CHAPTER 9
Expanding the Growing Edge
In periods where there is no leadership, society
stands still. Progress occurs when courageous,
skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change
things for the better.
HARRY S. TRUMANTalk about being caught in a vise! In the 1950s Billy Graham was
building momentum as a national leader just as an issue that was
increasingly dividing the country was rumbling toward full-blown
crisis. His advisers were divided, and he was out there on the vis-
ible point.
Leaders often find themselves not only caught between forces
but struggling to come to their own conclusions. Then they must
form convictions strong enough to drive stakes in the ground—
stakes that if wrongly chosen, or driven into the wrong ground,
could impale instead of support the necessary weight. In today’s
acceleration of change and emergence of global ideas and meth-
ods, sharp divisions put leaders in precarious positions.
For Billy, in the 1950s, the gathering storm of racial issues
forced him to search deeply the Scriptures and his own soul. From
our perspective a half century later, we may wonder why he
would have any question whatsoever about “the right thing to
do.” But immersed in the churning currents of beliefs in America
at that time, he truly was caught in a dilemma. He needed the
wisdom of Solomon and the courage of David to navigate the roil-
ing, dangerous waters.