When Billy Graham held a missionary conference in Brussels in 1975, Protestants represented 2% of Belgium’s population. Today, that’s 3%, a modest change in 50 years. Still, we are once again told that “Europe is ripe for harvest,” and Belgian evangelical leaders are leading us to the new Graham Crusades. But the new Graham: Billy’s son, Franklin Graham. Here’s why I’m not satisfied with it, despite this episode giving me hope for evangelicalism in Belgium:
Billy Graham wasn’t the perfect person. He was a man of his time, with his own seduction. Still, he was able to open his mind in general, maintain a balanced position and open many doors for the Gospel.
I would have avoided politics – Billy Graham
But when Christianity asked him about what he would do if he could go back in time in 2011, he said, “I would have avoided politics too.
Despite all attempts to make him the rightful heir of his father, Franklin Graham ignored this warning. From his support of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 to his enthusiastic support for President Donald Trump, Franklin Graham has a long record of strong political partisanship and divisive comments. And he continues. In a Facebook post on August 6th celebrating a new order from Donald Trump, he targeted people called “not trumpers, but evangelicals.”
Still, most leaders of the Belgian evangelical movement thought Franklin Graham and his organization were a good choice to unite evangelicals around shared events.
Belgium has three languages (Flemish, French, German) and many divisions. This also applies to the Belgian evangelical world. There, they often leave by silos. This is why the current leader of the Federal Congress, the leading leading evangelical organization, had a dream of promoting “uniformity and prayer” and bringing together all evangelicals in the stadium.
We have been contacted with the Billy Graham Evangelical Association (BGEA), who also wanted to hold an event in Belgium. Everything is categorized properly, and after various conferences and evangelistic training at the local church, we are a month away from the events that reached the pinnacle of the “Festival of Hope with Franklingraham” held in Brussels on September 27th.
However, the Society Evangelik de Everis de Lang Français (AEEBLF), a small Belgian section of the Baptist denomination I serve, refused to be associated with the event. Of course, we sympathize with our brothers and sisters who want others to meet Jesus. We recognize their efforts and believe that God will use this event in a graceful way. But is it supposed to be united around those who publicly arguing that those who do not share his political stance cannot become fellow evangelicals?
Franklin Graham “focuses on the gospel.”
I was told by Belgian supporters that Franklin Graham would “focus on the gospel.” But how do non-Christians see the gospel where messengers go hand in hand with one of the most controversial political leaders of our time? Are there any deep misconceptions about the nature and fruits of Jesus’ gospel?
They also said that the American context is far from us and that we should not be worried about it. But I see how the appetite for power and influence is that politicians’ stiff minds in the United States represent the seduction of the European Christian movement.
We do not want Christian faith to move in these directions.
I see how some American evangelical love and simple answers for strong men coincides with some trends amongst the churches here. It’s not just the US that, like the set used by BGEA in Donald Trump’s campaign, a selective set of defined Christian values and an unchanging gospel fosters feelings of superiority and self-righteousness while overlooking the most vulnerable needs among us. Others see these things too. We do not want Christian faith to move in these directions.
Many other Christians in the US and Canada, and even Ethiopia, have challenged Franklin Graham’s stance, but our decision not to participate in the Festival of Hope, has led to a sense of isolation in our nation’s evangelical landscape. What Christianity opposes evangelical events? But in a paradoxical way, this event may have achieved some of my intended goals.
Asking questions to this initiative gave us plenty of opportunities for deeper conversations.
Asking this initiative provided us with opportunities for more in-depth conversations here with fellow evangelicals. We against the event revealed our shared identity and what is important to us.
Some supporters may see me as a small nuisance in their path, but others have openly and honestly discussed what is at stake. We may have come to various conclusions, but I feel like I’m approaching them now.
Therefore, I have hope. Because a much more promising foreign preacher to deepen our unity considers opportunities for open dialogue as a much more promising way to bring us into one room. You can continue like this.
There is a greater quality of our sensitive presence than the events we can organize. Jesus said this is how the world knows we are His disciples (John 13:35).
It was originally published in Bruce Baron’s subsack, a mildly provocative idea. It was reissued with permission.
Leo Rehman has been a pastor of a Brussels church for eight years and is now a freelance writer, editor and translator for various ministries, including the French-speaking European Network of Missions (REMEEF) and today’s magazines of Christianity.
