There is a good chance that by the end of the week Donald Trump will be the first president in United States history to be impeached twice. Once again, I am reminded of Billy Graham biographer Grant Wacker’s words about...
Grant Wacker
How did the court evangelicals respond to last night’s debate?
They loved it, of course. Let’s begin, one more time, with American religious historian Grant Wacker from his biography of Billy Graham: The crucial point is that Graham continued to defend Nixon long after most Americans smelled a rat. When...
Grant Wacker on How Billy Graham Thought About His Own Death
Earlier today I noted on Facebook that Grant Wacker of Duke Divinity School was going to have a busy day. In 2014, he published America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation. I imagine his phone was ringing off...
What the Court Evangelicals Might Learn From Billy Graham
This post is worth re-publishing today: I was also thinking about titling this post “The First Court Evangelical” From Grant Wacker’s America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of the Nation, pp.212-214. Graham possessed boundless admiration for Nixon. In the 1968 contest...
Are Court Evangelicals More Concerned With Trump’s Vulgar Language or the Racism Behind It?
Context. First, let’s deal with the language. I don’t appreciate the vulgarity. And now we have CNN using the word “s#$%hole” every two minutes. Last night I got the impression that CNN anchors and pundits seemed to be enjoying their...
Can the Museum of the Bible Avoid Controversy?
In the past week I have done a few interviews with reporters about the Museum of the Bible, a Washington D.C. museum scheduled to open next month. I have written about the Museum before and with the opening less than...
A Very Important History Lesson for the Court Evangelicals
I was also thinking about titling this post “The First Court Evangelical” From Grant Wacker’s America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of the Nation, pp.212-214. Graham possessed boundless admiration for Nixon. In the 1968 contest between Nixon and Senator Hubert...
Grant Wacker on Billy Graham’s 1957 New York Crusade
I have always been fascinated by this Billy Graham crusade. When I was in divinity school I wrote an M.A. thesis on separatist Protestant fundamentalism in the 20th century. The 1957 crusade was a key part of my story. Over...
Forum on Grant Wacker's Biography of Billy Graham
Syndicate, a theology website, is running a symposium on Grant Wacker’s America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation. So far Wacker has responded to reviews by Wheaton College theology professor Vince Bacote and Dartmouth College religion professor...
Celebrating the Career of Grant Wacker at the 2015 Meeting of the American Society of Church History
Those of you who have been following our coverage of the annual meetings of the American Historical Association and the American Society of Church History (ASCH) are familiar with Mandy McMichael. You can read here previous posts here.Mandy is a...
Mandy McMichael Reports from the Meeting of the American Society of Church History
I am pleased to welcome Mandy McMichael to The Way of Improvement Leads Home family. Mandy is Assistant Professor of Religion at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama and a former Grant Wacker student at Duke Divinity School. She is working...
The Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals Closes Its Doors
In case you have not heard, the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE) at Wheaton College (IL) will be shutting down operations at the end of the year. Last week Wheaton held a symposium to celebrate the work...
The Author’s Corner with Grant Wacker
Grant Wacker is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Christian History at Duke University Divinity School. This interview is based on his new book, America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation (Belknap Press, September, 2014). JF: What led you to...
Did Billy Graham Endorse Mitt Romney?
Matthew Schmitz, writing at First Thoughts, thinks that he did. Here is Graham’s statement after his recent meeting with Romney: It was an honor to meet and host Governor Romney in my home today, especially since I knew his late...