June 28, 1998
GOOD, DECENT FOLK FLOCK TO SPECTACLE
By RON CORBETT -- Ottawa Sun
Bernice Avery, of Mallorytown, was the first person lined up to see Billy Graham the other day.
There was a hint of rain in the air that day, the doors of the Corel Centre would not open for another six hours, but there was Avery, sitting in a lawn chair, a small cooler behind her, waiting patiently to see the evangelist from North Carolina.
Now, you may think we're about to discuss religious fervor at this point, about to talk of the bug-eyed commitment to Billy Graham shown by a woman lining up at noon for a revival meeting that will not take place until that evening.
We are not. There was little of the bug-eyed fanatic to Bernice Avery, and because I came to see her as almost a symbol for all the people I met while walking around the Billy Graham Mission this weekend, I thought she would be a great place to begin.
For starters, I should tell you that when I introduced myself to Avery she laughed so hard she almost fell out of her lawnchair.
"I can't believe this. My husband said this was going to happen," she said while turning to her daughter, Debbie Crain, who was sitting in a lawnchair next to her. "Didn't he say that Debbie?"
"He certainly did," Crain answered.
"What did he say?" I asked, playing along.
"He said I was crazy to come down here so early. He said it was such a crazy idea, I'd probably end up being interviewed by a reporter."
"Your husband is prophetic," I said. "There's a lot of that going around I understand."
Avery laughed again. A sense of humor. I was getting intrigued. "Why exactly are you here so early, though? Are you praying or something?"
One more boisterous laugh.
"No, I'm here to get a good seat."
And it was true. Avery knew which sections of the Corel Centre were being occupied by the choir, knew exactly where she was going to go when the doors opened, wouldn't lose time going to the wrong section, figured she would have the best seat in the house by the time 7:30 rolled around and the show started.
Now, before you get the wrong impression here, Bernice Avery is a fine, upstanding Christian lady, she's not a gawker or anything, she attends church regularly in Mallorytown, wanted to see Graham when he was at his Syracuse Mission seven years ago, couldn't quite get the other church ladies organized to rent a bus though, it's a long story I'm told, and so she has come to see the evangelist in Ottawa.
With a cooler, a lawnchair and an adult daughter in tow who thinks the day promises to be a "blast."
Fanatics they weren't exactly.
Anyway, as I said, it seemed to me that Bernice Avery and her daughter were emblematic of many people who have come to the Billy Graham Mission these past three days. Decent, good-natured people with an anything-but-in-your-face faith.
The cynics and critics of this mission, and there is such a contingency, would argue that is exactly the problem. Billy Graham, they sneer, is religious pap to the masses. Look at the man's track record. You don't get to become a personal friend with 10 different American presidents without being a little, shall we say, user-friendly?
Commercialized religion. Hollywood evangelism. The opiate for the post-modern masses. The charges are there.
And yet -- outside the nagging worry that Billy Graham has now assembled, at the age of 79, the largest mailing list in the world -- I saw nothing at the Corel Centre this weekend to denigrate.
Only people. And faith.
Arlene Cutler -- who drove from Norway Bay and arrived at the Corel Centre before Marshy's even opened, because she was a "counsellor supervisor" and took her job seriously -- I found to be charming. We could have spoken all day.
Brian Fitzpatrick -- a civil servant, who went through the Billy Graham prayer schedule with me, explaining why it was a wise idea to bless everything from napkins to Jumbotron video screens, and maybe blessing certain entranceways in the federal government wouldn't be a bad idea -- I found to be one of the funniest people I've interviewed this month.
I could make a long list at this point. But I'll refrain.
Maybe Billy Graham does preach a gentle message. If you ask me, though, it appeals to the right people.