What Billy Graham's Death and His Son Franklin's Rise Reveal About America

At the death of a patriarch, it is only a natural moment to compare the son to his father.

America's most famous preacher, Billy Graham, rose to the heights of religious power in America by uniting evangelicalism after a fundamentalist crisis in the early 20th century. His son, Franklin Graham, the heir to his religious empire, has risen to prominence by embracing the divisions of our time. The difference between father and son says as much about America as it does about the two men.