to him was, ‘Dr. Graham, do you have a message for the Muslims
of Texas?’ He answered without hesitation.
“The next day the headline on the front page, bottom section
was ‘Billy Graham has a message for Muslims: “God loves them,
and I love them.”’
“It was a powerful statement. Talk about cutting right to the
heart of the gospel! Everyone was talking about it, because it
defused so much anger and so much criticism. It brought to the
table the hallmark of Billy’s ministry.”
We asked Rick about Billy’s handling of religious and other
differences. “To me,” he said, “Christians have often been too stri-
dent and legalistic. Billy has always been theologically rooted in
grace. The imperative for him was evangelism—the evangelist
sees the heart. If it’s Muslims or Hindus or anyone else, his focus
is to love them and to share with them the love of Christ.”
Billy’s emphasis of love spans the entire spectrum of cultural
divisions. An issue that has wrenchingly divided both culture and
the church is the “gay agenda.” As with his stance toward other
religions, he has clear theological parameters. But his message to
gays is not judgmental.
When Hugh Downs interviewed him on the 20/20television
program, the subject turned to homosexuality. Hugh looked
directly at Billy and asked, “If you had a homosexual child, would
you love him?”
Billy didn’t miss a beat. He answered gently, “Why, I would
love that one even more.”
The emphasis on love does not brush away the terrible realities
of Muslim-Christian conflict or tensions stirred by polar-opposite
beliefs about homosexual behavior or other chasms between
antipathies. Billy is painfully aware of them. He realizes that people
will have their differences and not every dispute can be resolved.
Once he was asked a question about “the secret of love,” in
light of his long marriage to Ruth. His response was telling: “Ruth
and I are happily incompatible.”
Happily incompatible! A paradox. He doesn’t sugarcoat life’s
painful realities but affirms that despite them, two dramatically
Leading with Love