Billy Graham a Convert to On-Line Preaching
Let’s say you hanker for a personal conversation with the world’s most famous evangelist, for many years near the top of the polls as one of the most respected people on Earth.
Although it is still pretty hard to have a one-on-one chat with the Rev. Billy Graham, the odds have improved--if you are a computer buff, that is.
The evangelist whose voice and face are immediately recognized by people just about everywhere as a result of his decades on radio and television, took on a new communications frontier this month when he plunged into the world of interactive computer networking.
Typing into his computer from his office in Montreat, N.C., Graham fielded questions from 14 people Nov. 11 during an hourlong guest appearance on America Online. The Virginia-based computer service network has 450,000 subscribers, each with a modem, which allows typewritten messages to go back and forth from one computer to others hooked up to the network.
After his one-hour introductory session, the evangelist who is responsible for the conversion of millions of people confessed to a conversion of his own.
“This is my first experience using this medium, and I hope it will not be my last,” Graham typed. “I’ve enjoyed it, and I wish we could go on for several more hours!”
He described interactive computer networks as being on “the cutting edge of the future” and as having the potential for great influence.
Although it is highly unlikely that the 75-year-old evangelist will abandon radio, satellite transmissions and stadium crusades to become a computer junkie, a spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. said Graham’s comment was more than idle talk.
“I definitely think Mr. Graham was a convert to the medium and realized its potential for reaching out to many more audiences with the Gospel message,” longtime Graham spokesman Larry Ross said in an interview.
He termed Graham’s foray into the world of on-line networking “a logical extension of Mr. Graham’s progressive use of the media” and called it consistent with Graham’s goal of ensuring that his use of “high tech” does not come at the expense of giving up “high touch” contact with people.
While no date for a second on-line appearance has been set, Ross said the Nov. 11 session will not be Graham’s last.
Three hundred people, the maximum allowed in the America Online “meeting,” were in contact with Graham during his hour, but only 14 “spoke” directly with Graham. Still, everyone saw the questions and answers and got a humorous glimpse of a feet-of-clay Graham that might be less obvious in other media.
Because the on-line computer screen displays exactly what is written, Graham’s reference to the Prince of Peace appeared as “Prince of Peach.” But back-to-back references to Pentecost raised at least a hint of a doubt about Graham’s spelling, when he typed “Pentacost” twice in a row.
Graham displayed some of the same diplomacy, finesse and discretion that has enabled him over the years to develop many friendships, with evangelical Christians as well as mainline churchgoers, and with presidents as different as Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
One questioner put Graham on the spot with the question: “If there was only one person in today’s world that you could bring to Christ, who would it be and why?”
Graham’s answer: “Every person is important to the Lord. I don’t think any person is more important than another person in God’s sight. Just everybody. Anyone that the Lord has spoken to and convicted of their sins and need of Christ--I would like to see come to Christ.”
Graham’s America Online appearance was jointly sponsored by Time magazine, which published a cover story on Graham the same week.
