Don't Be Half-Saved?

In Montreat, N.C. Evangelist Billy Graham last week husbanded his strength for his biggest battle to date with the Devil--over New York City. On the battlefield itself, his advance guard lined up the captains and cohorts for the struggle ahead (May 15 to June 30, and perhaps longer). In 50 countries around the world groups affiliated with 1,900 Protestant churches kept up 24-hour chains of prayer for the big campaign. But from a Roman Catholic churchman came the warning: Catholics in heavily Catholic New York (2,136,000) should not listen to Billy Graham in person or on the air and should not read what he has to say.

"Billy's converts are only half-saved," declared the Rev. John E. Kelly, director of public information for the potent National Catholic Welfare Conference in Washington.

Graham preaches the doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, Redemption; he accepts the authority of the Scriptures, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection and Second Coming of Christ; he acknowledges the existence of a personal Satan, the immortality of the soul, a heaven and hell beyond the grave, the necessity of personal repentance, of a personal Saviour. "So far, fine," says Father Kelly in the Homiletic & Pastoral Review. "But there is plentiful mixing of truth and error in his preaching on these points." And Kelly complains that Evangelist Graham leaves out entirely such cornerstones of the Catholic faith as the mediating power of the Virgin Mary, the sacrament of the Mass, the necessity of Baptism, and the unity of the church. "Billy's teachings about the Church are not the same as Christ's teachings."

In areas where Graham preaches, Catholics are generally advised by their priests not to attend. But numbers of those making "decisions for Christ" at Graham's meetings turn out to be Roman Catholics (whose "pledge cards" are duly passed along to Catholic churches). Father Kelly feels that "it seems time to be specific." P: "Rev. Billy Graham is an ordained Baptist minister. Billy's crusades are definitely Protestant services [in which] Catholics are not permitted to participate."

P: "His published sermons and books, such as Peace with God, contain false doctrines, sometimes false in se, at other times false by being incomplete. They fall within the scope of the Index." P: "Catholics should not tune in on Billy's radio and television programs. So well constructed are his sermons, so interwoven is true and false doctrine, so forceful and persuasive is his delivery, that even a fairly well instructed Catholic may be deceived."

The warning was in a sense a testimonial to Graham's prowess as a preacher. But, concluded Father Kelly, "we should all pray for Billy Graham." In the current issue of the Jesuit weekly America, Jesuit Gustave Weigel, professor of ecclesiology at Maryland's Woodstock College, agrees. "Faced with the vast popularity and substantial shortcomings of Graham's 'crusade,' we can only sigh and reflect that we, like him, are also Adam's children, defective and half-blind ... It would ill become us to be harsh or cynical toward a man whose zeal and sincerity, even in a misguided cause, might shame many a lukewarm Catholic. Rather let us hope and pray that God may lead him to the One Faith that is worthy of all man's dedication."

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