Independence, Missouri, did Truman agree to see Billy. “I recalled
the incident and apologized profusely for our ignorance and
naiveté,” Billy said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Truman said graciously. “I realized you
hadn’t been properly briefed.”
Billy vowed that it would never happen again if he was given
access to a person of influence. And true to his vow, after the
embarrassment with Truman, Billy was circumspect regarding his
conversations with prominent persons.
During the London meetings in 1954, for instance, Billy met
privately with Winston Churchill for forty minutes. What did they
talk about? Journalist George Burnham, who traveled with the
Graham team, reported that the question was still unanswered a
year later. All Billy would reveal during Churchill’s lifetime was
that it was Bible-centered.
When he was invited to preach at a private chapel service
attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen
Mother, and Princess Margaret, he was queried by reporters about
what he said. Billy revealed only that he had spoken for about
twenty-five minutes and used Acts 27:25 as the text for his sermon.
■ ■ ■He eventually became a confidant of popes and presidents and
prime ministers because he had learned to keep conversations in
confidence. Further confirmation that he had learned something
from his failure in 1950 was revealed more than thirty years later.
In 1981, he visited for half an hour with Pope John Paul II.
Afterward he would speak only in general terms of their conver-
sation, saying that they talked about “inter-church relations, the
emergence of Evangelicalism, evangelization, and Christian
responsibility toward modern moral issues.” His assessment was
homey but guarded: “We had a spiritual time. He is so down-to-
earth and human, I almost forgot he was the pope.”
Only after almost twenty years did Billy feel free to reveal a
more personal aspect of their conversation, by then knowing it
Learning from Failure