office today,

1428
01:20:31,309 --> 01:20:34,415
Billy Graham and Mrs. Graham,
right next to him.

1429
01:20:37,246 --> 01:20:40,180
When Richard
Nixon is finally elected in 1968,

1430
01:20:40,249 --> 01:20:41,871
Graham was euphoric.

1431
01:20:41,940 --> 01:20:43,390
By that point,

1432
01:20:43,459 --> 01:20:46,324
Nixon had a close relationship with Graham

1433
01:20:46,393 --> 01:20:47,877
for almost a generation.

1434
01:20:47,946 --> 01:20:51,260
And so if Graham's desire going
back with Truman

1435
01:20:51,329 --> 01:20:55,057
was to have that voice in the White House,

1436
01:20:55,126 --> 01:20:57,024
why, then he really had it.

1437
01:20:57,093 --> 01:21:02,512
Nixon made it a point that
if he didn't talk to Graham regularly,

1438
01:21:02,581 --> 01:21:05,412
that one of his closest aides would.

1439
01:21:05,481 --> 01:21:09,312
And when Graham called, you
know, his calls went through.

1440
01:21:09,381 --> 01:21:11,936
Reverend Billy Graham on the line, sir.

1441
01:21:12,005 --> 01:21:12,937
Hello?

1442
01:21:13,006 --> 01:21:13,938
Hello.

1443
01:21:14,007 --> 01:21:14,939
Mr. President?

1444
01:21:15,008 --> 01:21:15,940
Who's this, Billy?

1445
01:21:16,009 --> 01:21:16,941
This is Billy Graham.

1446
01:21:17,010 --> 01:21:18,597
How are you?

1447
01:21:18,666 --> 01:21:19,771
I wanted to tell
you that's by far the best...

1448
01:21:23,706 --> 01:21:26,398
Graham goes to Vietnam, partly as

1449
01:21:26,467 --> 01:21:29,850
a goodwill ambassador,
in a semi-official way.

1450
01:21:32,301 --> 01:21:35,200
Graham's position on the
Vietnam War evolved.

1451
01:21:35,269 --> 01:21:38,065
At the beginning, he was a hawk.

1452
01:21:38,134 --> 01:21:39,515
In the late '60s, early '70s,

1453
01:21:39,584 --> 01:21:43,450
he's not as hawkish as he had been.

1454
01:21:43,519 --> 01:21:47,109
You're a close friend of President Nixon.

1455
01:21:47,178 --> 01:21:49,663
What is your feeling
he'll do about the war

1456
01:21:49,732 --> 01:21:51,354
in the first year or two of his office?

1457
01:21:51,423 --> 01:21:55,669
Well, he, I saw him last Monday night,

1458
01:21:55,738 --> 01:21:59,155
and the last thing he said to me
as I went out the elevator,

1459
01:21:59,224 --> 01:22:01,054
he said, "Tell those men over there

1460
01:22:01,123 --> 01:22:04,402
"that we're pulling for them
and that we're going to try

1461
01:22:04,471 --> 01:22:07,060
to bring peace as quick
as we can."

1462
01:22:07,129 --> 01:22:09,648
Soon after Nixon's inauguration,

1463
01:22:09,717 --> 01:22:13,135
Graham sends a letter to the president.

1464
01:22:13,204 --> 01:22:16,517
The main thrust of it is that
the United States military

1465
01:22:16,586 --> 01:22:20,556
needs to withdraw and let the Vietnamese

1466
01:22:20,625 --> 01:22:25,733
take over the prosecution of the war.

1467
01:22:25,802 --> 01:22:29,427
Did President Nixon offer
you a position in his administration?

1468
01:22:29,496 --> 01:22:31,601
I couldn't answer that.

1469
01:22:33,741 --> 01:22:35,881
You, uh... I will... my position

1470
01:22:35,951 --> 01:22:38,608
in his administration
will be that of just a friend.

1471
01:22:40,645 --> 01:22:42,958
Without question,

1472
01:22:43,027 --> 01:22:47,341
Graham not only had a close
working relationship with Nixon,

1473
01:22:47,410 --> 01:22:49,447
they did talk about policy,

1474
01:22:49,516 --> 01:22:53,520
and this contradicts
Graham's frequent statement

1475
01:22:53,589 --> 01:22:55,763
that they did not talk about policy,

1476
01:22:55,832 --> 01:22:57,765
that the relationship was purely pastoral.

1477
01:23:02,978 --> 01:23:05,463
I've got an editorial in
"The New York Times" on Friday,

1478
01:23:05,532 --> 01:23:06,912
which I wrote this morning...

1479
01:23:06,982 --> 01:23:08,984
Good for you, good.

1480
01:23:09,053 --> 01:23:11,572
And I'm putting all the
blame for this whole thing on Kennedy.

1481
01:23:11,641 --> 01:23:14,023
That's right, he started the damn thing!

1482
01:23:14,092 --> 01:23:16,646
Yeah, and I got all
that in there, and they've taken it.

1483
01:23:16,715 --> 01:23:18,372
They're going to print it Friday morning.

1484
01:23:18,441 --> 01:23:19,684
Good.

1485
01:23:19,753 --> 01:23:22,100
Well, believe me, Billy,
it means an awful lot.

1486
01:23:22,169 --> 01:23:23,826
And you keep the faith, huh?

1487
01:23:23,895 --> 01:23:24,930
You betcha.

1488
01:23:26,622 --> 01:23:30,246
In May of 1970,
Nixon reveals to the public

1489
01:23:30,315 --> 01:23:34,975
that America has actually
widened the war in Vietnam.

1490
01:23:35,044 --> 01:23:36,770
He promised to draw it down.

1491
01:23:36,839 --> 01:23:38,254
Instead, he'd actually expanded it,

1492
01:23:38,323 --> 01:23:40,429
and he expanded it by invading Cambodia.

1493
01:23:44,364 --> 01:23:46,607
The town of Kent and the Kent State campus

1494
01:23:46,676 --> 01:23:48,506
erupted in violent demonstrations

1495
01:23:48,575 --> 01:23:52,924
against America's involvement
in Cambodia and Vietnam,

1496
01:23:52,993 --> 01:23:55,202
demonstrations that lasted four days

1497
01:23:55,271 --> 01:23:57,411
and ended when four students died in

1498
01:23:57,480 --> 01:24:01,657
a volley of National Guard gunfire.

1499
01:24:14,808 --> 01:24:17,569
What's your
reaction to the killings at Kent State?

1500
01:24:17,638 --> 01:24:20,227
I felt like somebody had kicked
me in the stomach.

1501
01:24:20,296 --> 01:24:22,747
I just hoped and prayed this
would not happen in America.

1502
01:24:22,816 --> 01:24:26,440
Because it could be the
beginning of more violence.

1503
01:24:28,891 --> 01:24:31,583
Just a few weeks
after the Kent State killings,

1504
01:24:31,652 --> 01:24:33,309
Billy Graham held a crusade

1505
01:24:33,378 --> 01:24:36,416
in Knoxville, Tennessee.

1506
01:24:36,485 --> 01:24:38,590
The entire country is in turmoil

1507
01:24:38,659 --> 01:24:40,730
and Nixon is looking for a way

1508
01:24:40,799 --> 01:24:43,008
to counter-balance these protests.

1509
01:24:43,078 --> 01:24:47,151
And Billy Graham offers
the way out by inviting him

1510
01:24:47,220 --> 01:24:50,223
to come down to the University
of Tennessee in Knoxville.

1511
01:24:52,501 --> 01:24:55,090
Nixon had strong support in the region,

1512
01:24:55,159 --> 01:24:58,955
especially in East Tennessee,
where Knoxville is located.

1513
01:24:59,024 --> 01:25:01,199
Graham steps forward

1514
01:25:01,268 --> 01:25:03,719
to offer a very public vindication

1515
01:25:03,788 --> 01:25:05,030
of the president at the moment

1516
01:25:05,100 --> 01:25:06,549
he's being vilified by everyone else.

1517
01:25:06,618 --> 01:25:10,967
All Americans may not agree with
the decision a president makes.

1518
01:25:11,036 --> 01:25:12,797
But he is our president.

1519
01:25:24,119 --> 01:25:28,709
Graham's primary loyalty was to Nixon.

1520
01:25:28,778 --> 01:25:32,886
And that trumped Graham's
judgment about the morality

1521
01:25:32,955 --> 01:25:35,785
of the expansion of the war
in Southeast Asia.

1522
01:25:38,374 --> 01:25:40,583
Graham was willing to set
that aside and say,

1523
01:25:40,652 --> 01:25:42,792
"Nixon's the guy, Nixon's my person.

1524
01:25:42,861 --> 01:25:46,141
"And I'm going to rescue him
at this moment

1525
01:25:46,210 --> 01:25:48,143
of real political danger."

1526
01:25:48,212 --> 01:25:50,973
One, two, three,
four, we don't want no stinkin' war.

1527
01:26:01,363 --> 01:26:03,848
Billy Graham, when
he invited me to come here,

1528
01:26:03,917 --> 01:26:09,992
he told me that there would be
youth from the university,

1529
01:26:10,061 --> 01:26:12,546
from other parts of the state,

1530
01:26:12,615 --> 01:26:15,446
representing different points of view.

1531
01:26:18,794 --> 01:26:22,107
I'm just glad that there seems
to be a rather solid majority

1532
01:26:22,177 --> 01:26:24,558
on one side rather than
the other side tonight.

1533
01:26:32,704 --> 01:26:36,777
There was a celebration
within the White House of these visuals

1534
01:26:36,846 --> 01:26:39,055
of Richard Nixon side by side

1535
01:26:39,124 --> 01:26:41,265
with Billy Graham in the face of

1536
01:26:41,334 --> 01:26:44,544
these lawless heathen protesters.

1537
01:26:47,754 --> 01:26:50,860
You couldn't have possibly
packaged it more neatly

1538
01:26:50,929 --> 01:26:53,656
for their purposes.

1539
01:26:58,282 --> 01:27:00,939
Dr. Billy Graham.

1540
01:27:01,008 --> 01:27:03,839
As a Southerner, and I'm very
proud to be a Southerner,

1541
01:27:03,908 --> 01:27:07,291
public schools have been a part
of the way of life in the South

1542
01:27:07,360 --> 01:27:09,396
for many years.

1543
01:27:09,465 --> 01:27:12,537
A lot of Southerners may be
frustrated and angry right now,

1544
01:27:12,606 --> 01:27:14,470
and many don't agree with all the changes

1545
01:27:14,539 --> 01:27:16,058
that are taking place in the schools,

1546
01:27:16,127 --> 01:27:18,647
especially this busing for

1547
01:27:18,716 --> 01:27:21,132
racial balance.

1548
01:27:21,201 --> 01:27:25,170
The gist of these ads was
to try to persuade white Southerners

1549
01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:30,486
to abandon the Democratic Party
for Nixon's Republican Party.

1550
01:27:30,555 --> 01:27:36,665
And Graham is willing to go
on record in a very,

1551
01:27:36,734 --> 01:27:38,943
very graphic way, to make that happen.

1552
01:27:39,012 --> 01:27:43,568
I really believe that the South
will set an example of respect

1553
01:27:43,637 --> 01:27:48,159
for law that will be a model
for others to follow.

1554
01:27:48,228 --> 01:27:51,887
The Nixon White
House was really using Graham

1555
01:27:51,956 --> 01:27:54,821
for their political ends.

1556
01:27:54,890 --> 01:27:56,409
Graham certainly played along with that.

1557
01:27:56,478 --> 01:28:01,172
He was happy to help Nixon,
in any way he could.

1558
01:28:05,935 --> 01:28:07,489
President Nixon went to Charlotte,

1559
01:28:07,558 --> 01:28:10,975
North Carolina, today for
a special local tribute

1560
01:28:11,044 --> 01:28:14,461
to his old friend
the Reverend Billy Graham.

1561
01:28:14,530 --> 01:28:15,842
At Billy Graham Day

1562
01:28:15,911 --> 01:28:19,432
in 1971, the city of Charlotte

1563
01:28:19,501 --> 01:28:20,640
shut down for the event.

1564
01:28:22,262 --> 01:28:24,816
Schools were closed,
businesses were closed,

1565
01:28:24,885 --> 01:28:28,406
and the entire city just turned out

1566
01:28:28,475 --> 01:28:31,340
to welcome home and celebrate

1567
01:28:31,409 --> 01:28:34,585
their favorite son.

1568
01:28:34,654 --> 01:28:36,311
Billy Graham Day was

1569
01:28:36,380 --> 01:28:39,417
essentially a contrived event

1570
01:28:39,486 --> 01:28:42,109
to celebrate Graham,

1571
01:28:42,178 --> 01:28:44,180
and to give Nixon exposure

1572
01:28:44,249 --> 01:28:45,975
in the region, as well.

1573
01:28:47,287 --> 01:28:49,496
Graham and Nixon were basically

1574
01:28:49,565 --> 01:28:51,981
making a campaign appearance together,

1575
01:28:52,050 --> 01:28:54,294
almost as if they were president

1576
01:28:54,363 --> 01:28:56,469
and vice president.

1577
01:28:58,298 --> 01:29:01,991
This is an apex in his career,

1578
01:29:02,060 --> 01:29:05,063
a moment when he and Richard Nixon are

1579
01:29:05,132 --> 01:29:08,791
tightly bound together in the political

1580
01:29:08,860 --> 01:29:12,243
and cultural project of making
American values.

1581
01:29:15,073 --> 01:29:17,455
Billy Graham Day
was not about honoring God,

1582
01:29:17,524 --> 01:29:20,147
it was about honoring Billy Graham,

1583
01:29:20,216 --> 01:29:22,909
and so now he is the subject
of all the adulation,

1584
01:29:22,978 --> 01:29:27,500
and that had to be...
a very different kind

1585
01:29:27,569 --> 01:29:28,880
of experience for him.

1586
01:29:31,435 --> 01:29:33,851
And arguably, a dangerous one.

1587
01:30:05,814 --> 01:30:08,713
I would like to say that,
if we come right down to the wire...

1588
01:30:08,782 --> 01:30:09,714
Right.

1589
01:30:09,783 --> 01:30:11,129
And it looks like, you know,

1590
01:30:11,198 --> 01:30:13,097
that I could help in a public way,

1591
01:30:13,166 --> 01:30:15,030
even if I had to come out and say,

1592
01:30:15,099 --> 01:30:17,584
"I'm voting for Richard Nixon
because..."

1593
01:30:17,653 --> 01:30:19,103
I'm ready to put that on the line,

1594
01:30:19,172 --> 01:30:21,450
even though it would hurt
my ministry for years.

1595
01:30:23,314 --> 01:30:25,730
But I'm 53, I don't know
how long I have anyway,

1596
01:30:25,799 --> 01:30:26,869
so I don't care.

1597
01:30:33,324 --> 01:30:36,396
What's beginning to
turn into a nightmare for the Republicans

1598
01:30:36,465 --> 01:30:39,779
all began on June 17, when,
according to police,

1599
01:30:39,848 --> 01:30:42,126
five men were caught with
bugging equipment

1600
01:30:42,195 --> 01:30:44,680
inside the Democratic National
Committee headquarters

1601
01:30:44,749 --> 01:30:46,199
at the Watergate.

1602
01:30:46,268 --> 01:30:51,238
When the
Watergate story begins to surface,

1603
01:30:51,307 --> 01:30:54,241
Graham is incredulous.

1604
01:30:54,310 --> 01:30:56,278
He does not believe that Richard Nixon

1605
01:30:56,347 --> 01:31:00,800
could have been involved
in something this wrong.

1606
01:31:00,869 --> 01:31:04,597
Nixon had always presented
himself to Graham

1607
01:31:04,666 --> 01:31:08,877
as a devout fellow Christian.

1608
01:31:08,946 --> 01:31:11,086
Not an evangelical, exactly,

1609
01:31:11,155 --> 01:31:13,053
but as a devout fellow Christian.

1610
01:31:13,122 --> 01:31:16,919
And Graham took that as an
evidence of Nixon's character.

1611
01:31:16,988 --> 01:31:19,853
It was learned this
week that another suspect received

1612
01:31:19,922 --> 01:31:22,442
a $25,000 cashier's check,

1613
01:31:22,511 --> 01:31:25,031
which had been intended for the
president's campaign.

1614
01:31:25,100 --> 01:31:26,550
The question is,

1615
01:31:26,619 --> 01:31:30,070
if any or all of what is alleged
to have been going on is true,

1616
01:31:30,139 --> 01:31:32,625
how high up in the White House does it go,

1617
01:31:32,694 --> 01:31:34,558
and is the president himself involved?

1618
01:31:36,180 --> 01:31:39,321
Increasingly, Graham
cannot deny that something illegal

1619
01:31:39,390 --> 01:31:41,496
had taken place, but he didn't think

1620
01:31:41,565 --> 01:31:43,463
that Nixon had orchestrated it.

1621
01:31:43,532 --> 01:31:46,604
He's saying, "Nixon could not
be involved, he's too moral."

1622
01:31:46,673 --> 01:31:49,193
Are you aware of the installation of any

1623
01:31:49,262 --> 01:31:52,437
listening devices in the
Oval Office of the president?

1624
01:31:55,648 --> 01:32:00,169
I was aware of listening
devices, yes, sir.

1625
01:32:00,238 --> 01:32:02,689
The tapes are crucial.

1626
01:32:02,758 --> 01:32:04,208
For example, they could show whether

1627
01:32:04,277 --> 01:32:06,210
John Dean was telling the truth
when he said

1628
01:32:06,279 --> 01:32:08,523
that President Nixon indicated knowledge

1629
01:32:08,592 --> 01:32:10,663
of the Watergate coverup in a
number of conversations

1630
01:32:10,732 --> 01:32:11,905
at the White House.

1631
01:32:11,974 --> 01:32:14,218
Watergate was not on the official agenda

1632
01:32:14,287 --> 01:32:15,633
of the Southern Baptist convention,

1633
01:32:15,702 --> 01:32:18,843
which ended in Dallas today,
but as George Lewis reports,

1634
01:32:18,912 --> 01:32:21,743
the subject was on the minds
of many delegates.

1635
01:32:21,812 --> 01:32:23,192
There's a little bit
of Watergate in all of us,

1636
01:32:23,261 --> 01:32:25,091
just don't go around so self-righteous,

1637
01:32:25,160 --> 01:32:29,129
talking about all those bad people.

1638
01:32:31,338 --> 01:32:33,789
I know some bad people in both parties.

1639
01:32:33,858 --> 01:32:38,104
In private, Billy Graham
was working with Nixon's staff

1640
01:32:38,173 --> 01:32:40,485
and telling them, "Try to do some things

1641
01:32:40,555 --> 01:32:43,178
"to divert attention from this crisis.

1642
01:32:43,247 --> 01:32:45,249
"Maybe get people thinking about
something else.

1643
01:32:45,318 --> 01:32:47,527
"Concentrate on meeting famous people,

1644
01:32:47,596 --> 01:32:48,735
having your picture taken
with them."

1645
01:32:54,223 --> 01:32:56,156
President Nixon has not yet responded

1646
01:32:56,225 --> 01:32:59,228
to the sledgehammer decision
of the Supreme Court today,

1647
01:32:59,297 --> 01:33:02,335
which ruled that he must
immediately turn over tapes

1648
01:33:02,404 --> 01:33:05,131
of 64 presidential conversations.

1649
01:33:05,200 --> 01:33:08,893
In a unanimous decision written
by Chief Justice Warren Burger,

1650
01:33:08,962 --> 01:33:11,516
the court rejected eight to nothing

1651
01:33:11,586 --> 01:33:14,761
Mr. Nixon's claim of absolute
privilege on those tapes.

1652
01:33:17,074 --> 01:33:22,320
When the White House
tapes are released in April of '74,

1653
01:33:22,389 --> 01:33:25,979
and the text is reprinted,

1654
01:33:26,048 --> 01:33:30,087
Graham at first refuses to read them.

1655
01:33:30,156 --> 01:33:32,607
He doesn't want to know
the truth, all right?

1656
01:33:32,676 --> 01:33:37,439
But by early May,
he knows he has no choice.

1657
01:33:52,627 --> 01:33:56,769
The phone rings, my secretary says,

1658
01:33:56,838 --> 01:33:59,599
"A man claiming to be
Billy Graham's on the line."

1659
01:33:59,668 --> 01:34:01,221
I said, "Put him through,"
and it was Billy.

1660
01:34:01,290 --> 01:34:03,430
And he said, "John,"

1661
01:34:03,499 --> 01:34:07,055
he said, "I just now have read
the transcripts.

1662
01:34:07,124 --> 01:34:11,438
I'm only halfway through
and I just vomited."

1663
01:34:11,507 --> 01:34:12,992
And he said,
"You know... and I know

1664
01:34:13,061 --> 01:34:15,995
"that the president had to use
some sleeping pills

1665
01:34:16,064 --> 01:34:18,583
"to counter jet lag and things like that.

1666
01:34:18,653 --> 01:34:21,000
I just wonder if something's
happened to him."

1667
01:34:21,069 --> 01:34:22,760
The Reverend Billy Graham,

1668
01:34:22,829 --> 01:34:25,211
who's been a friend of the
president's for a long time,

1669
01:34:25,280 --> 01:34:26,971
spoke out today on the moral tone

1670
01:34:27,040 --> 01:34:29,836
of the president's edited
White House transcripts.

1671
01:34:29,905 --> 01:34:33,081
Graham said reading the tapes
was a profoundly disturbing

1672
01:34:33,150 --> 01:34:35,290
and disappointing experience.

1673
01:34:35,359 --> 01:34:38,811
He said he could not but deplore
the moral tone implied.

1674
01:34:43,022 --> 01:34:44,506
My impression at the time

1675
01:34:44,575 --> 01:34:47,405
was that Billy Graham felt
it was best to say

1676
01:34:47,474 --> 01:34:50,857
as little as possible, keep his head down,

1677
01:34:50,926 --> 01:34:52,548
and let the worst of it pass.

1678
01:34:54,343 --> 01:34:57,657
Why are you refusing
to discuss it here for a moment or two?

1679
01:34:57,726 --> 01:34:58,934
It's a rather
serious... Because this is...

1680
01:34:59,003 --> 01:35:01,316
Because this is, uh,
this is a golf tournament,

1681
01:35:01,385 --> 01:35:03,283
and I came out here to enjoy
a day of golf.

1682
01:35:03,352 --> 01:35:05,527
And your
statement was a very serious thing

1683
01:35:05,596 --> 01:35:07,494
towards the president of the
United States, too,

1684
01:35:07,563 --> 01:35:09,427
which is perhaps more important
than a golf tournament.

1685
01:35:09,496 --> 01:35:11,947
Well, that is up for me to judge.

1686
01:35:12,016 --> 01:35:13,293
You don't thinkit is?

1687
01:35:13,362 --> 01:35:15,468
I am not making any comment.
- Dr. Graham,

1688
01:35:15,537 --> 01:35:17,090
what do you think the transcripts show

1689
01:35:17,159 --> 01:35:18,540
about the moral tone in the White House?

1690
01:35:18,609 --> 01:35:19,541
No comment.

1691
01:35:21,854 --> 01:35:23,476
I'm very sorry,

1692
01:35:23,545 --> 01:35:25,650
but on another time, another occasion,

1693
01:35:25,720 --> 01:35:27,652
I'd be happy to... Well, you've stood here

1694
01:35:27,722 --> 01:35:29,137
to talk about it, but... for ten minutes
to talk to us about it

1695
01:35:29,206 --> 01:35:30,794
without talking to us about it.

1696
01:35:30,863 --> 01:35:32,140
Doesn't save
you much time... Well...

1697
01:35:32,209 --> 01:35:35,108
This is a golf game,
and I don't think it's

1698
01:35:35,177 --> 01:35:36,420
a proper place to discuss it.

1699
01:35:37,593 --> 01:35:40,424
Billy Graham was worried.

1700
01:35:40,493 --> 01:35:44,531
He knew how close he had become
with Richard Nixon

1701
01:35:44,600 --> 01:35:49,157
in that phrase, "He was flying
very close to the sun."

1702
01:35:49,226 --> 01:35:50,675
Jim, thank you very much.

1703
01:35:50,745 --> 01:35:52,643
Have a good golf day, anyway.
Yes, sir, thank you.

1704
01:35:59,961 --> 01:36:02,653
In the White
House, in just a few moments now,

1705
01:36:02,722 --> 01:36:05,587
President Nixon will be
appearing before the people

1706
01:36:05,656 --> 01:36:09,453
perhaps for the last time as
president of the United States.

1707
01:36:09,522 --> 01:36:10,488
He had asked for

1708
01:36:10,557 --> 01:36:12,628
this television time at 9:00

1709
01:36:12,697 --> 01:36:14,044
to make an announcement.

1710
01:36:14,113 --> 01:36:17,219
On the night Nixon finally is
persuaded to resign,

1711
01:36:17,288 --> 01:36:22,017
Billy Graham comes to Washington
hoping to provide comfort

1712
01:36:22,086 --> 01:36:25,262
in what was certainly Nixon's
darkest hour.

1713
01:36:27,402 --> 01:36:30,370
He told me that he wanted
to be with Nixon to pray with him,

1714
01:36:30,439 --> 01:36:31,751
but he couldn't get to him.

1715
01:36:33,442 --> 01:36:35,617
He couldn't even get the
operator to put him through.

1716
01:36:37,515 --> 01:36:41,623
I shall resign the presidency
effective at noon tomorrow.

1717
01:36:45,592 --> 01:36:49,527
Here he is on the South Lawn already.

1718
01:36:49,596 --> 01:36:52,876
Mr. Nixon as
he leaves the White House here

1719
01:36:52,945 --> 01:36:57,501
to board the helicopter for the
flight to California.

1720
01:36:59,848 --> 01:37:01,712
There's the president waving goodbye.

1721
01:37:01,781 --> 01:37:04,991
And you hear the applause.

1722
01:37:07,200 --> 01:37:11,411
Right after Nixon resigned,

1723
01:37:11,480 --> 01:37:14,414
Billy Graham went back to his
home in the mountains

1724
01:37:14,483 --> 01:37:18,763
near Asheville, just to consider
and absorb what had happened,

1725
01:37:18,833 --> 01:37:21,283
what he'd been through.

1726
01:37:21,352 --> 01:37:24,252
Billy Graham's
friendship with Richard Nixon

1727
01:37:24,321 --> 01:37:27,876
had tainted the very work of his life.

1728
01:37:27,945 --> 01:37:32,708
This is the first time that
he's had a huge moral misstep.

1729
01:37:35,401 --> 01:37:37,748
He was desolate.

1730
01:37:37,817 --> 01:37:43,650
He was just beside himself with anguish.

1731
01:37:46,101 --> 01:37:49,622
His faith in this man
turned out to be misplaced,

1732
01:37:49,691 --> 01:37:52,038
and his faith in Nixon's goodness,

1733
01:37:52,107 --> 01:37:55,007
and in his own judgment
of Nixon's goodness.

1734
01:37:56,767 --> 01:37:59,149
That's a crushing experience.

1735
01:38:03,601 --> 01:38:06,604
You hitch your Gospel wagon to a star.

1736
01:38:09,021 --> 01:38:11,920
When that star falls, so does the wagon.

1737
01:38:25,520 --> 01:38:29,524
After Watergate,
Billy Graham begins to focus more

1738
01:38:29,593 --> 01:38:32,147
on international efforts.

1739
01:38:37,946 --> 01:38:39,568
Just a recognition that,
you know, he needed

1740
01:38:39,637 --> 01:38:42,364
to repair his own reputation

1741
01:38:42,433 --> 01:38:46,196
after it had been,
without any question, sullied.

1742
01:38:46,265 --> 01:38:49,061
God loves you so much

1743
01:38:49,130 --> 01:38:52,581
that He decided to save you.

1744
01:38:55,101 --> 01:38:57,724
He was getting ready to die.

1745
01:38:57,793 --> 01:39:01,314
He was getting ready to leave.

1746
01:39:01,383 --> 01:39:04,904
And the last word He said to the
people was, "Love each other."

1747
01:39:07,942 --> 01:39:08,873
How many of you here today

1748
01:39:08,943 --> 01:39:10,461
are dissatisfied?

1749
01:39:13,085 --> 01:39:14,500
You're searching for something,

1750
01:39:14,569 --> 01:39:16,951
and you don't know what it is.

1751
01:39:17,020 --> 01:39:18,883
He started going to Europe more often,

1752
01:39:18,953 --> 01:39:21,576
especially Eastern Europe.

1753
01:39:21,645 --> 01:39:26,063
And not only do the Protestant
churches support him,

1754
01:39:26,132 --> 01:39:27,927
but the Catholic churches do.

1755
01:39:27,996 --> 01:39:32,759
Catholic Poland welcomes him.

1756
01:39:32,828 --> 01:39:35,452
He never expected that.

1757
01:39:35,521 --> 01:39:40,526
How can I get that righteousness?

1758
01:39:40,595 --> 01:39:44,737
How can I get this holiness?

1759
01:39:44,806 --> 01:39:47,222
Through the cross.

1760
01:39:49,535 --> 01:39:51,364
The picture of world Christianity

1761
01:39:51,433 --> 01:39:52,779
is changing, and Billy Graham

1762
01:39:52,848 --> 01:39:55,782
is now going where Christianity
is growing.

1763
01:39:57,646 --> 01:39:59,131
It broadens him.

1764
01:39:59,200 --> 01:40:04,515
He becomes less adamant in many ways,

1765
01:40:04,584 --> 01:40:08,243
not about the truth of the Gospel,

1766
01:40:08,312 --> 01:40:11,281
but because he gets exposed to
so many different ways of life

1767
01:40:11,350 --> 01:40:13,524
and so many different kinds of people.

1768
01:40:23,983 --> 01:40:25,571
"McCall's" magazine

1769
01:40:25,640 --> 01:40:27,159
asked me to interview him.

1770
01:40:27,228 --> 01:40:31,784
We met in a mid-Manhattan hotel,

1771
01:40:31,853 --> 01:40:36,340
a nice one, but the room was not
big, and he's tall.

1772
01:40:36,409 --> 01:40:38,860
And he's trying to find a place
to put his legs.

1773
01:40:40,724 --> 01:40:43,554
He was tired, he'd been gone
for months and months.

1774
01:40:43,623 --> 01:40:46,316
He missed his wife.

1775
01:40:46,385 --> 01:40:48,732
That was part of the mood.

1776
01:40:48,801 --> 01:40:53,426
And so we're talking, and he
said, "You know,"

1777
01:40:53,495 --> 01:40:59,329
he said, "I used to think that
all those Chinese babies

1778
01:40:59,398 --> 01:41:02,815
"who never had the Gospel preached to them

1779
01:41:02,884 --> 01:41:06,405
were all going to Hell."

1780
01:41:06,474 --> 01:41:09,753
He said, "I don't believe
that anymore."

1781
01:41:13,170 --> 01:41:16,691
He said, "My job is to do the preaching,

1782
01:41:16,760 --> 01:41:19,866
and God's job is to do
the savings."

1783
01:41:23,042 --> 01:41:27,219
That's just not what you say
if you're an evangelist.

1784
01:41:27,288 --> 01:41:30,981
"You need this, and you need it today

1785
01:41:31,050 --> 01:41:33,397
"because tomorrow you may die

1786
01:41:33,466 --> 01:41:34,364
and you're going to be
burning in Hell."

1787
01:41:36,987 --> 01:41:41,198
Billy finally said he would
let God be God,

1788
01:41:41,267 --> 01:41:44,822
and let Him be the judge.

1789
01:41:44,891 --> 01:41:47,653
It's an extraordinary change.

1790
01:41:51,001 --> 01:41:53,659
Nobody knows for sure how many
conservative Christians

1791
01:41:53,728 --> 01:41:55,523
there are in the United States.

1792
01:41:55,592 --> 01:41:58,526
One estimate is from 30 to 65 million.

1793
01:41:58,595 --> 01:42:01,529
These people are born-again Christians.

1794
01:42:01,598 --> 01:42:02,840
Millions of them are political
conservatives

1795
01:42:02,909 --> 01:42:04,497
who traditionally have not voted,

1796
01:42:04,566 --> 01:42:05,774
but this year they're being mobilized

1797
01:42:05,843 --> 01:42:08,018
for Ronald Reagan.

1798
01:42:08,087 --> 01:42:10,365
We've got to raise up an army

1799
01:42:10,434 --> 01:42:13,092
of men and women in America

1800
01:42:13,161 --> 01:42:17,027
who'll call this nation back
to moral sanity and sensibility.

1801
01:42:17,096 --> 01:42:19,305
I call that the Moral Majority.

1802
01:42:19,374 --> 01:42:20,582
Jerry Falwell came in

1803
01:42:20,651 --> 01:42:23,551
to pick up the reins of what
Graham had created

1804
01:42:23,620 --> 01:42:26,588
and took it to the next level.

1805
01:42:26,657 --> 01:42:29,522
We have a threefold
primary responsibility.

1806
01:42:29,591 --> 01:42:31,006
Number one, get people saved,

1807
01:42:31,075 --> 01:42:32,284
number two, get them baptized,

1808
01:42:32,353 --> 01:42:34,389
number three, get them registered to vote.

1809
01:42:34,458 --> 01:42:37,737
This year, millions
of evangelical Christians

1810
01:42:37,806 --> 01:42:39,394
appear to be coming together

1811
01:42:39,463 --> 01:42:41,776
to form a new and powerful force,

1812
01:42:41,845 --> 01:42:44,882
one that could change the face
of American politics.

1813
01:42:44,951 --> 01:42:46,160
You stay home,

1814
01:42:46,229 --> 01:42:48,472
you don't get informed,
you don't get involved,

1815
01:42:48,541 --> 01:42:51,061
you don't get active,
you don't vote, you don't care...

1816
01:42:51,130 --> 01:42:52,649
you know who runs the country?

1817
01:42:52,718 --> 01:42:54,409
The godless, wicked forces

1818
01:42:54,478 --> 01:42:57,067
that are gonna sell you down the river.

1819
01:42:57,136 --> 01:42:59,483
Good Christians make good citizens,

1820
01:42:59,552 --> 01:43:01,071
and it's a sin not to vote.

1821
01:43:01,140 --> 01:43:06,870
We as Christians are simply
not going to sit back any longer

1822
01:43:06,939 --> 01:43:10,011
and watch our families being destroyed.

1823
01:43:10,080 --> 01:43:13,359
Maybe God's calling you to be
a political leader for Christ.

1824
01:43:13,428 --> 01:43:14,636
Why not?

1825
01:43:14,705 --> 01:43:16,742
I would say that just about every church

1826
01:43:16,811 --> 01:43:21,402
in America, evangelical
fundamentalist churches,

1827
01:43:21,471 --> 01:43:23,507
follow the cue of their pastor.

1828
01:43:23,576 --> 01:43:26,407
That's an extraordinary amount of power.

1829
01:43:26,476 --> 01:43:27,615
Yes.

1830
01:43:35,416 --> 01:43:38,384
Jerry Falwell has
a right to do what he's doing.

1831
01:43:38,453 --> 01:43:41,076
The only thing I'm saying
is, I'm not going to join that

1832
01:43:41,145 --> 01:43:43,147
and I'm not going to get
involved in politics.

1833
01:43:43,217 --> 01:43:44,735
But they're, but they're giving us a real

1834
01:43:44,804 --> 01:43:46,703
litmus test about who is acceptable

1835
01:43:46,772 --> 01:43:48,152
to the Moral Majority,

1836
01:43:48,222 --> 01:43:50,776
and then if they don't meet
this various check off

1837
01:43:50,845 --> 01:43:53,330
on this list, candidates or
other people in public life,

1838
01:43:53,399 --> 01:43:55,781
then the Moral Majority brings
its considerable resources

1839
01:43:55,850 --> 01:43:57,852
to bear against
that candidate. Yes,

1840
01:43:57,921 --> 01:43:59,612
and I'm not going to be a part of that.

1841
01:44:04,307 --> 01:44:06,412
I don't think that
the rise of the religious right

1842
01:44:06,481 --> 01:44:08,345
could have happened in the way
that it did,

1843
01:44:08,414 --> 01:44:11,417
had he not opened those doors,

1844
01:44:11,486 --> 01:44:14,248
but the people who came flooding
through those doors did so

1845
01:44:14,317 --> 01:44:16,491
as he was going the other way.

1846
01:44:18,907 --> 01:44:21,013
Graham comes out early in the 1980s

1847
01:44:21,082 --> 01:44:25,155
against nuclear proliferation
and in favor of

1848
01:44:25,224 --> 01:44:26,846
nuclear disarmament.

1849
01:44:26,915 --> 01:44:28,365
Our time ought to be spent talking about

1850
01:44:28,434 --> 01:44:30,609
how we're gonna eliminate
these weapons entirely.

1851
01:44:30,678 --> 01:44:32,058
Why?

1852
01:44:32,127 --> 01:44:34,820
Because we can destroy the whole
world in less than an hour.

1853
01:44:34,889 --> 01:44:37,512
Let's say the Soviet Union were attacked,

1854
01:44:37,581 --> 01:44:40,170
or the United States were attacked,

1855
01:44:40,239 --> 01:44:42,690
the head of the Soviet Union,
the head of the United States

1856
01:44:42,759 --> 01:44:45,486
would have only about 15 minutes to react.

1857
01:44:45,555 --> 01:44:50,663
In 1982, he went to Moscow.

1858
01:44:50,732 --> 01:44:52,044
Graham's trip took place

1859
01:44:52,113 --> 01:44:55,806
in the face of ardent opposition
on the home front.

1860
01:44:55,875 --> 01:44:58,809
President Ronald Reagan was dubious.

1861
01:44:58,878 --> 01:45:01,640
The vice president, George Bush,

1862
01:45:01,709 --> 01:45:04,712
actively opposed it.

1863
01:45:04,781 --> 01:45:06,817
The stakes were so high,

1864
01:45:06,886 --> 01:45:13,686
not just for Billy and his
reputation and his future work,

1865
01:45:13,755 --> 01:45:16,275
but for the safety of the planet.

1866
01:45:16,344 --> 01:45:19,036
There's no doubt that the world

1867
01:45:19,105 --> 01:45:21,004
is facing the most critical moment

1868
01:45:21,073 --> 01:45:23,524
since the beginning of human history.

1869
01:45:23,593 --> 01:45:26,320
We live in a time which is
without parallel,

1870
01:45:26,389 --> 01:45:30,254
because never before has
humanity held in its hands

1871
01:45:30,324 --> 01:45:32,912
such awesome weapons of mass destruction.

1872
01:45:32,981 --> 01:45:36,847
But it is now time for us
to urge the world to turn

1873
01:45:36,916 --> 01:45:39,056
to a spiritual solution

1874
01:45:39,125 --> 01:45:40,748
to this great problem.

1875
01:45:45,097 --> 01:45:49,481
If you go back to the
boy wonder preacher of 1949,

1876
01:45:49,550 --> 01:45:51,793
where there was just no question about

1877
01:45:51,862 --> 01:45:57,592
America as being the most
righteous nation on Earth,

1878
01:45:57,661 --> 01:46:01,458
he just became more aware of difference

1879
01:46:01,527 --> 01:46:02,873
and of nuance and of complexity.

1880
01:46:05,911 --> 01:46:08,983
He became less American and more global.

1881
01:46:13,953 --> 01:46:15,783
Just when we think we've heard it all,

1882
01:46:15,852 --> 01:46:18,613
more arises from the dark side
of the only president

1883
01:46:18,682 --> 01:46:20,857
to resign in disgrace.

1884
01:46:20,926 --> 01:46:23,929
Today's tapes include
discomforting remarks, as well,

1885
01:46:23,998 --> 01:46:25,551
by the Reverend Billy Graham.

1886
01:46:25,620 --> 01:46:28,554
The 500 hours of tapes released today,

1887
01:46:28,623 --> 01:46:30,073
showing what one historian calls

1888
01:46:30,142 --> 01:46:32,834
Nixon's own dark view
of how the world works,

1889
01:46:32,903 --> 01:46:34,905
where the enemy is not just
the communists,

1890
01:46:34,974 --> 01:46:36,493
it's also the media.

1891
01:46:36,562 --> 01:46:39,669
"Newsweek" is
totally, it's all run by Jews

1892
01:46:39,738 --> 01:46:42,223
and dominated by them
in their editorial pages.

1893
01:46:42,292 --> 01:46:45,088
"The New York Times,"
"The Washington Post,"

1894
01:46:45,157 --> 01:46:46,745
totally Jewish, too...

1895
01:46:46,814 --> 01:46:49,541
Listening in agreement
is the Reverend Billy Graham.

1896
01:46:49,610 --> 01:46:51,922
This stranglehold has got to be broken

1897
01:46:51,991 --> 01:46:54,373
or this country is going to go
down the drain.

1898
01:46:54,442 --> 01:46:55,374
Do you believe that?

1899
01:46:55,443 --> 01:46:56,789
Yes, sir.

1900
01:46:56,858 --> 01:46:59,136
I can't ever say it, but I believe it.

1901
01:46:59,205 --> 01:47:03,762
Even as he emerged
as this kind of iconic figure

1902
01:47:03,831 --> 01:47:07,766
in the '80s, '90s,
and into the 21st century,

1903
01:47:07,835 --> 01:47:11,563
the Nixon-Graham conversations
more than anything

1904
01:47:11,632 --> 01:47:15,946
were the kind of albatross
that Graham had to deal with.

1905
01:47:17,327 --> 01:47:21,262
The first thing he did was apologize.

1906
01:47:21,331 --> 01:47:26,440
He traveled to Cincinnati
and to a group of rabbis.

1907
01:47:26,509 --> 01:47:31,445
And, as the story goes, when he
entered the room, he said,

1908
01:47:31,514 --> 01:47:33,861
"I'm the one who should be kneeling

1909
01:47:33,930 --> 01:47:39,038
and begging your forgiveness."

1910
01:47:42,041 --> 01:47:44,216
As we reckon with Billy Graham's life,

1911
01:47:44,285 --> 01:47:47,115
I think we have to pay attention
not just to the quarter-century

1912
01:47:47,184 --> 01:47:49,911
in which he was very politically active,

1913
01:47:49,980 --> 01:47:53,121
but the slightly longer period
that came after it

1914
01:47:53,190 --> 01:47:55,261
in which he spent his
time atoning for those actions.

1915
01:48:16,524 --> 01:48:19,562
He truly comes to be thought of
as "America's Pastor."

1916
01:48:19,631 --> 01:48:21,287
He can speak to not just
presidents of both parties,

1917
01:48:21,356 --> 01:48:25,188
but Americans from all walks of life.

1918
01:48:25,257 --> 01:48:28,294
And I think his retreat
from partisan politics

1919
01:48:28,363 --> 01:48:30,262
is what enabled him to do that.

1920
01:48:32,989 --> 01:48:34,646
You've come to this crusade

1921
01:48:34,715 --> 01:48:38,546
expecting to live many more
years, but you don't know.

1922
01:48:38,615 --> 01:48:41,618
This may be the last day of your life.

1923
01:48:41,687 --> 01:48:44,207
We never know.

1924
01:48:44,276 --> 01:48:47,866
Billy Graham put a face
on everyday people who had been

1925
01:48:47,935 --> 01:48:50,627
much ostracized and maligned,

1926
01:48:50,696 --> 01:48:53,906
and he made them part of
the establishment,

1927
01:48:53,975 --> 01:48:56,391
he made them part of the mainstream.

1928
01:48:56,460 --> 01:48:59,084
What is so interesting in

1929
01:48:59,153 --> 01:49:01,983
Billy Graham's ministry is that
someone who wanted to be

1930
01:49:02,052 --> 01:49:04,572
so inclusive paved the ground

1931
01:49:04,641 --> 01:49:07,679
for one of the most exclusive
religious movements

1932
01:49:07,748 --> 01:49:09,922
in the United States, the religious right.

1933
01:49:12,097 --> 01:49:15,169
This may be the
last opportunity you'll ever have.

1934
01:49:15,238 --> 01:49:16,480
This is the moment.

1935
01:49:16,550 --> 01:49:19,345
I'm going to ask you to get up
out of your seat

1936
01:49:19,414 --> 01:49:21,416
and come in front of this platform,

1937
01:49:21,485 --> 01:49:26,111
and say tonight,
"I want Jesus in my heart."

1938
01:49:26,180 --> 01:49:29,010
You must say
to him, "I will receive him."

1939
01:49:29,079 --> 01:49:31,565
And I'm going to ask you
to do that this afternoon.

1940
01:49:31,634 --> 01:49:34,982
That last crusade was on

1941
01:49:35,051 --> 01:49:38,054
a perfect continuous thread

1942
01:49:38,123 --> 01:49:41,851
to Los Angeles, where, at its core,

1943
01:49:41,920 --> 01:49:45,648
it is about delivering a message
to a world in need.

1944
01:49:45,717 --> 01:49:48,443
...and turning
to Jesus Christ as savior.

1945
01:49:48,512 --> 01:49:50,756
Shall we pray?

1946
01:49:54,242 --> 01:49:56,175
Before he died, Jeannie and I were

1947
01:49:56,244 --> 01:49:59,040
in his little room up there,

1948
01:49:59,109 --> 01:50:00,835
and I said, "Billy, when the time comes

1949
01:50:00,904 --> 01:50:02,734
"that the Lord calls you home,
would you want your sister

1950
01:50:02,803 --> 01:50:05,081
to say anything at your
service?"

1951
01:50:05,150 --> 01:50:08,705
And then he said,
"I would be honored."

1952
01:50:08,774 --> 01:50:12,019
And Leighton said, "What would
you want her to say?"

1953
01:50:14,159 --> 01:50:17,300
Long pause.

1954
01:50:17,369 --> 01:50:21,787
He said, "He tried to do
what he thought he should."