Don't just take someone's word for it

This column has two seemingly irreconcilable foci today: Billy Graham and the forthcoming movie "The Golden Compass."

In my mind, an enfeebled Billy Graham remains the world's most influential Christian evangelist. He is a cut above all his contemporaries due to his hard-earned reputation for integrity. Virtually alone among his revivalist peers, he has long taken a relatively modest (when judged against total income) salary from his ministry. Alone among others, Graham pushed the television audiences who watched his crusades to find, attend and support a local church. (This endears him to pastors who find in Graham a partner, not a competitor.) Absolutely alone among other top names in television evangelism, Graham's ministry opens its books to outside scrutiny (audits) by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Billy Graham, who may be facing his final Thanksgiving, has done many things right. When the total sweep of his life is measured, any fair reckoning will judge Dr. Graham exceedingly well.

With that said, he has also made some mistakes. His mistakes are magnified due to his fame. He became a sycophant to U.S. presidents; he became too cozy with power. Power, not money or women, was his Achilles' heel. To cite but one example, Graham engaged in some unfortunate anti-Semitic remarks in a conversation caught on tape with then-president Richard Nixon. On other occasions, he lent his name and credibility to a few activities he would later regret. As a favor to a parachurch group nearly 20 years ago, Dr. Graham issued a statement condemning the provocative Martin Scorsese movie "The Last Temptation of Christ." He called the film "sacrilegious."

Questioned about his remarks afterward, the celebrated televangelist sheepishly admitted he had not seen even a single frame of the film nor had he read the book on which the film was based. Ouch. What I like most about Billy Graham is when he errs, he generally owns up to it.

I rented the Scorsese movie after reading Graham's initial rebuke and learning of his later backtracking. I expected to be appalled, even scandalized. If Billy Graham doesn't like it, surely it will make me spiritually sick. That didn't happen. The movie explores what might have transpired if Jesus had given in to a "last temptation" and avoided the cross. It imagines a life Jesus could have had if he had chosen to live as any other man. After taking the viewer through a scenario in which Jesus slips out of the clutches of his opponents, keeps a low profile, has a family and lives to old age, we realize -- in the end -- that it's all been a hallucination.

Jesus wakes up on the cross, his "what-might-have-been" dream over. The movie concludes with a storyline perfectly in sync with the Gospels: He dies by crucifixion. The only outrage possible is if you don't watch the whole film.

Today many are feeling their stomachs churn about a movie about to hit theaters this Christmas season titled "The Golden Compass." The author of the book upon which the film is based is clearly no friend of the Christian faith. One reviewer has written, "I don't want Christians to be seduced by the idea that this is a great fairytale story to show your kids at Christmastime. It's a backdoor way of selling atheism."

Maybe. Maybe not. Dr. Graham's unfortunate comments from 1988 are a cautionary tale for me. It's important to make up one's own mind and not permit someone else, even someone you respect, to do it for you.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.