An Open Letter to Rev. Billy Graham

I just found this letter I'd written in 2003 -- sent to The Cove -- where your large home center is. This was also sent your Evangelistic Association center in Minnesota. I also sent this by FAX and email to four of your large radio stations with all my contact info clear to each of these above locations. I never received a reply.

Since you are still with us in this world, Rev. Graham, why not respond even now?

March 18, 2003

Dear Rev. Graham,

In March, 1979, during an interview with Sojourners Magazine called 'A Change of Heart', you confessed that you had not thought through certain implications of Christ's lordship regarding how we, as a nation, might or might not fuel or fan a nuclear war. You said "I believe that the Christian especially has a responsibility to work for peace in our world."

You also said, "I would have to admit that the older I get the more aware I am of the kind of world my generation has helped shape, and the more concerned I am about doing what I can to give the next generation at least some hope for peace."

You continued: "I have gone back to the Bible to restudy what it says about the responsibilities we have as peacemakers. I have seen that we must seek the good of the whole human race, not just the good of any one nation.

'There have been times in the past when I have, I suppose, confused the kingdom of God with the American way of life...the kingdom of God is not the same as America and our nation is subject to the judgement of God just as much as any other nation.

'I have become concerned to build bridges of understanding among nations and want to do whatever I can to help...We cannot afford to neglect our duties as global citizens...the world is a very small place, and what one nation does affects all others."

In that same issue, you were congratulated for your "courageous confession" by Dick Barnet, author of the book "Global Reach", who said, "If we do not have the clarity of moral vision to see that (other) people cannot ever deserve one hundred Auschwitzes whatever their leaders do, then our faith rests not on the reverence of God and his world but on power fantasies and fears...

'The biblical injunction to love one another does not rest on the idea that people are lovable...

...love is difficult -- people are hard enough to love one by one and harder still to love by the millions. Yet the injunction is inescapable because creation cannot be sustained without it.

'The choice is between love and hate, and hate is death. Hate demands an enemy. The identity hardly matters. Enemies change, but the spirit of enmity and fear remains.

'The big lie behind all murder from random street killings, to the efficient ovens of Auschwitz, to the even more efficient hydrogen bomb, is that the victims deserve to die."

NOW, Rev. Graham, is the "hour of decision." Perhaps it is YOUR hour of decision. What are YOU going to do to influence our president whom you have mentored? What will YOU do to encourage him to have a CHANGE of HEART and become one of the heroes of the world instead of one of the most dangerous men who has ever lived?

Or will there be any more history for our children to live?

Please Act Now!

Most Sincerely,

Connie Nash

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Although the above letter was written March 18, 2003, and received NO response that I have ever seen, I am praying that Rev. Graham will read this letter even now and respond to the world at large --thereby perhaps lightening his conscience and legacy a little.

Likewise, perhaps many Christians and Americans today will see that it is OUR Hour of Decision -- ministers and leaders of all kinds. What will OUR decisions be? What sort of legacy will WE leave our children during 2012?