Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Billy Graham did not go to Chick-fil-A (and he didn’t tell you to go there, either)

Billy Graham did not go to Chick-fil-A (and he didn’t tell you to go there, either)

Last updated on: October 20, 2012 at 4:47 pm by Fred Clark

Billy Graham did not go to Chick-fil-A (and he didn’t tell you to go there, either) 2012-10-20T16:47:57-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Steve Knight does not believe that recent statements allegedly from evangelist Billy Graham are really statements from Billy Graham:

Let me tell you about Billy Graham, just as he is, because based on what I experienced working for the man for six years, two statements issued under his name last week (and one earlier this year) significantly collide with the well-established values of this great humble faith leader.

… I sincerely fear that Billy has become a puppet for the political persuasions of Franklin Graham (and to a lesser extent, Anne Graham Lotz).

Hophni Phineas Graham

Knight is not alone in suspecting that the increasingly political statements coming out in Graham’s name actually reflect the views of his son. Pretty much everyone who is familiar with the man’s outlook, with his long track record, and with his ailing health, suspects the same thing.

“Billy Graham is 93 years old,” Knight points out. The iconic evangelist is also “in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease (among a host of other age-related ailments)” and has “been having fluid drained from his brain on a regular basis for over a decade.”

Knight continues:

When I worked for BGEA and Mr. Graham was still leading evangelistic crusades around the country, it was well-known that all of his sermons, articles, letters and books were ghostwritten — and had been for quite some time.

There’s also a track record in recent years of Franklin Graham redirecting his father (and mother) against their own wishes. …

The tragedy of what’s happening right now is that Billy Graham long ago made a personal commitment to avoid picking political sides, especially since being tricked by Richard Nixon in the 1970s in a case that led to a public apology in 2002 after tapes of their private Oval Office conversations were released. Up until this point, the Nixon debacle was arguably Billy’s only political misstep, but with each new anti-gay statement put out by BGEA his legacy is being tarnished.

I wrote about this back in May, when Billy Graham’s likeness and signature were used in full-page ads endorsing North Carolina’s anti-gay Amendment One referendum. That ad was uncharacteristic of the elder Graham, but it reeked of the familiar stink of his political-hack son. Jan Edmiston and Alvin McEwen both shared my suspicions. As did many others.

Knight notes that at the time of the Amendment One ad, Billy Graham’s official biographer, William Martin, disagreed with that suspicion, saying, “Franklin has been more outspoken about it, but it sounds as if this is Mr. Graham expressing his own will.” Knight disagrees. So do I. So do many, many evangelicals who have closely followed Billy Graham for decades — so many of us, in fact, that Martin was asked to weigh in.

Franklin has also been asked to weigh in. Reporter Mark Oppenheimer of The New York Times asked Franklin if his father would speak publicly to confirm his support for these recent statements released in his name.

“That ain’t gonna happen,” Franklin Graham said. “I can promise you that.”

Gee, why not?

I can’t prove that Knight and I and a great many others are right about this. All we can do is suspect and speculate. But Knight’s suspicion and speculation about Franklin’s manipulation of his ailing father rings true:

My concern is that here’s how things like this continue to work: Franklin Graham (or Franklin and his sister Anne Graham Lotz) have an agenda (in all three of these cases, “traditional marriage”), they get a BGEA copywriter to draft the text, then a BGEA graphic designer does the layout (in the case of the ad), Franklin approves the copy and/or design, then Franklin drives out to Little Piney Cove (Billy’s cabin home outside of Asheville, N.C.) and holds the piece of paper in front of Billy and asks, “Daddy, can we publish this?” And Billy nods (or whatever he’s capable of doing at this point in his life), and Franklin goes back and publishes this stuff with his good father’s name all over it.

Billy Graham and/or Franklin Graham had the opportunity to put all such speculation to rest last Wednesday.

On July 26, a statement was released in support of Chick-fil-A’s stance against marriage equality. Franklin Graham says his father wrote that statement. I’d bet a week’s worth of waffle fries that Franklin wrote it and attached his dad’s name to it in just the manner Knight describes above.

Here’s how that statement ended:

I plan to ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ and show my support by visiting Chick-fil-A next Wednesday.

The key word there is “visiting.” The statement doesn’t say Graham will be “sending an assistant to pick me up some Chick-fil-A next Wednesday.” It doesn’t simply suggest that he will be “eating” Chick-fil-A next Wednesday. It says visiting.

That’s specific and deliberate and necessary to accomplish Franklin’s goal in forging this statement under his father’s name. He was exploiting his father’s moral authority — a resource Franklin does not possess when speaking in his own name — in order to help create the political spectacle of long lines at Chick-fil-A locations. The statement wasn’t about what Billy Graham himself planned to actually, physically do. The statement was about what Franklin Graham wanted his followers to actually, physically do.

So what happened when Billy Graham showed up at his local Chick-fil-A last Wednesday? Did the crowds of evangelical chicken-eaters step aside to allow this 93-year-old, revered reverend to pass to the front of the line?

Well, no.

“Billy Graham” said he would “visit” Chick-fil-A last Wednesday. But Billy Graham did not do that.

When you’re 93 years old and “in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease (among a host of other age-related ailments)” you’re no more capable of visiting a fast-food restaurant a dozen miles away than you are of penning a partisan screed directing your son’s followers to do so.

The pro-Chick-fil-A statement from “Billy Graham” got a lot of press attention before last Wednesday. The evangelist’s no-show was a non-story.

At the conclusion of his Times report, Oppenheimer relays an email message from top-dollar Christian PR guru, A. Larry Ross, who confirms that someone else had visited Chick-fil-A and brought back a lunch for the elderly evangelist. Right. Sure.

Another person who refused interview requests was the Rev. Billy Graham, who lent his name to a July 26 statement praising “the Cathy family’s public support for God’s definition of marriage.” Mr. Graham said he would join Mr. Huckabee’s planned day of support: “As the son of a dairy farmer who milked many a cow, I plan to ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ and show my support by visiting Chick-fil-A” on Aug. 1.

But it turns out that the 93-year-old minister did not write his own statement.

“Considering Mr. Graham’s age and limited mobility, his statement was more an expression of sentiment and solidarity with the Cathy family and their cause than actually a commitment to go to a Chick-fil-A himself,” a spokesman, A. Larry Ross, said on Monday.

Franklin Graham, Mr. Graham’s son, said in an interview that the statement had emerged from his conversation with his father last week. “He said: ‘I want to support the Cathy family. What they are doing is right,’ ” the younger Mr. Graham said. He took his father’s sentiment to a group of advisers who prepared a statement, he said.

Franklin Graham would not name the other contributors to the statement and said his father would not speak publicly: “That ain’t gonna happen. I can promise you that.” His father does not hear well, he added, and he suffers from other pains of age.

Billy Graham has been avowedly apolitical, and bipartisan, for decades. But the symbolism of this fight apparently proved irresistible, whether to him or his handlers.

As it turned out, Mr. Graham ate in.

On Aug. 1, an e-mail from Mr. Ross arrived in early afternoon: “This is just to confirm that evangelist Billy Graham just enjoyed a Chick-fil-A sandwich, waffle fries, sweet tea and a chocolate shake for lunch at home today,” Mr. Ross wrote.

I hope Billy enjoyed the shake, if they even gave it to him. I doubt Franklin even bothered telling him why he was drinking it.

Will Billy Graham ever confirm that any of this was his idea or that he even agrees with what is being said and done in his name?

“Ain’t gonna happen. I can promise you that.”

Previous Post

August 6, 2012

Those who sell hatred also sell death

Next Post

August 6, 2012 'The terrible downward spiral of our nation’s moral standards'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who predicted the fall of Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jeremiah Jesus Daniel Isaiah