Sarah Colt on Why 2021 Is the Right Time for a Film About Billy Graham
The director’s new two-hour installment of “American Experience,” on
PBS, examines the rise of the man who was arguably most responsible for
the power of modern evangelism in the United States.
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Billy Graham went on the road in his 20s, which helped catapult his
popularity. “Graham was in a class of his own very, very early,
and very quickly,” said Sarah Colt, who directed a PBS documentary
about him.
Billy Graham went on the road in his 20s, which helped catapult his
popularity. “Graham was in a class of his own very, very early, and very
quickly,” said Sarah Colt, who directed a PBS documentary about
him.Credit...Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, via PBS
ByChris Vognar
NYT, May 14, 2021
Tenacious and tireless, Billy Graham was blessed with what more than one
observer called animal magnetism. When hedied at age 99
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/obituaries/billy-graham-dead.html>in
2018, he was estimated to have preached in person to 210 million people.
He was also a savvy political player, and that’s the focus of the new
PBS “American Experience” documentary, “Billy Graham.” Premiering
Monday, the two-hour film, directed by Sarah Colt (“The Disrupted”),
portrays a preacher drawn to power like a moth to a flame. After getting
the cold shoulder from Harry Truman, a staunch believer in the
separation of church and state, Graham went on to become a living,
breathing seal of approval sought by every U.S. president until his death.
“He became an incredibly, tremendously powerful figure, a figurehead of
the evangelical movement,” Colt said by phone from her New York office.
“But it really was the intersection between him and political life, in
particular the presidency, that was our focal point. We wanted to
understand better what happened there, and what he did.”
ImageColt said she pursued the documentary in order to better understand
“the intersection between him and political life, in particular
the presidency.”
Colt said she pursued the documentary in order to better understand “the
intersection between him and political life, in particular the
presidency.”Credit...Nathan Bajar for The New York Times
Riding the anti-Communist fervor of the 1940s and ’50s, endorsed by the
media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Graham found himself preaching his
distinctly American and capitalistic brand of Christianity to thousands,
in venues from rural America to Madison Square Garden. He sought and won
converts among secular audiences. He desegregated his events, which he
called crusades, and invited a young Martin Luther King Jr. to appear
with him in New York.
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But as the civil rights movement picked up steam, he was largely silent.
From an early stage, he knew it was conservatives who buttered his bread.
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Colt discussed Graham’s promotional savvy, his political maneuverings
and the U.S. president who broke his heart. These are edited excerpts
from the conversation.
*What set Graham apart from other public religious figures?*
There are lots of evangelists in American history, and there are famous
ones who attracted big crowds. But Graham was in a class of his own
very, very early, and very quickly. His sense was, the more you can be
part of the mainstream, and take advantage of print and radio and
television and any kind of media, as well as politicians, then you’re
spreading this message as far and wide as you can.
*How did timing help him?*
I think he was born at the right moment in the right body. He was tall.
He fit a certain stereotype that was very popular, the majority vision
of what a good-looking man is. And he had this kind of aura about him.
He had the same qualities as a politician or a movie star. He’s from a
dairy farm near Charlotte, N.C. He wasn’t poor growing up, but he wasn’t
from a wealthy family. And he finds himself rubbing shoulders with the
wealthiest people in the United States and with the Queen of England and
Winston Churchill. He’s just mixing with society at the highest level,
and he likes it. He’s good at it. He understands how to do it.
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Image
Graham with his wife, Ruth, and Richard Nixon in 1960. Billy Graham and
Nixon rose to national prominence around the same time and became
longtime friends.
Graham with his wife, Ruth, and Richard Nixon in 1960. Billy Graham and
Nixon rose to national prominence around the same time and became
longtime friends. Credit...Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, via PBS
*What makes Graham an important figure in 2021?*
We’re always thinking about how history reflects on where we are today.
That seems really relevant when you think about the power of the
evangelical vote in presidential elections, and no election is more
important to that than the election of 2016.
*Was Graham of the religious right, or did he just influence its creation?*
He was asked to join [the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s
<https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/obituaries/16falwell.html>] Moral
Majority, and he declined. But his fundamentalist religious beliefs
remained. His theology never changed over the course of his career. He
was preaching a message of Jesus Christ as your Savior from the
beginning to the end, and he absolutely believed in that. But I think it
became more nuanced for him.
Image
President Dwight D. Eisenhower opened the White House doors to Graham
after President Harry Truman gave Graham the cold shoulder.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower opened the White House doors to Graham
after President Harry Truman gave Graham the cold shoulder.
Credit...Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, via PBS
*He had a public image of nonpartisanship. He sought the approval of
Democratic presidents as well as Republican. But the film seems to argue
that he was, in fact, partisan.*
He really comes onto the stage in the late ’40s with a very, very strong
anti-communist message. That wasn’t necessarily partisan, but it was
political. He was saying, We really need, as a country, to fight this
communist scourge.
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Then, he finds in Eisenhower a kind of partner. He and Eisenhower saw
things very similarly in terms of their politics, and Graham was quite
comfortable with saying he was nonpartisan in front of cameras but doing
a lot of things behind the scenes that were quite partisan. So it’s an
interesting sort of public-private thing that he did.
*With Nixon it seems like there was more than a mere political alliance.*
In some ways Graham and Nixon grew up together in politics and in the
public eye. Just at the moment that Nixon becomes vice president to
Eisenhower in ’52, Graham is emerging as this very, very famous American
religious figure. By the mid ’50s, as the journalist Nancy Gibbs says in
our film, Billy Graham is arguably the most famous man in the world.
So Nixon is vice president, and Graham is this evangelist that people
recognize on the street, and they swarm him, he’s like a movie star. He
and Nixon are figuring out this world of prominent national fame
together, and they become friends. They really liked each other, and
their politics did align. And when Nixon runs in ’68 and wins, that’s
everything Billy Graham has been working toward, which is both to be
close with the president and feel that he can influence the president.
Image
Graham understood early that mainstream media and new communications
technologies could bring Christian evangelism to the masses.
Graham understood early that mainstream media and new communications
technologies could bring Christian evangelism to the masses.
Credit...Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, via PBS
*Then Watergate sort of broke Graham’s heart.*
Graham was one of the last people to see that Nixon was double-dealing
and wasn’t who he appeared to be. He really got sucked in. He got kind
of blinded by the whole thing. He made a big mistake staying so close
with Nixon, right to the bitter end when other allies of Nixon knew that
there was a major problem. And he stayed very close, and they remained
friends. But Graham learned from the experience. Watergate changed how
he saw his role as a religious figure and the power that he had and what
he should do with it.
*What did Graham do differently after Watergate?*
He started doing more international crusades after that. And he made
some very clear public speeches where he said he had made a mistake, and
that religious people should not be publicly partisan. In 1980, he
definitely wanted Reagan to win the presidency, but he supported him
privately rather than publicly. He always said he didn’t endorse Nixon,
but he really did.
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*How did he modernize fundamentalism?*
In the beginning, he was part of the Youth for Christ group [founded in
1944]. They weren’t so strident, even though they were fundamentalists
in how they saw the Bible. They were more inclusive, and they embraced
youth culture. They had light-up bow ties and Olympic athletes at their
events. They had a talking horse.
*Why all the fun and games?*
They did all this stuff to attract young people and make it more
appealing. It was like: “Yes, you can wear makeup and you can be part of
the world and get your hair done and wear nice, flashy clothes. And you
can still believe in Jesus Christ.” And Billy Graham really becomes the
figurehead of that movement because he’s so good at it. The modern
evangelical movement sort of begins with that.
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