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There’s no sign that current occupants or staff of the White House are familiar with the Christian Century. Our subscription service indicates no delivery of this magazine to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Among faith groups invited to the White House in the last couple years, conservative evangelical Christians appear to be the most frequent, and I suspect none of them is bringing along issues of the Century. Our pages don’t appear to be making the reading lists of the president or various cabinet members and staffers.
It hasn’t always been this way. We know from correspondence and historical reference that Presidents Ford, Carter, and Clinton read the magazine periodically. John F. Kennedy commented on it at least once in personal correspondence. And from tape transcripts of Richard Nixon’s presidency, we know that Nixon had an opinion of the magazine.
During a February 1972 Oval Office meeting, evangelist Billy Graham gave Nixon an earful about a pending postal rate hike. If the hike was enacted, Graham told the president, his own magazine would suffer a 700 percent increase in postal expenses. During that exchange, the conversation turned to other religious magazines.
