Good Book Leaps Great Wall for Billy Graham Visit

--Evangelist Billy Graham took the Good Book to the land of the Great Wall and met Premier Li Peng in Chinese Communist Party headquarters in Beijing. “Our God is not the same God, but that will not prevent us from having a good talk together,” Li said. The premier did not elaborate on his religious beliefs but said it was a pleasure to meet Graham, who told him: “We are deeply grateful you have received us today.” The two then spoke privately. The evangelist, who has traveled to more than 60 countries, is scheduled to speak in Beijing’s Chongwenmen Church and in Nanking and Shanghai. China’s policy toward religion has relaxed in recent years and official figures show about 4 million Protestants and more than 3 million Roman Catholics as members of church associations recognized by the state. Other Chinese Christians gather to worship informally. Graham, who said on arrival that the China trip fulfilled a dream, was accompanied by his wife, Ruth, who was born in China.

--The Congressional Record for last week includes a eulogy for former Rep. Harold T. (Bizz) Johnson (D-Roseville) as offered on the House floor by Rep. James J. Howard (D-N.J.). That wouldn’t be unusual except that Howard himself died on March 25. The eulogy, which Howard wrote but had not delivered before he died, called Johnson, who died March 16, one of the men who helped make the country what it is today and praised him as a “legislator par excellence” and “a friend to all.” The House agreed to place it in the record, as if it had been read on the floor, at the request of Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), who also read a eulogy for Johnson.

--Author Jerzy Kosinski, once attacked in Poland as a traitor for the brutal images in “The Painted Bird,” was showered with praise when he returned home for a visit after 31 years. Kosinski, who also wrote “Being There,” spoke in Polish to packed auditoriums about intellectual independence, condemning prejudice and assailing official critics who had denounced him in the 1960s. Kosinski, 55, won promises that his nine novels finally would be published in Poland but said he will believe it “when I see them published in more than five copies, and not mimeographed.” Kosinski’s visit, which began April 6, coincided with observances of the 45th anniversary of the doomed Warsaw Jewish Ghetto uprising. The author said he still has no trust in Polish authorities: “I know almost nothing” about those in power now, he said, “but what the authorities used to write about me was fiction, and I do know something about that because I am an expert on writing fiction.”