Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

That Time Billy Graham Argued About God — With Woody Allen

You would be hard-pressed to find two men more different than Woody Allen and Billy Graham.

One is an extremely rich Jewish man. The other is an extremely rich Christian man.

One believes that you have to take the car for a test drive before buying it. The other believes that God outlawed premarital sex because of psychological trauma and venereal disease.

One married his adopted daughter. The other is never alone with any woman but his wife, a practice known as “The Billy Graham Rule” that many Christian men who definitely aren’t ruining our country, like Mike Pence, abide by religiously.

One is a target of feminist groups across America. The other believes that the domestic sphere is a woman’s true place.

One is a Jewish icon who has been accused of molesting his daughter. The other is a Christian icon who was once caught on tape agreeing with Richard Nixon that Jews control the American media.

Billy Graham passed away this morning at the age of 99. Let us celebrate his life by reuniting him once more with Woody Allen on the Internet.

Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.