"As Graham’s ministry developed, he focused on outreach—often crossing lines of partisanship and doctrinal alignment. Graham was an admirer of Pope John XXIII, according to Martin, and visited Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. He would bring Catholic priests and liberal pastors on stage with him at crusades, said Laurie, sometimes causing a scandal among his fellow Southern Baptist pastors.
He was also firmly committed to remaining bipartisan, proudly claiming that he provided spiritual counsel to 12 sitting presidents and participated in events surrounding nine inauguration ceremonies. “Billy had great influence on people from every side of the aisle, politically,” said Jack Graham. “To me, he reminds us always that more important than partisan politics, more important than the political divisions that we have today, that Christ can unite us.” Even President Trump met Graham, before he won the White House: Laurie said the now-president sat with the preacher at Graham’s 95th birthday party.
Especially early in his ministry, however, Graham was sometimes hesitant to cross political lines, particularly over issues of race. Initially, he held segregated meetings where it was the local custom, wrote Martin in his biography of Graham, A Prophet With Honor, and he repudiated Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech: “Only when Christ comes again,” Graham said, “will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.” He also critiqued the techniques of civil-rights leaders: “Jim Crow must go,” he said in 1962, according to Martin, “but I am convinced that some extreme Negro leaders are going too far and too fast.”"
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/billy-graham-death/553850/
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