People in the US likely find it interesting that they met - I'd never heard that before this show but have recently heard a good deal about it. I would be interested in knowing if folks in the UK are familiar with Billy Graham and what they think of her having developed a bond with him? The Queen Mum sure seemed contemptuous of him in S2!
in the US here, a confirmed atheist, but i found myself wondering what magic graham had that the top-rank people (the queen, nixon, elvis, ronny raygun) all gravitated to him. clearly, the queen was under no conceivable cultural inclination to do so, quite the opposite.
the man must have had great charisma.
He did. Unlike the actor here that is really channeling Jimmy Carter without even knowing he is.
shareBilly Graham was a pretty charismatic preacher who came up in time to make use of television to build a vast following. Politicians liked to glom onto him to Gerry in good with his devoted followers. I don't know about Elvis - maybe he was just interested in anybody as famous as he was.
shareElvis was himself an outspoken Christian so that would explain his interest in a top evangelist.
shareBilly Graham was a gifted speaker and he spoke of hope with confidence without shaming others.
I personally think those traits are appealing and engaging across cultural barriers.
I hadn't known about this, either. Googling Billy Graham Queen Elizabeth brings up several articles about their friendship
shareBilly Graham was a good man, and his legacy lives on today. If they're showing anything negative about him on the show, that's mainly due to the people making the show (particularly the script-writers) being left-leaning atheists that don't like Christianity (pretty typical in the film industry).
shareGraham made an unholy deal with the political right, which gave him much fame and wealth. He agreed to preach that socialism was antiamerican because it was atheistic and capitalism was Christian and American. In return, American presidents gave him the position as national minister and confidant.
In return was the corollary that atheism was communist and anti American.
Graham was not a good man. He politically undercut John Kennedy because he was Catholic and Johnson because he was liberal. He counciled presidents to fight communism in Vietnam, leading to millions of deaths. He filled generations of LGBT people with self-hatred. This was all bad.
Or, he was right about all of that stuff.
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