Religion: And Then There Was Billy

• Share

(2 of 2)

One reason to keep on the road is Graham's conviction that "I don't see anybody in Scripture retiring from preaching." Another is that no new Billy is waiting in the wings. In fact, Graham could be the last of the big-time Protestant revivalists -- at least in the West, where TV has overtaken in- person meetings. Nor is anyone in line to take over Graham's organization (1987 contributions: $60.2 million). The association is cutting back but still sponsors periodic prime-time telecasts on 270 North American stations, a weekly show on 517 radio stations and numerous special projects. The only monuments Graham will leave behind are archives at Wheaton College and a North Carolina study center.

Instead of bricks and mortar, Graham's heritage will consist of the huge Evangelical movement that he, more than any other individual, created. Though the born-againers now dominate the U.S. Protestant landscape, Graham recalls that "when I started, the Evangelicals had no power at all. Liberalism held sway over everything." Yet he has shied away from asserting leadership over the Evangelical flock, maintaining that he lacks "the intellectual qualifications."

He shies even further away from comment on the recent misadventures of fellow evangelists, just as in earlier times he ducked confrontation with ^ Fundamentalists and liberals. "I don't like to get into personalities," Graham says. "I feel these people are being handled by the Holy Spirit and the churches and the public. What they need from me is love and prayer." He would like to think that Evangelicalism has become "stronger spiritually" through the tumult.

The chaos might have been prevented if other evangelists had emulated Graham, who in 1950 gave control of his affairs to a board of businessmen. To keep things clean, they let local committees control revival offerings, and Graham gets a straight salary, currently $59,100, plus his $19,700 clergy- housing allowance. Graham has not kept any speaker fees since 1951 and has given away all royalties on his best-selling books since 1960. From the very beginning of his career, says the evangelist, "I was frightened -- I still am -- that I would do something to dishonor the Lord." So far, so good.