Nigel: "As for 'political intrigues', anyone can make a mistake. It takes more to admit that it was the wrong thing to do:"

Thank you, Nigel, for posting the "apology" link. I recommend it to anyone trying to get at what lay beneath Graham's surface. He certainly had a lot to apologize for. I especially savor the bit about breaking the Jews' stranglehold on the media.

It confirms my impression that every fookin ' time Nixon stepped in the $#!7, he'd holler to Rose Mary Woods, "Get me a golf date with Billy Graham!" and soon, there they'd be on the front page.

I couldn't care less that he believed in the existence of phenomena that I don't, or even that his notion of "inclusiveness" = "Jesus welcomes all with open arms." Atheist though I am, I'd rather hang out with, say, Thomas Merton, than some atheist Ayn Randian objectivist jack-off (with apologies to all jack-offs).

Wilberforce, Garrison, John Brown, Eugene Debs, the Berrigan Brothers, Sister Helen Prejean, Joe Offer, are all Christians who've done a lot more than I have for causes I admire.

Billy Graham isn't in that group.

Like a lot of ambitious clerics, he sincerely believed that he had a calling to minister to the spiritual needs of the rich and powerful--and, granted, those needs are enormous. I imagine he saw himself as a latter-day Protestant Thomas More, but without the baggage--the funny hat, those executions for heresy, the martyrdom. Graham played with fire and was lucky not to get badly burned.

Look above in this thread to see how low the bar got set in the late 20th Century: Graham was actually AGAINST segregation! He's NOT a hate-filled, hypocritical serial adulterer like Jerry Falwell! He's no inquisitor like Cardinal Fang!

He was probably a nice guy when he wasn't being antisemitic. I'm sure he was a nicer guy than I am. But he's got his legacy, and he's stuck with it.