In 1948, at the outset of his evangelistic career, Billy Graham met with staff at a motel in Modesto, California, to discuss pitfalls that typically bring down well-known evangelists. They crafted a four-point plan that Cliff Barrows, Graham’s music director, called the Modesto Manifesto.
First, Graham would receive a set salary rather than a cut of the offerings at revival gatherings. Second, he would refrain from criticizing other clergy or religious leaders, a practice common among itinerant preachers in the past. Third, Graham and his colleagues would abstain from estimates of attendance at crusades, which other preachers routinely exaggerate. Fourth, Graham vowed to guard against any possibility of sexual impropriety.
From this moment forward, Graham resolved not to travel, meet, or eat alone with any woman other than his wife.
Some of us (older ones!) will recall that televangelists of the 1980s disregarded such scruples to their peril. Over the course of a public ministry that lasted more than a half-century, no one credibly charged Graham with a scandal. When many of his peers were dragged down into it, Graham’s ability to stay above the muck is striking. I don’t mean to suggest that Graham was faultless. He allowed himself to be played by President Richard Nixon for his own political benefit. Yet Graham’s track record is surprisingly and refreshingly free of hypocrisy.
As we begin this new year, we are led in prayer by Billy Graham: