MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) – In the wake of the Rev. Billy Graham’s death, religion scholars say this much is clear: There will never be another American spiritual leader with his reach and influence.
The evangelical movement that Graham helped solidify and embodied for much of the second half of the 20th century has splintered. The media he used so effectively has fragmented, too, since the days when baby boomers had a choice of only three TV stations in their living rooms. And politics has become more polarized, even toxic.
It’s hard to imagine another U.S. religious leader like Graham filling a stadium for days on end and moving so deftly through the corridors of power that he could minister to Democratic and Republican presidents alike.
“I think his legacy will be the inclusiveness of his understanding of the Gospel,” said Grant Wacker, a retired professor at Duke University’s divinity school and author of the 2014 biography “America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation.” ”Bring as many people in as possible.”
Graham, who died Wednesday at 99, reached hundreds of millions of people worldwide through his preaching engagements and his pioneering use of modern mass media, especially television.