BILLY GRAHAM AGAIN TELLS NIXON ABOUT THE “SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN” IN NEW (OCTOBER 2022) WHITE HOUSE TAPE RELEASE

De-classified Conversation Adds to An Already-Disturbing Pattern

TODAY (10/05/2022) THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES RELEASED another once-redacted portion of a telephone conversation between then-President Richard Nixon and evangelist Billy Graham which adds new detail to what was a series of discussions between the two about Jews and Satan.

As on two other previously-released White House recordings, the evangelist spoke to Nixon — a notorious anti-Semite — about two kinds of Jews, including what Graham viewed as an evil kind associated with a “Synagogue of Satan.” As in earlier rounds of this discussion, Graham blamed the evil Jews with various social destructiveness, including control of the media and production of pornography. Unlike those conversations, in this one the evangelist extends the range of the evil Jews to include “left wingers” and “revolutionaries.”

This phone conversation took place June 9, 1971. At the time, Graham was in Chicago, roughly three-quarters through one of his trademark city-wide Crusades. Nixon placed the call to the evangelist, the ostensible reason being that he wanted to touch base about Graham’s plans for the upcoming wedding of the President’s daughter, Tricia. Graham confirmed that he would take a break from his Chicago meetings and fly to the wedding, then fly back. Graham then shifted the conversation to an incident at the Crusade the night before. A group of “Yippies” had apparently staged a disturbance, which was peacefully contained by a group of “Jesus People.”

For some people, it may well be that the most shocking part of this conversation is when America’s Pastor, in describing the kinds of things the Yippies shouted during the meeting, can be heard telling the President that “They were calling Jesus ‘motherfucker’ and all that sort of thing.”

Yet there are more significant concerns with this particular tape release.

Nixon was still repeating his defense against ongoing criticisms of his administration’s handling of recent protests in Washington, D.C.

Graham expressed relief that his audience hadn’t taken the disturbance at the Crusade into their own hands or things would have gotten ugly. As it was, his people were throwing punches — including at the Yippie who the evangelist says was knocked unconscious for twenty-minutes. Graham reiterated his sense that with the religious awakening he had seen among young people, a culture in turmoil was now taking a turn for the better.

As Nixon kept the conversation returning to the protests in D.C., his Administration’s handling of these, the massive criticism, and the President’s response , the discussion turned to The Media and perceived biases that had clearly already been a subject for discussion between the two men. In an earlier-released and infamous anti-Semitic conversation, Nixon (on a recording made in February 1972) was heard leading the discussion from The Media to The Jews. Graham was generally interpreted as giving nodding agreement in what many preferred to believe was a passive role. But this conversation takes place eight months prior to that, and it is clear that Graham is the one leading discussion on that topic here.

GRAHAM: And they all come from one group.

NIXON: I know.

GRAHAM: You look at their names

NIXON: I know. Well, it’s — the whole thing is a Jewish group.

GRAHAM: Well, you see the Bible teaches that there is the Synagogue of Satan. In other words, there are two groups. There is the group in Israel that are going back — they don’t know why they’re going back, but they’re going back driven by God because I believe we’re getting toward the end of things. And then there’s the second group that the Bible calls the “Synagogue of Satan,” and it’s that crowd that puts out all of your literature, pornographic literature. They’re the ones that are the left wingers. They’re the revolutionary leaders. They’re the ones that control the media.

NIXON: Incidentally, do you think I should have been rougher on the press?

From this point, the June 9, 1971 phone conversation between Nixon and Graham bounces back to more friendly media and ends shortly thereafter.

The story of the incident at the Crusade would go on to become the stuff of Graham-organization legend, repeated in sermons, articles, interviews, and books for the next half-century. The way that Billy Graham would come to tell the story, however, the Yippies would fade and the disturbance would end up being blamed solely on “Satan Worshipers.” There is much more to that story, which I have been investigating for several years for my dissertation work. I’ve tracked down and interviewed a range of participants on all sides of the events at the Crusade, meanwhile ushering my request for this telephone conversation through the de-classification process at the National Archives.

It seemed important to share this part of the story right away.

As a part of my ongoing research, I posted a piece on an earlier de-classified conversation between Graham and Nixon back in 2018. That piece includes more on the anti-Semitic conversations between Nixon and Graham, the history of the slow revelation of these to the public, some background on the “Synagogue of Satan” in history and in the history of Christian antisemitism — and the tragic legacy of spreading those ancient slanders.