Billy Graham

I was very sad to hear of the passing of Rev. Billy Graham yesterday. At 99 years old and in poor health, it was not unexpected but it represented a passing of something that I think is missing from Christianity.

When I was a kid, Billy Graham’s crusade TV specials would pre-empt regular programming, probably something else I would prefer watching. But my parents would watch and I would too, somewhat begrudgingly. Until Rev. Graham began to talk. And I would listen.

It was hard not to listen to Billy Graham. He had a powerful voice that conveyed the sincerity of his beliefs and the passion for his faith. And at the end, when the assembled throng gathered to hear him speak would begin to sing “Just As I Am”, it was hard to not feel the power and the wonder of the moment.

I don’t recall Rev. Graham talking a lot about what he was against other than just the broadly defined term of “sin”. The crux of Graham’s sermon was what he was for, peace and love and salvation through Jesus Christ.

Sadly, Christianity these days is defined more of what it’s against, against gays or abortion or (strangely enough) gun control  or immigration. American Christians are so committed to what it’s against that it’s aligned itself with a dim witted immoral moron lacking in human empathy to further its efforts against things.

What, pray tell, American Christians, are you for?

Rev. Billy Graham dedicated his voice, his passion, his life in what he was for, not what he was against. That's what I remember about the man.