November 13 1995

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Few, if any, developments in Billy Graham's ministry have been more surprising or controversial than his success in penetrating the Iron Curtain. It wasn't surprising, of course, that he would want to preach in Communist-dominated lands. He wanted to preach everywhere. Still, it was a notable turn of events when first one and then another and another Warsaw Pact country not only allowed him to visit, but progressively extended to him privileges that no other churchman, including the most prominent and politically docile native religious leaders, had ever received.

Graham has been clear and consistent about his goals in visiting the Soviet-bloc nations. As always, he sought first to preach the simple gospel message as publicly and to as many people as possible. Second, he sought to encourage believers in these countries by providing them with a tangible contact with world Christianity and assuring them they had not been forgotten by brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. And third, he tried to help the various Communist governments understand that religious organizations are a significant part of their society, that they are not going to disappear, that their members pose little threat to the stability of the government, and that granting them greater religious freedom would not harm the state. In addition, he stressed to Communist leaders that Americans view religious freedom as a basic human right and find it difficult to accept normal diplomatic relationships with countries that restrict that right.

Critics of the visits charged that Graham was being used by the Soviets for propaganda purposes. They pointed in particular to a 1982 Moscow "Peace Conference," which did indeed have a strong ...