An Influential Friendship

An Influential Friendship

Their loyalty was mutual.

ON March 1, 1973, Billy Graham was at a White House state dinner to honor Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel. A family friend tells the story:

Just before the 8:00 P.M. dinner, the Grahams mingled with the other guests in the East Room. When Billy greeted the prime minister in the receiving line, she reached up and kissed him. At dinner, Meir sat between Nixon and Billy at table 12. Ruth sat at table 9 . . . where she watched the proceedings with a bit of bemusement. A Jewish woman sitting at Ruth’s table stared suspiciously at Billy and Golda Meir, not realizing that the evangelist’s wife was sitting inches away from her.

“What is Billy Graham doing sitting next to Madame Golda?” the woman asked of no one in particular. . . . “Do you suppose that he is proselytizing her?”

“I would put my money on Madame Golda Meir,” Ruth replied dryly. “But never fear. When we get home tonight, I’ll straighten him out.”

Billy Graham and President Richard Nixon’s friendship began after Nixon’s mother told her son of the powerful young evangelist she had just heard preach. Nixon was in law school at the time, and the two did not meet until 1950 when Graham was in Washington, D.C., and was introduced to Nixon, a freshman congressman from California. They had become good friends by the time John F. Kennedy defeated Nixon in his first bid for the White House. Nixon often sought out Graham for counsel and prayer. Later when Nixon did become president, Graham preached at some White House worship services.

But in January 1973 at Nixon’s second inauguration, Graham told his wife, Ruth, “The president does not look like himself. I’ve never seen him look or act that way.” He later wrote, “Nixon was terribly preoccupied and hardly seemed to know we were present. I could tell by his eyes that he was under some severe strain. At the time I had no idea what was about to come nor did any of his other friends.”

Shortly after the dinner with Prime Minister Meir, the Watergate scandal broke. Graham found the news “so discouraging that it almost made me physically sick.” Graham was one of the few who distinguished between the sinner, his friend Nixon, and the sin of the Watergate cover-up. But the distinction was lost on many who condemned Graham for refusing to condemn Nixon. Graham remained loyal, but Nixon wouldn’t return his phone calls.

When Nixon died in April 1994, his family asked Graham to preach at his funeral. Graham was honored and recalled another funeral that gave him hope that he would see his friend again in heaven:

“Before his mother’s funeral service, he talked with me for a few minutes about her faith.

“‘Dick, do you have that same kind of faith?’ I asked.

“‘I believe I do,’ he said quietly . . . that was his Quaker way, to keep piety private. . . .

“‘That’s the only way you can be guided in life, and it’s the only way you can get to heaven,’ I said, and then I prayed for him. He later told me that was one of the great moments of his life, and I believe he meant it.”

And the months of no communication in the wake of Watergate? It turned out that the silence was motivated by love for a friend. After months of long waiting, Graham learned Nixon had told his aides, “Don’t let Billy Graham near me. I don’t want him tarred with Watergate.”

Reflection

How do you think Graham felt when Nixon wouldn’t talk to him after the scandal broke? Could you separate the sinner from the sin and remain faithful to a friend in a situation like that? It turned out that they were both faithful to each other in their own way.

Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.

Proverbs 27:6