The Reverend Billy Graham (1918-2018)
Billy Graham was the first televangelist. He basically created the format. There were radio ministers before him; some of them, like Father Coughlin, were charlatans and demagogues. But, Rev. Graham managed to keep his message simple and aimed at a post-WWII U.S. audience that was largely prosperous and well-educated. He didn't preach fire and brimstone. He didn't have to: televised news took care of that for him. For my generation, or perhaps more accurately - my parents' - Armageddon was an ever-present reality and Rev. Graham was able to put it all into context: sin abounded at home and abroad and the only permanent solution was to turn to Christ.
He was preternaturally up to the task. Handsome and steely-eyed, he bore an uncanny resemblance to actor, Charlton Heston, who as a contemporary, was also known to don the occasional role of prophet. Part of his genius was that Rev. Graham managed to be contemporary without being overtly political. He could pluck the strings of the modern news cycle without becoming part of it. Thus, even as the Civil Rights Movement was exploding all around him, he never referred to it directly from the pulpit. Instead, he quietly began including black gospel singers among his retinue and by the mid-sixties, it was not at all unusual for his cameras to pan over a racially mixed crowd making its way to the "Call to the Altar" spot at the end of the program. For me and my family, at the time, the fact that he wasn't an arch-segregationist was astonishing enough.
May you rest in peace, Reverend.
He was preternaturally up to the task. Handsome and steely-eyed, he bore an uncanny resemblance to actor, Charlton Heston, who as a contemporary, was also known to don the occasional role of prophet. Part of his genius was that Rev. Graham managed to be contemporary without being overtly political. He could pluck the strings of the modern news cycle without becoming part of it. Thus, even as the Civil Rights Movement was exploding all around him, he never referred to it directly from the pulpit. Instead, he quietly began including black gospel singers among his retinue and by the mid-sixties, it was not at all unusual for his cameras to pan over a racially mixed crowd making its way to the "Call to the Altar" spot at the end of the program. For me and my family, at the time, the fact that he wasn't an arch-segregationist was astonishing enough.
May you rest in peace, Reverend.