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U.S. News: Billy Graham brought evangelicalism into respectability. What will his kids do?
From the cover of the new U.S. News & World Report, it looks like a story on Billy Graham and his family: "A Christian Dynasty: How Billy Graham's kids are following up his crusade." But Jeffrey Sheler's cover story really is a brief history of evangelicalism, with the elder Graham as a the main actor and foil.

Most readers of CT will be familiar with the story: The fundamentalist retreat after the Scopes trial, the split between evangelicals and fundamentalists over Graham's partnership with mainline churches and cultural re-engagement, increasing cultural prominence through politicians like Jimmy Carter, and becoming a political juggernaut in the 1990s. Sheler hits all the main points, and talks to the key players: Mark Noll, Randall Balmer, Martin Marty, Christian Smith, and William Martin, among others. All the titles in the magazine's online Bookshelf feature are also informed choices. No surprise there: Sheler has demonstrated his knowledge of the evangelical landscape in several earlier articles.

And CT readers won't be surprised by Sheler's conclusion about the direction of the evangelical movement, though it bears repeating:

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the evangelical movement in the near future, experts say, will be in coping with its new cultural status. When it emerged at midcentury, says Balmer, "evangelicalism was a counterculture" that defined itself against the secularism that dominated the American scene, especially in politics. Now, with the White House and other high offices occupied by some of their own, and with the phenomenal success of Christian books like the Left Behind novels and The Prayer of Jabez and the growing popularity of Christian music and movies, says Balmer, "evangelicalism is no longer on the margins." Adjusting to that new reality may prove to be difficult, experts say, as moderates and resurgent fundamentalists vie to redefine the movement's boundaries. For that reason alone, says Noll, "the passing of Billy Graham will mark the end of an important historical era." Short of "unforeseen developments," he says, "the apparent unity that Graham's presence bequeathed to a diverse movement will be a thing of the past."

On a related note, check out William McKenzie's recent column in The Dallas Morning News. "There is no natural successor" to Graham, he writes. "The void should not worry evangelical Protestants. … The lack of a 'next Billy Graham' actually speaks to the growing strength of their movement." Evangelicalism has become more diverse and diffuse and really doesn't need one leader to rally the troops and set the agenda, McKenzie writes. But therein lies evangelicalism's challenge as well: several factions within evangelicalism want to replace Graham's positive gospel message with "angry Christianity." "The movement either avoids blood baths, or it returns to the uglier days before Billy Graham," he concludes. "Evangelicals have a greater chance of influencing American culture through engaging it. But the choice is theirs. And Americans should watch for the answer. It will ripple through our culture."

Harder edges
Sheler's U.S. News article, however, isn't just a history lesson. It's also a profile of Graham and his two most famous offspring, Franklin and Anne. "Both have the lanky frame, chiseled face, and penetrating eyes of their famous father. And when they stand to preach in that familiar, lilting, North Carolina accent, there is no mistaking their pedigree," Sheler writes.

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December (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46