Billy Graham
America's most famous evangelist. Helped fuse Christian faith with Cold War patriotism, and grew close to presidents of both parties.
View in the interactive map →Billy Graham is often treated as the benign grandfather of American evangelicalism — the preacher who counseled presidents of both parties and avoided the partisan fire of later figures. But critics such as Kristin Kobes Du Mez argue that Graham laid groundwork. His crusades blended conversion with Cold War patriotism, and his closeness to Richard Nixon, which he later regretted, blurred the line between pulpit and power. His son Franklin took the family platform in an openly partisan direction.
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Connections to Billy Graham
- Franklin Graham influenced (2001) — Franklin Graham inherited leadership of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (2001) and Samaritan's Purse (from 1979) and used Billy Graham's institutional legacy — his donor networks, moral authority, and evangelical credibility — as the platform for explicit Christian nationalism and Trump endorsement; Du Mez contrasts this with Billy Graham's late-career regret over partisanship.
Sources
- Jesus and John Wayne — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 20-35