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Do you share the fear that the Agnew admission of income-tax evasion and the questions raised over the President's returns will encourage more widespread cheating by the public?

Not necessarily. The public could react the other way—I hope so.

What should the Christian's attitude toward government be in the light of Watergate?

The Bible teaches several things, but the Christian has one primary duty to those in authority: to pray! "I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (). And Nero was then emperor!

Dr. Graham, most people tend to turn to the Church more in times of trouble. Does it concern you that during this crisis the opposite seems to be true of Mr. Nixon, that he has attended hardly any religious services in the past year and sought hardly any spiritual counsel?

I would like to see any President who is a professing Christian go to church every Sunday, and attend the prayer meetings at the White House—and show up once in a while for the Senate and House prayer breakfasts. It is my prayer that all the events that have happened during the past few months will tend to deepen the religious convictions of the President. The agonies of the Civil War caused Lincoln to turn to God in a greater dependence than ever before. This tends to be true of most Presidents in periods of crisis.

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October (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52