The Rev. Billy Graham arrives at his birthday party, pushed by his grandson, Edward Graham. (Reuters)
CHARLOTTE — Visitors to Charlotte often travel from the airport to the city center via the Billy Graham Parkway. It can startle the first time, seeing a public roadway named for a major religious figure. But you get used to it once you’ve lived here awhile. You realize how much the region takes pride in its native son, though the life and history of the man called “America’s Pastor” illustrates — in even his own judgment – how tough it can be to maintain a separation of church and state. Should America have a pastor at all?
America is ambivalent about that line, as recent Supreme Court arguments over the issue of prayer before public meetings made clear. Those who check non-Christian or none of the above are usually not favored in these civic exhortations and end up in court to be heard.
Religion inevitably becomes mired in the political debate, with every side turning to the word of God for validation for particular
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