■ ■ ■It was a harrowing experience to face so much withering criti-
cism. And in America, he learned that the media had isolated the
most incendiary and perplexing observations in Moscow, remov-
ing them from any context that could have explained them. Soon
after returning from his trip, Billy traveled to Chicago to chair a
Christianity Today board meeting. He looked exhausted and dis-
couraged. At the meeting, he shared with the trustees a report by
journalist Ed Plowman, which put the statements and events in
Russia in context. Still, everyone was acutely aware that the
American media continued to be hostile.
When leaders take risks and find themselves not only in the
bull’s-eye but deep in the pits, it takes courage to go out and con-
tinue to face the assaults. But Billy did.
He weathered the emotional hits and stayed the course. He
avoided petty defensiveness because his confidence in the mis-
sion did not depend on media approval. His decision to go to
the Soviet Union had been carefully considered and prayerfully
discerned.
Ultimately, Billy was vindicated for his historic 1982 trip, but
he couldn’t know that at the time. He had to simply keep sol-
diering on and accept the harsh realities of the assaults. For Billy,
the only critic who really counted was God. Billy remained cer-
tain that God had wanted him to preach in the Soviet Union. He
was anything but naive about the trip; he knew Soviet leadership
would exact temporary gain from his presence there. “Of course
they are using us,” he said, “but we are using them as well, and
my message is stronger than theirs.”
History proved Billy correct. No one can definitively gauge the
degree to which Billy contributed to the Iron Curtain’s demise.
However, in 1990 President George H. W. Bush praised Billy’s pre-
science: “You know, eight years ago, one of the Lord’s great
ambassadors, Reverend Billy Graham, went to Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union and, upon returning, spoke of a movement
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham