Just As I Am Book

Christianity Today is one of several organizations that Billy Graham helped launch. I figured that since I knew next to nothing about the man besides "Billy the Evangelist," I would read Graham's 700-page autobiography, published in 1997. After tracing his Southern roots and recapping the highlights of his overseas evangelism work, Graham moves into the most intriguing sections: his relationships with the Presidents and foreign diplomats. Graham was always intentional about forming friendships with the Presidents, wherein he was a mentor and minister. This kind of friendship, although done with good intentions, proved to be naive in some instances, not least in his friendship with Nixon. Billy got burned and he's more than willing to admit it in his retelling.
Other highlights of the book included Graham's encounters with those on the opposite end of the socio-cultural spectrum, including Johnny Cash, Karl Barth, Martin Luther King Jr., JFK, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. These odd relationships only served to highlight Graham's simple thoughts on the gospel, Christ, and what it means to be born again. In my opinion, simplicity is one of many of Graham's virtues, though I know others would disagree. Any hint of seeming politically disengaged makes many people assume that Graham cared nothing more than about getting as many people as possible to heaven. To this, I would counter that preaching the Good News is a political act in and of itself, as it's an invitation to kingdom-living, which is inherently countercultural and "culturally relevant." Though I don't believe his evangelism approach would be understood or accepted in postmodern culture, I trust that Graham was doing the good work he had been given to do, and I applaud his faithfulness to that work.