Religious Studies and Theology: An Introduction Book

Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy have written a very interesting book about the reverend Billy Graham and his really extraordinary relationship with every U.S. President from Harry Truman through George W. Bush. Although it appears that Graham did know Herbert Hoover, he is not one of the presidents focused on here. And with the book being written in 2007, it was too early for Barack Obama (he did meet with Graham in 2010). The book appealed to me for two reasons: 1) I am interested in presidential history and biography, and 2) I know very little about Billy Graham. This is not a biography of Graham nor of any of the presidents. Rather, it is a chronological account of Graham's proximity to men who held the most powerful office in the world, well-written and researched, and evenly portrayed. I read their more recent work The Presidents Club and enjoyed it quite a bit. It is similar to this book in that multiple presidents appear throughout the story and that is indeed part of the premise of the book: in this case, how Graham was able to establish relationships with men of significantly different political and social backgrounds and orientations, and with vastly contrasting personalities.

First, there are the presidents whom Graham was unable to forge close relationships with due mainly to personality differences or just the lack of interest on the part of the president. Those in this category are: Truman, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. The first two do not surprise me at all. Truman was really of the old school and was not one to speak about such things as faith and religion with hardly anyone except his family. Plus, in his case, Graham was very young and just becoming established in his own field. Also, due to his inexperience, he did not handle his interaction with Truman particularly well. Kennedy was probably burnt out on discussing religion as it was such a major issue for him in the 1960 campaign. Added to that, he was not very religious. Graham was very close to Nixon, which somewhat tainted him with the Ford White House, although Ford had no personal issues with him. Carter is a surprise though; here is a man who was also extremely religious, and like Graham, came from the South. Perhaps because of that, he felt little need to open up to Graham or bring him in for spiritual guidance.

The next group are presidents whom Graham managed to forge really good relationships with, yet they were somewhat at arm's length. Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan would fit in here, with Reagan being the closer of the two. I don't think that Graham's influence with Eisenhower was as great as it would have been had Graham been older and much more of a world figure. He was still young during Eisenhower's presidency, and Eisenhower could be a very cold man at times. With Reagan, Graham kept somewhat of a low profile after being burned by Richard Nixon over Watergate. And, like Eisenhower, there seemed to be an inner space that nobody except Nancy Reagan seemed to be able to reach, and perhaps not even her at times.

The last group are the ones that Graham really tended to and nurtured long-standing relationships with: Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. He had an extremely close relationship with Bush 41, which helped lead to him being a source of strength to Bush 43 before he got into politics while he was struggling to come to terms with the direction that he had taken his life and how he needed to change it. Graham seemed to agonize with Johnson over the destruction that the Vietnam War caused to the world, America, and Johnson himself. Graham steadfastly stood with Clinton when the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, and was a pillar of strength for both Clintons as they struggled to save their marriage in front of the whole world. As for Nixon, he is the president of all of them listed here whom the authors devote the most time to, partially because Graham knew him for forty years, but mainly because of how naive Graham was exposed as being after Watergate exploded. Graham had defended Nixon all the way until the tapes were made public, and Graham was on some of the tapes, not talking about Watergate but nonetheless saying things that he certainly shouldn't have been saying. Graham was embarrassed and realized that he had gone too far and become too close to someone with the potential cause such damage. Following that, his relations with succeeding presidents, while close in some cases, were never as public as was Graham's backing of Nixon.

Gibbs and Duffy are eminently fair to everyone throughout this book, especially Graham. Just like Graham apparently had no political agenda in all of the decades that he was close to all of these presidents, neither do they. They intermix later recollections by Graham with the point they are at in the story. They provide an appropriate level of analysis that seems neither too superficial nor too overbearing. Graham's flaws are discussed but not dwelt upon. Nor are his virtues over-emphasized. Graham was political, but not in a selfish way. Graham was attracted to power, but not in a way as to benefit himself. While he at times got carried away with his personal relationships to certain presidents (such as Nixon), Graham knew that he had a larger role to play as a world-renowned pastor. Graham seemed to be conservative, and my sense is that overall he definitely favored Republicans for president. However, and this is important, he devoted himself to the Democrats who were in office too. Hillary Clinton herself provides evidence of that. More than his personal predilections, Graham felt an obligation to support whoever was in office regardless of political persuasion. It is extremely doubtful that another Graham will come along today or in the future who would be able to cultivate relationships with so many presidents over six decades. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is difficult to say.

Grade: A-