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the attempt at some form of reconciliation.” He even wrote the Foreward to the book Pope John
Paul II: A Tribute.
The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph quoted an insider as saying: “Many of the people who reached
a decision for Christ at our meetings (1952 Pittsburgh Crusade) have joined the Catholic Church
… This happened both in Boston and Washington. After all, one of our prime purposes is to help
the churches in the community…” As early as 1956, Graham said that he was going to “send
them to their own churches– Roman Catholic, Protestant or Jewish … The rest will be up to
God.” He has said: “My goal, I always made clear, was not to preach against Catholic beliefs or
to proselytize people who were already committed to Christ within the Catholic Church.”
When a Crusade is planned, a Committee is brought together, made up of leaders from local
churches. Within that group is an Executive Committee. Whenever someone walks down the
aisle to receive Salvation, the decision card is given to these leaders, and their respective
churches. For instance, the Committee for the 1957 New York Crusade consisted of around 120
modernists (those denying the virgin birth, Christ’s resurrection, the divine inspiration of
Scripture, and the existence of a literal heaven and hell), and 20 fundamentalists. The June 19,
1969 issue of the New York Times outlined his follow-up procedure:
“After inquirers are dealt with by ‘counselors’ and cards on each are filled out, a ‘Co-
Labor Corps’ sits at long tables until midnight each night counting and sorting the cards
and licking envelopes that will go out in the morning mail to ministers of about 1,000
churches … The ‘Corps’ sifts through maps and phone books, finding the church nearest
the addresses on the cards, regardless of whether or not they are liberal, conservative,
Protestant, Catholic or Jewish…”
When he spoke at Notre Dame University (a Catholic institution) in 1977, and gave the
‘invitation,’ he said: “Many of you want to come tonight and reconfirm your confirmation. You
want to reconfirm the decision that you made when you joined the church.” Nothing was ever
said about the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross, or about the repenting of their sins. He even
reassured them that his purpose was not to get them to leave the Church to join another
denomination.
In 1979, nearly 3,500 decision cards were given to the Catholic Church. The Florida
Catholic indicated that in 1983, the decision cards for 600 people from the Orlando crusade were
given to the Catholic Church. About 500 names from his 1987 Denver Crusade were given to the
St. Thomas Moore Roman Catholic Church. Graeme Keith, who was the chairman of the
Charlotte (North Carolina) Billy Graham Crusade Committee, told the Charlotte Observer
(March 1, 1996): “We have Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and other denominations represented on
the committee…” At this Crusade, the decision cards of nearly 1700 people answering the altar
call were given to the Catholic Diocese in the area.
In one of his ‘My Answer’ columns, in response to a Roman Catholic who was writing in
regard to some of the changes going on in the Catholic Church, Graham responded by telling
him not to “pull out of the church! Stay in it, stay close to the Lord, and use these experiences as
an opportunity to help your church be what God intends…” Likewise, the counselors at his
Crusades are warned not to criticize the church or religious affiliation of any of the people who
come forward for Salvation.
Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, Graham’s people have denied any sort of
theological wrongdoing. In 1964, an assistant to Graham, George Edstrom, wrote: “Mr. Graham