Billy Graham's 1956 Speech on China and Hong Kong
Protestant American exceptionalism in British Hong Kong After World War II
1956-09-04 Evangelical Beacon and Evangelist Vol. 25 no. 48. September 4 1956. https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/tiu_beacon/id/1877. (Accessed May 23, 2021.)
I recently came across this audio clip of Billy Graham dated for 1956 with the backdrop of the American Civil Rights movement at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association webpage. The Evangelical Beacon & Evangelist under the Evangelical Free Church of America published an article on this Billy Graham rally in their September 1956 volume. Here’s a transcript:
We have just arrived in Hong Kong, after the most thrilling exciting and profitable tour of our entire ministry. We've seen hundreds turn to Christ in India, thousands of people came to the meetings and hundreds of ministers and missionaries were challenged with the gospel of Christ in one of the most strategic countries of the world. I want to take this opportunity to thank you at home, for your plans while we were touring India.
Hong Kong has been called has been called the “Pearl of the Orient.” It is certainly one of the world's most beautiful cities. When you arrive in Hong Kong by air, you’re immediately overwhelmed at the magnificent beauty of this city. Hong Kong is a city of two-and-one-half million people, packed into just under 400-square-miles on the mainland of China. As you come in by plane, you can see Communist China over the hills that surround Hong Kong. It is difficult to believe that at this moment, I'm standing only a few miles from Communist China.
Despite the tensions out here, Hong Kong still enjoys peace and prosperity. Merchants, traders, manufacturers and workers of every race and creed can go about their daily affairs in freedom and security, confident in the stability provided by British troops and British justice. The shops of Hong Kong display almost everything that you can buy in America: you can buy everything from a pair of nylons to a refrigerator. Since there's a great deal of trade with Communist China, you can buy here almost all Chinese goods, from priceless jeweled bracelets to black wood furniture. As I look out of my hotel window, I can see Hong Kong at night. It puts on a diadem of lights transformed the already beautiful into a fairyland. And there are few cities in the world that can match the romantic beauty of this bit of Britain on the Chinese mainland. For 100 years the British have steadily developed Hong Kong. However, on Christmas day 1941, the colony fell to the Japanese and during the war was drained of manpower. Its trade and industry stifled, its harbor wrecked, education neglected and the land deforested until August 30 1945, when it was liberated by the British fleet.
Hong Kong today is faced today with one of the greatest refugee rehabilitation programs of any place on earth. There are more than one-million Chinese refugees that have fled Communist China, over 300-thousands of these refugees are called “squatters.” They live in the river-beds, in the caves, in tents, or in temporary housing. Hong Kong is faced with a shortage of houses, schools, hospitals and clinics. The British sure are doing a magnificent job of helping to meet the overwhelming social and economic situation that has been brought on by the Communists taking over China.
In spite of the fact that several races living so close together, there is virtually no racial problem here. All classes mingle freely, at work and at play. By and large the people of Hong Kong are law abiding citizens and there's surprisingly little crime. Being within a stone's throw of Communist China, you get the feeling however in walking the streets of the city that you're in one of the most dangerous and sensitive spots in the entire world. However, in talking to Chinese businessmen who are violently anti-Communist, there seems to be no nervousness and no fear. It is here in Hong Kong that people who are released from Communist prisons are allowed to make their way to the United States, Britain and the other free countries of the world. When they walk across the border between Communist China and Hong Kong, they are breathing the free air of the free world. I talked to one man who was recently freed by the Communists, and he said the moment across the border it was like “going from hell to heaven and from night to day.” We've already heard stories of violent anti-Christian persecution, just a few miles away in Communist China.
There's a feeling here in Hong Kong that the Chinese Communists will not call for a showdown in the Far East within the next 3 or 4 years. Of course, you can find people who think there will be war at any time but most of the people that we've been talking to feel that China has too many internal problems, and is also needing time to gain in military and economic strength. I've also found a surprising number of people here in Hong Kong who think that Communist China may be having difficulty with Soviet Russia. I've heard the hope expressed on more than one occasion that there may be a rift between Russia and China. However, most of the people I've talked to discount this as wishful thinking, but they're certainly more talk of this now than there was 3 years ago when I was here.
One of the things that disturbs the people of Hong Kong is the fluctuating and changing American foreign policy. I’ve found a great deal of criticism and resentment here in the Far East of American foreign policy. Some have the idea that the bold and courageous statements our diplomats make are not backed up by our actions. There's the feeling on the part of many that we've not shown enough moral strength in dealing with the various crises in the Far East. There is also unanimous feeling everywhere that we made a tragic mistake when we did not win the Korean War. I also sensed in talking with people here that southeast Asia's rapidly coming under the influence of Communism, and that it may be only a question of time before most of Southeast Asia falls like a ripe plum into the Communist orbit.
Hong Kong is also a city of foreign intrigue. Communist representatives and spies are known to be everywhere. Nationalist China also has her representatives and spies here. There's a mixture of almost all the nations of the world. It all goes to make up one of the most cosmopolitan cities of romance, danger and intrigue in the entire world. It reminds me very much of Berlin: Berlin sitting in the middle of communist Germany is very much like the city of Hong Kong sitting here, jutting out from the Chinese mainland.
But there's another side to Hong Kong that is not immediately visible to a visitor. There are thousands of Christians within these 300-square-miles. Churches of almost every denomination are here, dominated by the Anglican church of Great Britain. There are Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians. During the past 3 or 4 years, there's been a renewed religious interest, and hundreds of people have been turning to Christ. Some of the finest Christian people that I've ever known are stalwart Chinese. Better, third and fourth generation Christians, their parents and grandparents and great grandparents were Christians, and they've had a great Christian heritage. I have a Chinese friend here in Hong Kong who is a wealthy businessman. His activities for Christ would put to shame the average Christian businessman in America. He spends half his time in his business, and the other half witnessing for Christ.
A united evangelistic campaign under the leadership of David Morken will soon get underway here, thousands of people already praying that a great spirit of revival will come to this city. This next week, the largest stadium in the city has been taken for our meeting, in which thousands are expected to attend. Since Hong Kong is at the crossroads of the Far East, missionaries and Christians gather here from all over the world. I met an elevator boy in the hotel, who had a big smile and said, “me Christian too.” A taxi cab driver pulled out from under his seat a Bible, and asked me to sign it. A Southern Baptist missionary told me that it is easier to win men to Christ in Hong Kong now than at any time in history. It is the same everywhere, ladies and gentleman. It seems that we're feeling a breath of God throughout the entire world.
There are 3 words that Jesus used that I want to give you today. First, Jesus said, “lift up your heads and look to the fields, for they are white unto harvest.” Joel once said, “put ye in the sickle while the harvest is ripe.” Certainly, we found in our travels at the harvest is ripe, in Great Britain, throughout the continent of Europe, throughout the United States. It is easier to win men to Christ today than at any time perhaps in history. We are sensing the same thing in India right here in the Far East. God is mightily working; thousands of people are turning to Christ. And it would seem that we're living at a moment in history, when both people are turning to God then it any time in history. This may be, as one missionary said, “the last days.” This may be the last breath of God, when he's calling out a people for his name in these lot of times, before the coming of Jesus Christ. We do not know whether that is true or not, but one thing we do know that there is a breath of God, and if there was ever a time that we should put everything we have into the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ around the world, it is today. And if we believe that the Gospel of Christ is the only answer to the transformation of individuals, if we believe that Christ and Christ alone can bring peace to the world, then we should pray, we should give, we should go. We should do everything we can to get this gospel out to the further must corners of the world. I've met American missionaries out here that are suffering privation. I've met American missionaries that a dedicated and surrendered to Christ, that would put some of you that are listening to shame by their dedication to God. They have come here to give all they can, in order to win these people to our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “look, I hope today that you look. That at you look upon India, that you look upon the Far East, that you look upon Africa, that you look upon South America, and that you may receive a missionary vision and a missionary challenge to do all in your power to get this gospel out.”
Secondly. Jesus said, “pray ye the Lord of the harvest.” No, you do not have family prayers, some of you do not. You do not pray regularly, you do not spend time before God, calling upon God to save other men. You yourself are a Christian, but you have failed in your prayer life these people out here need prayer. When I ask missionaries what they need most, they do not say money, they say prayer. Please get the people at home to pray for us, to intercede for us. I have determined by the grace of God that I shall never pray again, unless I pray for missionaries and for the work of God in these countries, where preaching the gospel is under such difficulties. I’m calling upon you people at home to pray for these people, as you've never prayed before. Some of you may be invalids, you could have a tremendous ministry prayer, if you would spend your time in prayer. You say that you're useless to the Kingdom of God, no you're not. You may be on a hospital bed, you may be an invalid in the home in a wheelchair, but you can pray for these people out here. You may not know their names but God knows them, and the Holy Spirit will take the groanings of your soul, and make them known to God the Father, and your prayers will be answered, way out here in the Far East if you spend time in prayer. Some of you suffer from insomnia, you cannot sleep at night, why don't you spend those hours that you cannot sleep in prayer for these people out here.
And then thirdly Jesus used the word “go,” he said, “go ye into all the world.” Would you say, “Billy, I cannot go. I'm too old. My circumstances will not allow me to go.” Yes, but you can go by your prayers. You can go by encouraging others. You can go by dedicating your children to missionary service. You can go by giving so that others can go. You can go by winning others who live next to you. Yes, you can go. You can obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. We've often thought that the Great Commission, “go ye into all the world and preach the gospel” applied only to the missionaries. It applies to every Christian. It applies to you. I'm asking you today to go. Go by your prayers. Go by dedicating your children. Go by giving so that others can. Go by winning people next door to you whom need Christ. Any Christian that is failing to obey this missionary challenge of Christ is failing in his Christian living. I'm asking you today to go. Now we need your prayers, as we continue our meetings in Manila, in Hong Kong, in Formosa, in Japan. I'm calling upon you to remember us in prayer, that God will give a great harvest of souls, and challenge some of these missionaries and pastors that have become discouraged. We need your prayers.
Now I'm also talking to men and women who do not even know what I'm talking about. You have never come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. You have never repented of your sins. You have never been born again. You have never had your life transformed by the power of the gospel. I'm asking you to give your life to Christ, as we've seen Indians, as we've seen people here in the Far East come and receive Christ. I'm asking you way back in America, 9000 miles away, to give your life to Jesus Christ today, and let him change you, and transform you, and make you a new person. Shall we pray, “our father now, God, enlarge our visions. We pray in Jesus’s name, that thou would speak to thousands of Christians in America. Help them to pray and give and go, so that Christ may be exalted throughout the earth. For we ask it in Jesus name, amen.”
What stands out now is this concept of America as a savior for Hong Kong. Beyond looking at what was problematic in what was said, is the impact these mass evangelism rallies caused for Christianity in Hong Kong. This coincided with a great increase in the population of Hong Kong after World War II due to the influx of refugees from mainland China.