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But even as Christianity appears to be advancing in other nations, Graham acknowledges he is dismayed by widening divisions among American Christians and an increasingly sullied image of conservative Protestantism due to the "proliferation" of theologically unsophisticated and often crassly commercial television preachers.

"We may be in danger of returning to an Elmer Gantry image as far as evangelism is concerned," Graham says. "In the 1950s and 1960s, I believe we contributed some to the erasing of that image." But with the expansion of electronic media ministries in the past decade, and the emphasis by some on "emotion and money," the cause of Christianity suffers, frets Graham, and all evangelical preachers are viewed with suspicion and often held up to ridicule.

"The word 'evangelical' is hard to define now" in this new ethos, he says. In addition, the baldly partisan political lobbying in many of America's churches has exacted a price, Graham says, noting that the toll is one with which he is himself intimately acquainted. "In the political arena, I think there were pastors and evangelists who went too far, both from the Left and from the Right," in the 1984 national campaigns.

Graham, of course, was assailed by many religious leaders for functioning in the role of unofficial White House chaplain through several successive American administrations. For the past decade, Graham has kept a discreet distance from the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., maintaining that even the perception of partisan political activity weakens his credibility as a preacher interested in communicating to people of every ideological tinge and cultural background.

Even so, he has become increasingly outspoken on a number of moral issues with political implications, including abortion, multilateral disarmament of nuclear weapons, and the U.S. economic system. And Graham is now pledging to incorporate these controversial questions ever more forcefully into his sermons.

"The weapons are getting more dangerous," he contends, "and I'm more interested in the subject of peace now than I was two or three years ago. I'm not so worried about a war between the United States and the Soviet Union, but I'm thinking of a country like South Africa. If they get their back to the wall, would they use the bomb? What about Pakistan? Or certain countries in the Middle East? They claim that now at least 15 countries have nuclear weapons, and any one of them could draw in the superpowers." Because President Ronald Reagan holds impeccable credentials as an unyielding anti-Communist, adds Graham, he has an important opportunity to negotiate arms reductions with the Soviets as a capstone of his administration, "just as Nixon was able to establish relations with the People's Republic of China."

Graham further is vowing to assail, on moral grounds, the burgeoning federal budget deficit—calling at the same time for a reexamination of the American lifestyle. "We're going to see this deficit making a tremendous impact on this country's economy, and it's going to affect everyone," he predicts. "We've been living way above our means. And this inequity (between the wealthy and the poor within the U.S., and between America and most of the rest of the world) is going to have to change somehow, whether voluntarily or by law. You can't have some people driving Cadillacs and others driving oxcarts and expect peace in a community. There is a crying need for more social justice."

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October (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52