I do not recall you ever mentioning the name of Billy Graham. Surely your paths must have crossed. Did you ever meet him?
Dear Isaac,
In my childhood, Billy Graham and I lived on the same Park Road just outside the city limits of Charlotte, NC, but about a quarter of a mile apart. Billy's father was a dairy farmer back in the days when local farms delivered the milk to your home each day. They owned not just their home, but barns and pasture land for grazing. The farm was called the Graham Brothers' Dairy. Frank Graham, Billy's father, was the last house on my Charlotte Observer paper route when I was in my early to mid teens. I collected monthly from that house.
Billy was about 12 years older than I, which means that when I was 12, he was 24, a gap too big to say that I really knew him. It was, however, a large family and I did know some of his younger siblings.
We were quite proud of Billy Graham in our rural neighborhood. He was a rising celebrity and we felt that he brought status to our county. Charlotte today still honors him as one of its streets is named the "Billy Graham Parkway."
I support Billy Graham. He had a spectacular career and he lived it with an honesty and integrity that is rare in the world of televised religion. He also reflected very much the religious mentality of my childhood, a benevolent and kind type of fundamentalism. I have moved a long way from that religious mentality so that I must say that I regard his message to be generally irrelevant to the world in which I live. That does not stop me from admiring many things about his life. In the segregated south, Billy would not preach to segregated audiences. That was pretty bold in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
I think he was a force for good. He had a deep and genuine charisma. Charisma is, however, an individual gift that cannot be passed on through heredity. His son Franklin is not, therefore, his spiritual heir. There is a harsh, vindictive and exclusive quality to Franklin's message. His negativity toward Islam is appalling. The more he speaks in public as “the son of Billy Graham,” the more the legacy of Billy Graham is darkened. I find that more sad than anything else. Oral Roberts' son did not make his father proud either. Neither did Robert Schuller’s son. Charisma is an individual gift. Billy Graham had it and God was, I believe, seen through him. I'm glad to know of his presence.
John Shelby Spong
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