As a historian of American evangelicalism, I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s PBS documentary “Billy Graham: Prayer. Politics. Power.” As as an evangelical Christian, I also enjoyed it. Billy Graham’s message–the Good News–changed my life. I will always have a deep respect for the man, warts and all.
Here are my tweets and retweets from last night:
Glad you're here!
— American Experience (@AmExperiencePBS) May 18, 2021
Graham sold Fuller Brushes door-to-door. One of his fundamentalist critics, Carl McIntire, sold maps. #BillyGrahamPBS #BillyGraham
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Check out Randall Balmer's forthcoming new book *Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right* #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Check out our interview with Pulitzer Prize-winner Francis Fitzgerald, one of the commentators on #BillyGrahamPBS: https://t.co/dmnVzTw66O
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Check out our interview with Jemar Tisby, one of the commentators on #BillyGrahamPBS: https://t.co/acnyNSGVKS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Bob Jones University features prominently in Episodes 4 and 5 of the "History of Evangelicals and Politics" podcast. Episode 5 drops tonight at midnight. Learn how to listen here: https://t.co/JWVRj8SQTz #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Good to see Grant Wacker! Check out his book *America's Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation* Interview here: https://t.co/gOoh4zH77J #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
William Martin's Graham bio is terrific, but his book With God On Our Side is probably the best single-volume study of the Religious Right. Great read. #BillyGrahamPBS
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 18, 2021
Check out our interview with Darren Dochuk, one of the commentators on #BillyGrahamPBS: https://t.co/d4ZwHT38oe
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Winona Lake, Indiana is perhaps best known as the home of a Graham predecessor Billy Sunday. Also the home of @gracecollege. I would encourage you to stop by and see the Sunday museum there. #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
The story of Graham praying in the woods reveals that he never really wrestled intellectually with the idea of biblical inerrancy. #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
When I was a student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the early 1990s there was always a tension between the school's rational defense of inerrancy and the fact that Graham's belief in this view was entirely anti-intellectual. #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
William Randolph Hearst thought evangelist Billy Graham would help him sell papers in the 1940s. Ben Franklin thought evangelist George Whitefield would help him sell papers in the 1740s. #BillyGrahamPBS #continuity
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Kevin Kruse appears! Calls Graham a "rock star." Check out our interview with Kruse here: https://t.co/YbzxgmpLv1 #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
My review of Kevin Kruse's excellent *One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America*. Best book on evangelicalism and capitalism in the 20th century. https://t.co/IdX59A0djf #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
It looked like Graham was working a nice Penhold grip in the ping-pong scene. #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
True that. After Truman gave him the brush-off, he batted 1.000.
— Mark Silk (@directorsilk) May 18, 2021
Bob Jones Sr. on Graham's 1957 crusade: "It is a sin against God for an evangelist to go to a city on the invitation of modernistic machine churches and by doing so slap in the face the ministry of men who have never betrayed the Lord." #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Bob Jones Jr. on Graham's 1957 NYC crusade: "I think that Dr. Graham is doing more harm to the cause of Jesus Christ than any living man." #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Niebuhr said Graham’s success depended on “oversimplifying every issue of life" & failed to address “the social dimensions of the Gospel.” His gospel “promises new life, not through painful religious experience, but merely by signing a decision card” #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Trump evangelicals did not learn from Graham's mistakes: https://t.co/aWm2vzCX22 #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Graham could have signed "A Call for Unity." https://t.co/BL7eJreICs #BillyGrahamPBS #Birmingham
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Frank Gaebelein, the headmaster of The Stony Brook School (where I once taught) and former editor of Christianity Today, was more progressive than Graham on civil rights. https://t.co/MfQEleo3Am #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
In a 1964 interview in McCall's magazine, Graham expressed his bafflement that he often heard people say "I just don't like Nixon…he is one of the warmest and most likable men I have ever known." #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
During the Watergate scandal, Graham wrote Nixon a letter and quoted Psalm 35:11-12: "They accuse me of things I have never heard about. I do them good, but they return me harm." #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Biographer Grant Wacker said that Graham "continued to defend Nixon long after most Americans smelled a rat." #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
Biographer Grant Wacker said that after Graham was burned by his support of Nixon during Watergate "he urged young evangelists to avoid his mistake." That didn't happen. Even his son didn't learn the lesson. #BillyGrahamPBS #ageoftrump #believemebook
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
"There's a little bit of Watergate in all of us"–Billy Graham.
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
How many times have I heard this from evangelicals in the last five years? There is a little grabbing women's genitals and sleeping with porn stars in all of us. But Jesus paid it all! #trump #BillyGrahamPBS
Graham as Icarus: https://t.co/bwxkucDVUd #BillyGrahamPBS
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
James Robison and Jerry Falwell are featured prominently in Episode 5 of the History of Evangelicals and Politics podcast. It drops tonight! Learn how to listen here: https://t.co/JWVRj8SQTz #BillyGrahamPBS pic.twitter.com/VsrChx58YZ
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 18, 2021
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- John Feahttps://currentpub.com/author/johnfea/
- John Feahttps://currentpub.com/author/johnfea/