Revival and Jack Shuler

   When Billy Graham held his two-month long 1949 Greater Los Angeles crusade, he was not the only American evangelist  then preaching. In fact, some would say at that time perhaps the most popular evangelist was Jack Shuler. And had it not been for William Randolph Hearst1 and Graham’s organizational abilities,2 Shuler probably would have remained the main attraction through the 1950s.

   Few would argue that the forties and fifties saw a huge growth in the number of revivals and evangelists. As Kansas City journalist L. Prescott Platt said in 1952, “That a national revival is under way in America is made clear by statistics.” He then pointed to the huge growth in church membership and a jump in sales of Christian books, especially the Bible.

   In addition to these statistics, there were a large number of evangelists holding extended campaigns by the fifties. But the most successful ones were Billy Graham and Jack Shuler. These two were the ones journalist Platt concentrated on in his article.

   Shuler was holding a crusade in Kansas City at the time Platt wrote his article. He described Shuler’s approach as follows:

   “Shuler’s main attention-getting device is dramatics. He has studied dramatics and was offered a motion picture contract, but turned it down to do evangelistic work. One night he gave a sermon on David and Bathsheba, and acted out both parts with intensified facial expressions. On another occasion Shuler delivered a sermon on liquor and its evils. While speaking he had a liquor bottle before him. He backed up his views with statistics and brought the talk to a climactic ending by tossing the liquor bottle over his shoulder.”

   Platt concluded his article by quoting Billy Graham. “Today – July, 1952 – I feel that God has developed a super highway from this single trail of evangelism,” Graham said. “To me it is headed straight for a world revival."3
   To show how popular Shuler was in 1952 alone, an earlier June article on preparation for his crusade coming in August in Oregon gave some insight. "Jack Shuler of Los Angeles will conduct an evangelistic 'crusade' at McArthur Court beginning Aug. 3 for an indefinite period," it read.  "Shuler is nationally prominent as an evangelist. He recently returned from Anchorage, Alaska and is now conducting a union campaign in Rochester, New York. Before coming to Eugene in August he will hold a series of meetings in Houston, Tex., and Kansas City, Mo."4 

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[1] The power of the press, especially that of William Randolph Hearst's paper, no doubt influenced Graham’s popularity beginning with Youth for Christ. But it didn’t end there. In the 1949 Greater Los Angeles crusade, many have said that Hearst told his reporters to “puff Graham” meaning to write him up in the papers. And the rest is history.

   On the other hand, Shuler’s father, “Fighting Bob,” became a long-time enemy of Hearst. See Robert P. Shuler III, Fighting Bob Shuler of Los Angeles, 104f, 193f, 221, 240, 251-3. So there is little doubt that Hearst had no desire to promote one of “Fighting Bob’s” sons.

[2] Billy Graham saw a problem as early as 1948 during his Modesto, California crusade. The Sinclair Lewis book, Elmer Gantry, which became a best-seller when it came out in 1927, depicted traveling evangelists as unprincipled, immoral, greedy hucksters preying on innocent victims. Graham thought he needed to counter this image. He brought his team together.

   His team, consisting of Cliff Barrows, George Beverly Shea, and Grady Wilson, came up with four major problems among evangelists: first, money; second, sexual immorality; third, local church competition; and fourth, exaggerations in publicity.

   Graham attempted to resolve these problems by making all campaign finances public, never being alone in the same room with a woman, inviting churches to join his crusade and directing converts to join a local church, and complete honesty in crowd sizes and other statistics. He later incorporated these precautions when forming the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. See Billy Graham, Just As I Am, 127-129,

Jack Shuler attempted to be honest on his own in his handling of money, sexual temptations, church relations, and publicity. This had as much to do with his personality as anything else. He never joined Youth for Christ probably for the same reason. He figured he had been called by God and needed no overseeing from anyone else.

[3] The Southeast Missourian [Cape Girardeau, Missouri], July 16, 1952. 
[4] Eugene Register-Guard, May 17, 1952.