Looking at Billy Graham from a Catholic Pew

Billy Graham was someone who flitted in and out of my Catholic awareness growing up...the tall, handsome man with the booming, yet surprisingly gentle voice, preaching to large crowds in stadiums on TV...the person seen with presidents during times of national and political crisis...the face on the back of the latest bestseller at the local Christian bookstore. My hard-of-hearing grandfather would watch Billy Graham's crusades on the television, holding a small speaker to his ear to catch every word, commenting at some point that the Catholic Church needed to have more preachers like Billy Graham. Grandpa knew Graham wasn't Catholic, yet he recognized the universal appeal of Billy Graham's message to Catholics, Protestants and anyone else out there that might be listening. Grandpa knew that every person Billy Graham invited to enter into a relationship with God could, as the iconic crusade hymn sings, come “Just as I am”, with their sin and imperfections, and receive forgiveness, salvation, eternal life along with that all important relationship with a loving God. Pretty good deal for anyone. But I think my grandfather also recognized Billy Graham offered something that the Catholic Church lacked - process – simple, thoughtful, make-a-decision process. The word process is defined as a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. The process that Billy Graham offered went like this: listen to the gospel message, decide to fully buy into it, come forward publicly to acknowledge the buying in, and start (more deeply continue, for some) to live a changed life, one more lived for God than oneself.

Growing up Catholic, I was familiar with all the words Billy Graham would use during his crusades, but I didn't know a thing about process. In my second grade-first-communion-preparation understanding of the Baltimore Catechism I came to understand the gospel message that Jesus's death and resurrection was all about forgiveness, salvation, eternal life and getting into a relationship with a loving God. We get to go to heaven because Jesus died for our sins. We get to have a relationship with God because Jesus died for our sins. We get eternal life because Jesus rose from the dead...after he died for our sins. I bought into it all, though looking back now, I bought into it at arm's length, without process. It was all out there, somewhere, waiting to be taken in, something to be assumed, but never anything to concretely act on. For many Catholics, process is often stumbled upon accidentally, in a sermon, on a retreat, or, as in my case, God provided the process Himself. Somewhere in my high school years I felt a strong challenge from what I could only call Someone-not-me. Did I really believe all I had been taught in twelve years of Catholic education about Jesus' death and resurrection? Did I want that personal relationship with God? Did I want to spend the rest of my life living in that relationship and everything that may mean? Answering these questions was my process, and life for me was different from then on.

Fast forward 17 years...

I was now married, living in Rochester, New York, attending a Catholic church and involved in a Catholic Charismatic prayer group. Our group, though distinctly Catholic, rubbed shoulders regularly with the other denominations in the city, going so far as to cancel our regular prayer meeting once a month to go and pray with some of the other churches for revival for Rochester. It was, therefore, no surprise to us that a short time later, the Billy Graham crusade was invited to give a crusade in Rochester. Also, a bit more of a surprise to some, but not to us praying Catholics, was how enthusiastically the Catholic bishop of our diocese got behind the crusade. In a letter to be read at mass in all the churches on a Sunday before the crusade, the bishop encouraged all Catholics who were able to attend the crusade to do so, that what Billy Graham had to say needed to be heard by everyone. Our parish promptly put out sign up sheets and promised to charter buses to the crusade if enough people signed up. The response was so great that the parish ended up chartering one bus for every week night crusade and two buses for each of the two weekend sessions.

Many of my Catholic prayer group friends were involved in the logistics of the crusade, from being prayer counselors during the crusade to hosting followup Bible studies afterward. I had not gotten involved, expecting my third child days before the crusade was to come into town. Still, I wanted to be part of the Billy Graham experience, to see first hand what happens when this man comes to a city. The crusade was to take place at Silver Stadium, an outdoor minor league baseball stadium, home of the Rochester Red Wings.* Could we go to the stadium on one of the crusade days? I wasn't sure that my born-a-Catholic-will-die-a Catholic husband was open to such a decidedly Protestant adventure. But, the bishop had given his permission, and my husband knew I wanted to go, so he happily facilitated the trip to the ball park. We found a sitter for our two older children, packed up our month-old daughter and headed out to the stadium.

I had already “processed” my personal relationship with God, but my husband, a life-long practicing Catholic, had yet to personally grapple with those process questions I had dealt with in my teens. He knew enough about Billy Graham, his message and the format of the crusade to know somewhat to expect. When we arrived at the ball park, my husband pointed to the seats high up in the last row of the stadium. That's where I want to sit, he said. He told me he remembered seeing a crusade on TV, and how Billy Graham, when calling people to come down to the field to acknowledge their decision to accept Christ, would specifically point to those sitting in the very last, highest row of the venue, telling them not to worry, he would wait for them, there would be plenty of time for them to come down. I want to be one of those people, my husband said.

Billy Graham Crusade, Silver Stadium, Rochester, New York, September 1988

The format of the crusade was simple. There was a time of choir-sung worship music, followed by Billy Graham's gospel message. His voice was simultaneously strong yet gentle, showing no evidence he had spent several days before the crusade in a local hospital being treated for a spider bite. His message of God's love, the forgiveness of sin, the promise of eternal life and the personal relationship with Jesus available to all was clear, followed by a call to come forward onto the field for prayer for those who wished to commit their lives to God. Those who came forward were prayed for as a group by Billy Graham and then individually with one of many trained counselors, given a copy of the gospel of John, and given information about follow-up Bible studies available at local churches. True to his word, my husband was one of those people who came down from the last, highest row to the field of the stadium to formally commit his life to God, accompanied by his wife and infant daughter. In the not-so-random way of God's serendipity, a counselor on the field approached my chemist husband, they exchanged pleasantries and found they both had science backgrounds. They talked, they prayed together, and then the counselor handed my husband the gospel of John and a small book with steps (more process) on how to grow in one's relationship with God. With your scientific mind, he told him, this will all make sense to you if you study it. He did, and it did. In the weeks that followed the crusade, my husband attended one of the follow-up Bible studies, hosted by our Catholic parish. He grew in his new (renewed?) relationship with God. We were now together in the demographic of Catholic born-again Christians.

Billy Graham passed away last week. He was 99 years old, and it is estimated that he had preached to 2.2 billion people in his lifetime, counting radio and television audiences as well as in-person crusade attenders. It is believed that 3.2 million of those hearing Billy Graham's message responded by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior. These millions come from all walks of life, different religious backgrounds, including no religious background at all. God provided the forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life for them all. Billy Graham simply delivered the message of that forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life and the process to grab hold of it and make it one's own. Millions of people are grateful for that, my husband and I being two of them...

Just as I am - without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,

-O Lamb of God, I come!

- From the Billy Graham Crusade hymn Just As I Am

*The most famous person to appear at Silver Stadium before Billy Graham was Cal Ripken, Jr. He spent the 1981 baseball season as the third baseman for the Red Wings when it was a minor league team for the Baltimore Orioles.