Title: Billy Graham, American Evangelicalism, and the Cold War Clash of Messianic Visions, 1945--1962
Abstract: This study examines the Cold War ideology of Billy
Graham and other prominent representatives of the National
Association of Evangelicals and their attempt to implement their
messianic vision within the United States and promote it abroad
from 1945 through 1962. While it focuses on the evangelical
Protestant notions at the core of Cold War American messianism – the
notion that the American way of life was ideal and that Communism
posed a grave threat to it, the study also considers the nature and
strength of Soviet messianism. In July 1945, evangelicals declared
ideological cold war against world communism and began planning a
spiritual invasion of Europe to restore Christianity and stop
communism there. Billy Graham was among the young ministers sent to
Europe, and he built upon his experience there to emerge as a major
spokesman of American messianism. The popularity of Graham's
anticommunism, a regular feature in his sermons, helped propel him
to national fame. By 1950 his message was reaching much of the
nation in a weekly radio broadcast, and by 1952 he was serving as a
spiritual advisor to presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower. As
president, Eisenhower worked with Graham to orchestrate Cold War
civil religion, which drew much of its animus from Soviet
Communism. Graham was an important national leader in the
ideological war against communism. His desire to create a big tent
of American Christianity led to ideological moderation during the
late 1950s, but he continued to preach his messianic vision for the
United States. Meanwhile, Soviet messianism underwent major changes
during the early Cold War that, because of their own ideological
assumptions, most Americans missed. Billy Graham drew from American
mythology to construct a compelling messianic vision for the future
of mankind that met the hopes and fears of Americans in such
balance that it became something of an official Cold War ideology
throughout the 1950s. However inaccurate American conceptions of
Soviet messianism were, Graham's imagery resonated with the public
and its policymakers, and helped keep America's messianic vision
for the future of mankind robust into the early 1960s, even as
Soviet messianism flagged.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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