sort of a new day.” And his bridge building helped usher in that
new day.
Historian George Marsden observed that the encounter be-
tween Graham and Cushing “stands as a significant marker on the
course that Graham steadfastly chose to follow... from the nar-
row confines of the strictest sort of sectarianism to the open
ground upon which one is reluctant to deny anyone the right to
be called, if not brother, at least neighbor.”
In 1981, Billy met Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. Their con-
versation touched on interchurch relations, moral issues, evan-
gelism, and the emergence of evangelicalism around the world.
Immediately afterward, Billy commented publicly about how well
they connected on both a personal and a spiritual level.
That spirit would have been hard to find in 1950. But in his
lifetime, Billy has seen the climate change from one in which nei-
ther Catholics nor Protestants were inclined to seek common
ground to one in which Billy could say publicly, “I have found
many people in the Roman Catholic Church, both clergy and laity,
who I believe are born-again Christians. They may hold different
theological views than I hold, but I believe they are in the body
of Christ. So I consider them my brothers and sisters.”
Billy’s bridge-building efforts changed the atmosphere.
Time magazine reporter David Aikman puts it succinctly: “Gra-
ham’s exemplary warmth toward Catholics, without his giving up
any core Protestant beliefs, may have done more to heal the wounds
of the great Protestant-Catholic schism of the Reformation than the
actions of any other Christian in the last five hundred years.”
■ ■ ■Perhaps an even greater divide was spanned by Billy’s efforts to
connect with the Jewish community.
Over the years, Billy found many ways to befriend Jews. His
1970 film His Landemphasized the common interests Christians
and Jews share in the Holy Land. In 1969 Billy was awarded
the Torch of Liberty Plaque by the Anti-Defamation League of
Building Bridges