Evangelical Calls America to Christ
BILLY GRAHAM, Our Right to Require Belief (1956)
In 1956, “In God We Trust” became the official national motto, reflecting both a Cold War culture where Americans contrasted the United States with the atheistic Soviet Union and the widespread appeal of traditional moral values embodied in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Evangelist Billy Graham emerged within this context, becoming the most significant evangelical preacher of the postwar era. His message of salvation through Christ spoke to middle-class Americans in search of some meaning in their lives.
There is a movement gathering momentum in America to take the traditional concept of God out of our national life. If this movement succeeds, IN GOD WE TRUST will be taken from our coins, the Bible will be removed from our courtrooms, future Presidents will be sworn into office with their hand on a copy of the Constitution instead of the Bible, and chaplains will be removed from the Armed Forces.
The issue of prayers in public schools is now before the Supreme Court and, if the Court decrees negatively, another victory will be gained by those forces which conspire to remove faith in God from the public conscience.
With each passing Christmas season the observing of Christmas in the school becomes a sharper issue. Many public schools, from California to New Jersey, have already ruled out the singing of carols in the classroom.
Those who are trying to remove God from our culture are rewriting history and distorting the truth. But those who advocate drastic changes in our traditional faith are only a tiny minority. Most Americans not only believe in God themselves but want their leaders to have faith in God. The Associated Press recently reported the findings of Dr. Paul Bussard, editor of the Catholic Digest, who learned that 99 percent of the American people believe in God; that 77 percent believe in the hereafter, and that 75 percent believe that religion is important.…
It is true that our forefathers meant this nation to be free from religious domination. The men who built America were primarily victims of oppression. They felt that the terrors of the wilderness were as nothing to that of government oppression of religious faith. But the founding fathers in their determination to have freedom “of” religion never meant to have freedom “from” religion. Separation of church and state in no way implies separation of religion and state affairs. They are spiritually inseparable.…
Early American history was hallowed with a purpose greater than material wealth and a cause greater than democracy. It was forged in the fire of a burning faith in God. Many early settlers came to America with one goal in mind — namely, to advance the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The tremendous prosperity, power and blessing which America has enjoyed through the years came because we as a nation have honored God. It is, I believe, a direct fulfillment of the promise, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Abraham Lincoln said during the Civil War, “I have so many evidences of God’s direction that I cannot doubt His power comes from above.” This was the faith of our fathers. The Great Seal of the United States is our complete acknowledgment that we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Our national emblems testify to the fact that we are a people “under God.” A Bible-reading shepherd in the desert of Mesopotamia who had never heard of the United States would say on seeing our national emblems, “Surely these are God’s people.”
American democracy rests on the belief in the reality of God and His respect for the individual. Ours is a freedom under law, but it is also a freedom that will evaporate if the religious foundations upon which it has been built are taken away. I’m not so sure we would continue to be free if our men in public life had no faith in God. I’m not sure that atheists and agnostics would be quite so zealous to preserve the Bill of Rights or the writ of habeas corpus or the two-party system or the right to trial by jury or the legal innocence of a man before he is proved guilty.
Castro has shown us all over again how easy it is to rationalize, to postpone elections, to justify tyranny in the name of land reform or some other benevolence. A dictator convinced that destiny lies in his own hands is bound to be proud, ruthless and ultimately destructive.… If a political leader fears God and believes that God is in control of the universe, that certain moral laws are operating, then his faith will be reflected in his conduct. Our beliefs make us what we are. This faith in God is the source of our liberty.
We are living in the most critical period in American history. We are faced with the possible destruction of our entire civilization. With a militant, atheistic Communism threatening to bury us, we need to rediscover national goals, to reexamine our national destiny. Whether he intends to, the American atheist administering a public office has essentially conceded the battle to Communism. By his atheism he underwrites in principle the Communist, materialistic, nonspiritual concept of life. He has surrendered spiritual, moral and rational arguments against Communism. The kind of moral conduct American life has historically demanded has grown on a religious soil which recognizes the moral laws of God. The morality of justice, the claims of honesty, the regard for and respect of the rights of others have grown on Judeo-Christian soil.
For a generation we have been emphasizing material things. We have been “living it up,” reaching for that extra status symbol, milking an affluent society for all we can get. Now we are discovering, in the age of the fifty-megaton bombs, what Haggai, the prophet, wrote: “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.… Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it.”
When a national leader turns to God in obvious sincerity, it has a tremendous effect on the whole nation. Think how Mr. Eisenhower thrilled us when he began his first Administration with what he called his “little prayer.” …
Dr. John A. Mackay, president emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary, has suggested that there are several basic attitudes nations can take toward God. One is the attitude of the “secular nation,” which eliminates God from its official relations and adheres to some political or philosophical idea. Another is the “demoniac nation,” which manufactures a god out of the state itself. Still another is the “covenant nation,” which grows out of an original loyalty and devotion to God and which continues to draw upon its origins for strength. I believe that America is such a “covenant nation” and that she will survive just as long as she remains loyal to her spiritual roots.
Yes, American political leaders owe it to our history, owe it to the people, owe it to a possible solution to the present crisis to have faith in God. I’m not advocating that faith in God is necessary merely for the holding of public office. I believe every American should have faith in God. This should be a deep, personal faith. Christ said, “Ye must be born again.” We all must have this transforming experience if we are to enter God’s kingdom and produce the type of society that our forefathers fought and prayed for. In a democracy the officeholder is only as strong as the people who support him.
Jesus continually condemned the Pharisees of His day, who served God with their lips when their hearts were far from Him. An acknowledgment of a belief in God will not turn an officeholder into a saint. There have been plenty of rascals who nodded to the Almighty. Yet there is a restraining influence in belief in God which even Kinsey acknowledged. Belief in God makes men more likely to be truthful under oath. America cannot afford to lose this kind of genuine faith.
As I travel throughout the country, I find that people are suffering from the neurosis of fear. A leading psychiatrist told me recently, “Seventy percent of the people that come to my office are afraid, and they don’t know what they’re afraid of.” There is a jaded, banal and empty feeling on the part of millions. People are searching for a creed to believe, a song to sing and a flag to follow. In Moscow’s Red Square some time ago thousands of young Russians were stamping their feet and shouting, “We’re going to change the world, we’re going to change the world.” I could not help contrasting them with some of the young Americans we meet so often, drifting aimlessly from one pleasure spot to another, wondering what to do with themselves. Many of our young people are uncommitted. Their superficial goals do not satisfy them.
It is clearly evident that America needs a renewal of faith in God. But this renewal will have to start with the individual. The Bible teaches that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We must confess our spiritual failure. There must be deep, genuine repentance. In our faith we must turn to Christ, Who died for our sins and arose again for our justification. If we are humble enough to make this deep and honest confession and commitment, God will forgive our sins and lead us to greater national heights.
Judge Luther Youngdahl has said, “A revival of the dynamic faith that sparked the Revolution is imperative.” Once it was said of the Christians that they were turning the world upside down. We can do it again! What good does it do to become the wealthiest nation in the world if we are spiritually bankrupt? What would we have to offer the world?
In my travels around the world I am convinced that people everywhere are looking to America for moral leadership. Moses was able to lead a nation of slaves to freedom because he had a faith in God. We cannot survive the present crisis with anything less. Faith is not something we stumble upon by accident; it is not the way a coward flees from reality. It is the projection of reason beyond the limits of present knowledge. It is taking God at His word. It means believing, even when we don’t understand all that is involved.
When John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English, he unwittingly outlined prophetically the course of history. For the Bible became not only the book of the English people of his day; it became the foundation of freedom for a nation unborn that would be called America. We inherited that priceless gift of God from the British people. Then we borrowed a tune from their national anthem and gave it new words of petition which must rise from the hearts of Americans in times of crisis. “Our fathers’ God, to Thee, Author of liberty, to Thee we sing. Long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light. Protect us by Thy might, great God, our King.”
Billy Graham, “Our Right to Require Belief,” The Saturday Evening Post, vol. 235 (February 17, 1962), 8, 10.
READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS