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Those of us who appreciate irony have seen some irony in the Graham cause. Not a few have noted that he preached a particular, "Jesus Only Saves" exclusivist gospel—and yet he became acceptable to the culture at large, including its Jews, its universalists, its many secular people. A man of good will, he must have enjoyed their friendliness and benediction but squirmed lest their embrace might suffocate, their good words confuse. It is hard to influence America by being exclusivist and sectarian. But one also has nothing with which to influence America if one is inclusivist and wishy-washy. If Billy Graham has been a victim of this ironic circumstance, let us write it off to the human condition. That ambiguity may have been the price to pay, the limit set by the human condition.

Considering all the alternatives, it has to be the least-worst fate for a man who has offered so many better things to the world near the end of the second millennium after Christ: As, first of all and always, a witness to Jesus Christ. That is Graham's core, his continuity. It should serve him well in the decade or two or three left him.

Martin E. Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, a columnist for The Christian Century, author of numerous books on American religion, and a Graham watcher since he reported on the New York Crusade in 1957.

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October (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52