(UNDATED) Having spent his life in the limelight, Billy Graham’s final days are being lived out at his mountain retreat in relative seclusion, while down below there is a clamor to crown his successor. The very diversity, and frankly incompatibility, of the names mentioned thus far raise an important question: Just what are the qualifications for Billy’s successor? Certainly Graham’s most basic identifier is as an evangelist, a preacher of the good news. He’s a genuine cultural media celebrity, the “president’s pastor,” and a global statesman welcomed by heads of state. But who wants this “next Billy Graham” anyway? It seems a sad commentary on a culture when the best it can hope for is a new version of someone who fit the unique needs of a previous culture. Graham himself was more interested in perpetuating a brighter future than in a nostalgia for the past.

(Dick Staub is the author of “The Culturally Savvy Christian” and the host of The Kindlings Muse (http://www.thekindlings.com). His blog can be read at www.dickstaub.com)