Rev. Tony Jones offers some good advice for Rick Warren: if you aspire to be like Billy Graham — a widely respected pastor to the presidents — you have to hold your tongue.

“The evangelical intelligencia liked (not loved) Billy Graham because, though he wasn’t a theologian, he usually spoke carefully (anti-semitic comments in Nixon’s office being the exception that proves the rule. Papa Rick is not nearly as circumspect. He and Billy are probably 98% sympatico, but Rick’s a SoCal dude, and Billy’s a southern gentleman.”

It’s not just temperament. Billy Graham made a choice to avoid, after a certain point, an appearance of partisanship or high profile involvement in culture war issues. As Billy Graham’s biographer, William Martin, put it, “Billy Graham…has been unwilling to draw lines that would alienate other people or rule them out of his circle.
This is a key point. Rick Warren can’t both be beloved pastor-to-the-presidents and a leader of the religious right. Period. He’ll have to decide which it is.
One footnote to Jones’ post: Billy Graham did not start out so circumspect. He was viewed as a Nixon acolyte and felt burned by that association. In later years, he became more circumspect. In that sense, Rick Warren right now is Billy Graham circa 1976, grappling with how his political behavior can hinder his larger spiritual goals.