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The Rev. Graham's absence of good grace
© St. Petersburg Times When I was a kid, you barely looked straight at the parish priest. You kept your gaze down, out of what your parents said was respect but what tasted to you like fear. Beyond the cassock and collar, I thought the priest had no life. He never spoke of baseball, spaghetti or loneliness. He was not human. He was Catholic, and that fact superseded the flesh and blood of him. You grow up. You can look your clergyman in the eye. Yet we cling to childish ideas. Whatever our faith, we want to believe our clergyman is without our flaws of character and desire. We hang on to the belief that he possesses knowledge we can't quite grasp, but if we could, our lives would be transformed. No clergyman so embodied this belief as Billy Graham. In a country without an official religion, where religion and state are constitutionally separate, many of us consider Graham, a Southern Baptist, as the nation's preacher. Now, Graham has been revealed. He was caught on one of Richard Nixon's infamous Watergate tapes, from 1972, in which he and Nixon complained about Jews supposedly controlling the news media. "This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain," Graham said. He said Jews were responsible for the spread of pornography. At the same time, he said he was friends with many Jews in the press. "They don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country," Graham told the president. "And I have no power and no way to handle them." With those words, Billy Graham fell off the pedestal on which he had stood so long. The frailty of his humanity was revealed. He had been poisoned by the same prejudices that afflict the rest of us. His words shock only because of who he is. But they don't surprise. Anti-Semitism is like racism in this country. It runs deep, in high places and low. After the tape was released last week, Graham issued an apology. Quite understandably -- the conversation took place 30 years ago -- Graham said he didn't remember it. He then said the statements don't reflect his views. That is the part I don't buy. His response was incomplete. His words were captured on tape. Either he was faking it to impress the president, or he said what he believed then. A man can grow. A man can change his mind. It is possible that his life's experience broadened his thinking. If this is the case for Billy Graham, why doesn't he say so? What a favor he would do his country. What a favor he would do for people of faith. Last week, a Brandon pastor, Ken Alford, resigned from his church, Bell Shoals Baptist. He said he had been guilty of a moral indiscretion. He wanted to spend time with his family. And he and his wife were seeking marital counseling. What Alford did in coming forward took much courage. This incident, involving one pastor and one church, suggests the way this formidable figure, Billy Graham, might behave. He can be forgiven a mistake, as long as he owns up to it. Graham has chosen not to do so. In refusing, he hangs on to that thing that has nothing to do with his humanity -- the shield of his public persona. He forgets that redemption begins when a man, no matter how high his position, tells on himself, and tells the truth. -- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or (813)-226-3402.
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Times columns today Elijah Gosier Mary Jo Melone Ernest Hooper From the Times Metro desk |
