{"id":587,"date":"2008-12-22T12:47:45","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T12:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html"},"modified":"2008-12-22T12:47:45","modified_gmt":"2008-12-22T12:47:45","slug":"rick-warren-as-billy-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html","title":{"rendered":"Rick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"billy<\/a><\/span>
\nRev. Tony Jones offers some good advice for Rick Warren:<\/a> if you aspire to be like Billy Graham — a widely respected pastor to the presidents — you have to hold your tongue.<\/p>\n

“The evangelical intelligencia liked (not loved) Billy Graham because, though he wasn’t a theologian, he usually spoke carefully (anti-semitic comments in Nixon’s office being the exception that proves the rule. Papa Rick is not nearly as circumspect. He and Billy are probably 98% sympatico, but Rick’s a SoCal dude, and Billy’s a southern gentleman.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not just temperament. Billy Graham made a choice to avoid, after a certain point, an appearance of partisanship or high profile involvement in culture war issues. As Billy Graham’s biographer, William Martin, put it, “Billy Graham…has been unwilling to draw lines that would alienate other people or rule them out of his circle.
\nThis is a key point. Rick Warren can’t both be beloved pastor-to-the-presidents and<\/em> a leader of the religious right. Period. He’ll have to decide which it is.
\nOne footnote to Jones’ post: Billy Graham did not start out so circumspect. He was viewed as a Nixon acolyte and felt burned by that association. In later years, he became more circumspect. In that sense, Rick Warren right now is Billy Graham circa 1976, grappling with how his political behavior can hinder his larger spiritual goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rev. Tony Jones offers some good advice for Rick Warren: if you aspire to be like Billy Graham — a widely respected pastor to the presidents — you have to hold your tongue. “The evangelical intelligencia liked (not loved) Billy Graham because, though he wasn’t a theologian, he usually spoke carefully (anti-semitic comments in Nixon’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nRick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rev. Tony Jones offers some good advice for Rick Warren: if you aspire to be like Billy Graham — a widely respected pastor to the presidents — you have to hold your tongue. “The evangelical intelligencia liked (not loved) Billy Graham because, though he wasn’t a theologian, he usually spoke carefully (anti-semitic comments in Nixon’s…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-22T12:47:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham - Steven Waldman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham - Steven Waldman","og_description":"Rev. Tony Jones offers some good advice for Rick Warren: if you aspire to be like Billy Graham — a widely respected pastor to the presidents — you have to hold your tongue. “The evangelical intelligencia liked (not loved) Billy Graham because, though he wasn’t a theologian, he usually spoke carefully (anti-semitic comments in Nixon’s…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html","og_site_name":"Steven Waldman","article_published_time":"2008-12-22T12:47:45+00:00","author":"swaldman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html","name":"Rick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham - Steven Waldman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-22T12:47:45+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-22T12:47:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/12\/rick-warren-as-billy-graham.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rick Warren Is Still Learning How to Be Billy Graham"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/","name":"Steven Waldman","description":"Author of 'Founding Faith'","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded","name":"swaldman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","caption":"swaldman"},"description":"Steven Waldman is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Beliefnet. He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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