Allen Levi: Faces of Faith

Meaningful (and civilized) dialogue between adherents of different worldviews

In  researching a piece for another one of my blogs I came upon this gem of a dialogue between Billy Graham and Woody Allen.



A little background, Woody Allen was for a long time one of my favorite playwrights, actors, writers and directors.  I love his intellectual yet self depreacating humor.  I still think that Crimes and Misdemeanors is  a modern masterpiece telling the story of the power of sin and the need for redemption.



Billy Graham became a hero of mine as my Christian faith emerged and grew.  His love for otChrist, his family and others has had adeep impact on my life and ministry.



When I was in college I got this crazy idea of hosting a talk show.  It was the late eighties and David Letterman with his viewr mail, stupid pet tricks and other goofiness was my inspiration.  I planned the show to be a hybrid between letterman and a faith based talk show like the 700 club.  I imagined  that my first gueat would be Billy Graham. On my show  I planned to intersperse regular questions with unusual ones.  So with Billy, I'd be like tell me about your crusades, then I'd follow it up with Do you fish?  How often do you fish?  That sort of thing.  This interview between Allen and Graham  has some of that spirit to it that I would have liked to bring to my own talk show.









I really enjoy the good humor they both bring to this conversation without abandoning their own  positions.  It's hard to think of the late 60's as a simpler time, however I think as far as public discourse goes this is so much better than the soundbites, barbs and gotchas that predominate these days.