He was closest with Richard Nixon, whom he first met in 1950 when the later-disgraced president was a congressman. Yes or no, it's clear that their relationships have served mutually beneficial purposes. They upped Graham's publicity quotient, and they allowed the presidents to feel a little bit more holy. As of this writing, it's not clear who our president-elect is, but if Bush is declared victor, then he already has his Graham credentials in order. Al Gore can claim he's born again, but he can't say, like Bush, that it was because of a walk on the beach with Billy Graham.
Faith is a funny thing.
Mysterious enough on its own terms, it gets even more complicated when mixed in with religion. The story of Jesus Christ is no more or less outlandish than any other religion myth. Man is born to virgin, man says he's the son of God, man is murdered, man undergoes miraculous resurrection and assumes throne in heaven. But thanks to that unruly, often contradictory document known as the Bible, Christianity has become almost a Tower of Babel, where dozens of sects compete with one another about who has the line on the truth. And the members of each sect point to the Bible for evidence of their belief system.