Party...Party... Snail Heaven! When I went out this morning I noticed that somebody had dropped bits of cake on the sidewalk in front of our building. I came along later and noticed that a little snail had found it and was munching. A short item on the third page of today’s newspaper reported that the fifty-nine-year-old son of evangelist Billy Graham had been left on the sidewalk outside the Pentagon because his invitation to a smallish, 80-person interdenominational prayer breakfast had been withdrawn at the request of the Army. I was already halfway through a journal piece focusing on the man, so I hurried to finish it so I could post it today.

I think it was my Granny Inlow who said, “If you can’t say something good about somebody, don’t say anything at all.” I think that’s usually a reasonable rule, but there are times when individuals and situations should be exposed... for what they pretend to be but are not.

I confess that I have never known exactly what to think about Billy Graham. Something about him definitely is/was compelling. I never attended any of his big meetings. I never heard him speak in person, but I saw some of his television events... and his was undoubtedly a notable, important voice in the second half of the Twentieth Century. He was reportedly the spiritual confidant of several presidents. I read somewhere that Billy Graham said in his last crusade in New York that everyone would be welcome in heaven if they just walked God’s way. I like that.

His son Franklin Graham apparently has another idea about who is “saved” and will get to heaven. He says “Jesus is the only way.” Remember what he said after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks? “Islam is a very evil and wicked religion.” Obviously, that leaves Muslims out of Franklin’s roll call of the “saved.” My guess is that he believes God keeps out Buddhists and Hindus as well... Obviously agnostics and athiest, however fervently they commit themselves to moral and ethical living, need not apply. I remember being surprised when he ended his prayer at President Bush’s 2001 swearing-in ceremony with “in Jesus’ name.” He said later when asked directly if he was condemning people to hell who didn’t know about Jesus, “I’m not condemning people. God’s going to do that.” He leaves no room in his definition of “the saved” for anyone outside the Christian religion; and he makes it quite clear that many people who call themselves Christians aren’t going to “make it” either.


I am full of admiration whenever I hear about a regular working person holding two full-time jobs trying to make ends meet for a family; but it was hard for me to feel anything but embarrassed for his daddy to learn that Franklin as C.E.O. of two full-time positions in two different not-for-profit organizations (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Smaritan’s Purse) is paid $1.2 million annually in compensation besides generous retirement and other benefits. His take from the BGEA was $669,000 and from Samaritan’s Purse was $535,000. Both organizations reported that they had to lay off hundreds of employees in the past couple of years because revenues from all sources were down, especially from endowment investments. Explaining his integrity and worth to BGEA he said, “We saved almost $1 million on lawn-keeping alone.” Well, there you are!

Maybe the Reverend Mr. Graham can tell us what Jesus meant when he warned about the danger of being too rich.