I had been looking forward to Billy Graham's visit to Cincinnati this June — that is, until the recent firestorm of boycotts and backlash.

        Now, I'm glad he has decided to come anyway, but I worry about how we'll take his message.

        Proponents of the evangelist's visit borrow a little from a Rodney King line to rationalize his determination: “Can't we just all pray along?”

        I see more clearly the point of opponents to the visit: Cincinnati is already really good at praying, just not at praying together. Just like we don't do much else together.

        Blacks and whites live in different Cincinnatis. The exceptions to the statement don't belie its truth.

        That's why the Graham Mission here can't be just a prayer fest.

        The Rev. Mr. Graham knows that, his spokespeople say.

No stranger to controversy

        This won't be the first time the traveling evangelist has marched into a racial divide and called thousands of people to prayer.

        Early in his crusades, the Rev. Mr. Graham accepted segregated seating in the South, but by 1952 in Jackson, Miss., he had had enough. He began speaking against it, and in 1953, in Chattanooga, Tenn., he took down the ropes himself that separated black and white worshipers.

        He integrated his ministry, began working with black churches and in 1957 called for national legislation to end segregation.

        The Rev. Mr. Graham tells the story of how the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged him to continue his integrationist message in the big stadiums and white churches rather than join him in his street protests. The Rev. Dr. King didn't want the Rev. Mr. Graham to endanger his larger audience.

        And so, amid the police clashes and protests in Alabama, the Rev. Mr. Graham held integrated meetings.

        But that's history.

        Will the Rev. Mr. Graham's new mission to Cincinnati emphasize racial reconciliation or racial justice?

        Racial harmony was, after all, the original mission of his mission here. His people say that last April's racial strife was why he accepted locals' invitations only a year after hosting a massive event in Louisville, which has had its share of race problems.

        But here, we had riots and a summer of shootings to go along with our police brutality allegations. We've got a boycott in full force, and political posturing and saber rattling at a fever pitch.

A clanging gong

        His message could be drowned out.

        Especially if the Graham event doesn't focus on Cincinnatians' inabilities to see beyond color and facade, if it doesn't call on us to deal with each other's hearts.

        I hope his sermons call on individuals to be part of a movement toward justice and equality for all — not just the socially palatable “racial healing” everyone seems to want. If not, then the august Rev. Mr. Graham's visit will be like faith without works.

        It'll be merely sounds and symbols. A clanging gong.

        See I Corinthians, Chapter 13 for the essence of a Christian life without love. It's nothing.

        That could be played out even if the expected 250,000 Tristaters show up at the events, listen to the sermons and make personal commitments to God. If we then get back into our droves of cars and drive away to our separate worlds, then what?

        I know and believe that God works miracles. The Lord can and does change hearts. But I also know he still respects free will.

        That's why I fear that many in Cincinnati may freely return to their worlds apart, where blacks and whites work apart, play apart, pray apart.

        Please, prove me wrong.

        Denise Smith Amos can be reached at 768-8395, or e-mail damos@enquirer.com.

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