Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Billy Graham

 
Who2 Biography: Billy Graham, Evangelist
Billy Graham
Billy Graham
Click to enlarge

  • Born: 7 November 1918
  • Birthplace: Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Best Known As: Globetrotting "crusade" preacher and friend of presidents

Name at birth: William Franklin Graham, Jr.

One of the best-known Christian evangelists of the 20th century, Billy Graham gained world attention in 1949 with a tent revival in downtown Los Angeles that was scheduled for three weeks and lasted six. In the ensuing decades, "Billy Graham Crusades" consistently drew audiences of thousands to arenas and stadiums throughout the world. He founded an association that continues those and other ministries, including an "Hour of Decision" radio program, televised crusades, a newspaper column, Decision magazine and films. Graham consulted and prayed with every U.S. president from Dwight Eisenhower to George Bush the younger -- a fact that solidified his popular status as the nation's preacher but also opened him to criticism. At the same time, his ministry remained free of the financial and sexual scandals that marred the careers of prominent contemporaries such as Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart.

Graham made his "commitment to Christ" at age 16 through the ministry of a traveling evangelist, Mordecai Ham... He was ordained as a Southern Baptist and pastored one congregation (First Baptist Church, Western Springs, Ill.), but the rest of his ministry was deliberately nondenominational... He and Ruth McCue Bell met as students at Weaton (Ill.) College and were married in 1943, the year he graduated. They had five children: Virginia (born 1945), Anne (b. 1948), Ruth (b. 1950), William Franklin III (b. 1952), and Nelson (b. 1958). The elder son, known as Franklin, has emerged as the likely successor in his father's ministry, although popular culture remains undecided as to who will be the next "great American evangelist"... Graham was a co-founder of Christianity Today magazine.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Biography: William Franklin Graham, Jr.
Top

The American evangelist and charismatic preacher Billy Graham (born 1918) became a leading spokesman for Fundamentalism when he initiated a series of tours of the United States and Europe that led to large-scale evangelism.

William Franklin Graham, Jr. was born November 7, 1918, on a dairy farm near Charlotte, N.C. which his paternal grandfather Crook Graham bought after serving in the Confederate army. Young Billy would read from his collection of history books. He also practiced baseball when finished with his chores, because and his ambition was to become a professional baseball player. It was changed into a commitment to an evangelical career by a religious conversion experience when he was 16. Graham was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1939. He was educated in conservative Christian colleges: Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., the Florida Bible Institute (now called Trinity College) near Tampa, and Wheaton College in Illinois where receiving a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology in 1943. On August 13 of that year he married Ruth McCue Bell, a fellow student and daughter of a medical missionary. Their first daughter, Virginia, was born two years later, followed by Anne in 1948, Ruth in 1950, and sons William in 1952 and Nelson in 1958. For many years the Graham family made its home in Montreat, N.C.

After a period as minister of the First Baptist Church in Western Springs, IL, Graham became a traveling "tent evangelist," the calling which in a few years brought him to national prominence.

Graham was first vice president of Youth for Christ International from 1945 to 1948. He served as president of Northwestern College in Minneapolis from 1947 to 1952. He met singer George Beverly Shea and song leader Cliff Barrows and the three formed a lasting partnership. The three began offering revival meetings in small churches and started developing a following. In 1949, Graham, Shea, and Barrows had a meeting in Los Angeles and rather than the usual crowd of 3,000 or so, more than 10,000 turned out to hear the backwoods preacher and his team. He was the founder and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and editor in chief of Decision magazine. The organization is run by a board of directors that pays Graham an annual salary equivalent to that of a community pastor. The first year it amounted to $15,000. Today, the institute has a cash flow of more than $50 million a year. His radio program, "Hour of Decision," began in 1950, and he wrote a daily newspaper column. Graham's published writings include Calling Youth to Christ (1947), Revival in Our Times (1950), America's Hour of Decision (1951), Korean Diary (1953), My Answer (1960), and World Aflame (1965). Graham turns over all the royalties from his books and all his speaking fees.

Graham launched his worldwide ministry with his first overseas tour in 1954 to Great Britain. Crowds of more than two million people attended his rallies. He even met with Queen Elizabeth II. At a 16-week rally in New York City three years later, more than two million packed Madison Square Gardens to hear the young preacher. Graham has preached the Gospel to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history totaling more than 210 million people in more than 185 countries and territories. Since his crusades began his work has propelled him to more than 400 rallies in nearly every corner of the world. He conducts an average of six crusades a year in the United States and abroad. In the mid-1950s Graham took his crusade to India, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. He has also been to Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Seoul, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, filling jam-packed churches and meeting with government and religious leaders wherever he travels.

Graham's Message

Graham's message has remained the same and is based on traditional Biblical study. It is simply this: "Choose Christ as I did. Mankind is sinful, but through Christ those sins are forgiven and people can live in peace." In other words, this is a message of love and hope. Graham has been friends with many world figures, especially the presidents starting with Harry Truman who sought advice from Graham and Richard Nixon was a frequent golf partner. On April 9, 1996, together with President William Clinton, he led 12,000 mourners in Oklahoma City to grieve for victims of the Federal Building bombing. Graham has been the chaplain at many Inaugural Ceremonies; in fact his eighth Inauguration invocation in January 1997 was inspired by our Founding Fathers, noting that "technology and social engineering had yet to solve the ancient problems of human greed and selfishness." Graham has maintained an untouchable integrity, unlike Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker who were involved in sex and money scandals that ruined their careers.

Prodigal Son To Take Over

Graham has decided that when he retires or dies his son Franklin will take over his $88 million-a-year ministry. The younger Graham, who continually rebelled against his father as a teenager and was expelled from college, was a "heck-raiser" as a boy, has long since gone straight. He now runs two world relief organizations, and has done some preaching. It has been said that Franklin does not have the presence of his father and will not be able to replicate the senior Graham's impact on American Protestantism. Graham, in his seventies, shows no sign of slowing down regardless of his advancing illness, Parkinson's disease. It will eventually take away his ability to feed himself or even button his clothes. He walks with difficulty now and can write only his name, but he still has enough energy to work on his memoirs. Ruth, Graham's wife, "never slows down." Her presence and vitality have helped ease the frustration brought on by his illness. Together, Ruth and Billy have three daughters, two sons, 19 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Graham states that "I don't see anybody in Scripture retiring from preaching," and along with Pope John Paul II, who also has Parkinson's Disease, keeps chugging along.

The Cove

One of Graham's dreams was to build a training center to serve as a retreat for religious evangelists. It is located in Asheville, NC. In 1997, 30 seminars will be taught, featuring biblically grounded speakers. Cove seminars help those attend to Grow in God's Word, gain a deeper understanding of God, take time for personal renewal, and acquire tools for stronger Christian walk.

Graham Archives

The Archives of the Billy Graham Center are located at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. They contain many collections with documents relating to African Christianity. Most of these contain the work of North American missionaries or evangelists in Africa, though there is a substantial amount of material documenting the activities and beliefs of African churches, leaders, and quasi-ecclesiastical organizations. Most of the records are twentieth century and about seventy-five percent are concerned with east or central Africa.

Graham has received numerous awards from various institutions and organizations, including honorary doctorates from Baylor University, the Citadel, and William Jewell College. He received the Barnard Baruch Award in 1955; Humane Order of African Redemption, 1960; gold award of the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute, 1963; Horatio Alger Award, 1965; Franciscans International Award, 1972; Man of the South Award, 1974; Liberty Bell Award, 1975; Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, 1982; and the William Booth Award of the Salvation Army, 1989.

Graham's crusades have taken him to all the major cities of the United States and Europe and to such far-off areas as North Africa, India, and Australia. Although basically a fundamentalist in his theology, individualistic in his religious and ethical approach, and traditional in his appeal, he always sought and obtained a broad base of ecumenical support for his evangelistic campaigns. Graham brought evangelism to a new level of sophistication in organization, techniques, support, and prestige. Graham once stated that "It seems to me that the whole world, regardless of culture and religious tradition, is searching for something spiritual." The most important thing that counts (for Graham) is what happens in the hearts of men." Graham is the most respectable symbol of American evangelicalism.

Further Reading

The official biography of Graham is John C. Pollock, Billy Graham: The Authorized Biography (1966). Other helpful biographical studies include William G. McLoughlin, Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age (1960), Curtis Mitchell, Billy Graham: The Making of a Crusader (1966), The Reader's Companion to American History (1997), Gospel Communications Network (GCN), Time Daily (Nov. 95), and People (1997).


(born Nov. 7, 1918, Charlotte, N.C., U.S.) U.S. Christian evangelist. The son of a dairy farmer, he underwent a conversion experience at age 16 during a revival. After attending Bob Jones College and the Florida Bible Institute, he was ordained a Southern Baptist clergyman in 1940. He later earned a degree in anthropology from Wheaton College. He won numerous converts with his tent revivals and radio broadcasts, and by 1950 he had become fundamentalism's leading spokesman. He led a series of widely televised international revival crusades through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis, Minn., and he enjoyed close associations with a series of U.S. presidents. Graham and his wife, Ruth, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1996.

For more information on Billy Graham, visit Britannica.com.

US History Companion: Graham, Billy
Top

(1918- ), preacher and evangelist. Perhaps no figure is more fixed in popular consciousness as the embodiment of conservative Protestantism in the twentieth century than William Franklin ("Billy") Graham. His evangelistic crusades around the world, his television appearances and radio broadcasts, his friendships with presidents, and his unofficial role as spokesman for America's evangelicals have made him one of the most recognized religious figures of his time.

Graham, born near Charlotte, North Carolina, went to a revival service in 1934 and there experienced a religious conversion that shaped the direction of his life. After attending Bob Jones University, a hotbed of fundamentalism, he transferred to Florida Bible Institute near Tampa, where he became a Southern Baptist and began to develop the perspicuous and persuasive preaching style for which he would become famous. He then went to Wheaton College in Illinois, where he continued his preaching and enlarged his circle of evangelical contacts. Upon graduation, he skipped seminary, became pastor of a small congregation in Chicago, and started a weekly radio program. In 1946, Graham joined the staff of Youth for Christ and embarked on his evangelistic campaigns.

He conducted a successful Los Angeles crusade in 1949, which brought him national attention, in no small measure because newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, impressed with his preaching and his virulent anticommunist rhetoric, instructed his papers to "puff Graham." If the Los Angeles campaign made him a celebrity, his New York City crusade in 1957, which filled Madison Square Garden for four months, defined his place within the evangelical subculture. To many of the more militant fundamentalists, Graham's willingness to cooperate with mainline Protestant clergy was an act of betrayal. Indeed, throughout his career, Graham's refusal to be sectarian placed him at odds with many who regarded him as a liberal.

By any reasonable standard, of course, Graham has been no liberal, either theologically or politically. He has preached all the tenets of evangelical orthodoxy, including the necessity of spiritual rebirth and the expectation of an imminent apocalypse as predicted in the book of Revelation. His well-publicized friendships with American presidents have nudged him into the political arena, although, with one exception, he has stopped short of making endorsements. The exception turned out to be a major embarrassment: Richard Nixon in 1972, the year of the Watergate scandals. Since then, Graham has shied away from politics, although he has spoken occasionally in favor of nuclear disarmament.

Throughout his career, Graham's appeal lay in his forceful preaching and a simple, homespun message that harks back to Charles Grandison Finney: repent of your sins, accept Christ as savior, and you shall be saved. Behind that simple message, however, stood a sophisticated organization, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which provided extensive advance work and a follow-up program for converts. During the 1980s, when other television preachers were embroiled in sensational scandals, Graham remained above the fray.

For millions of American evangelicals, Graham is a kind of elder statesman and an exemplar of both Christian piety and ethical propriety. To the public, he is the most respectable symbol of American evangelicalism.

Bibliography:

Marshall Frady, Billy Graham: A Parable of American Righteousness (1979); William G. McLoughlin, Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age (1960).

Author:

Randall Balmer

See also Evangelicalism; Religion.


 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Billy Graham
Top
Graham, Billy (William Franklin Graham) (grā'əm), 1918-, American evangelist, b. Charlotte, N.C., grad. Wheaton College (B.A., 1943). Graham was ordained a minister in the Southern Baptist Church (1939), was the pastor of a Chicago church (his first and last pastorate), and in 1944 became an evangelist for the American Youth for Christ movement. In 1949 he received national attention for an extended evangelical campaign in Los Angeles. He subsequently made preaching tours (for which he popularized the term "crusade") in most major U.S. cities and in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, Australia, and Russia. His reputation made him a favored guest among politicians and presidents. Graham, who in his preaching has consistently stressed personal conversion and scriptural authority, is identified with the conservative Protestant movement known as neo-evangelicalism (see fundamentalism) and is to a large degree responsible for establishing it as part of the American mainstream. He is also the co-founder of the journal Christianity Today. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association, founded in the early 1950s, publishes Decision magazine and produces programs for radio, television, and screen. Graham retired as head of the association in 2000; Franklin Graham, his son, succeeded him as its leader. Billy Graham held his final crusade in 2004.

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Just as I Am (1997); biographies by W. C. McLaughlin (1960), M. Frady (1979), and W. Martin (1991); study by S. P. Miller (2009).

History Dictionary: Graham, Billy
Top

An American evangelist of the twentieth century. Graham began conducting religious revivals in the 1940s and calls his meetings, which he has held around the world, Crusades for Christ.

Quotes By: Billy Graham
Top

Quotes:

"America's founding fathers did not intend to take religion out of education. Many of the nation's greatest universities were founded by evangelists and religious leaders; but many of these have lost the founders concept and become secular institutions. Because of this attitude, secular education is stumbling and floundering."

"I've read the last page of the Bible. It's all going to turn out all right."

"God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with."

"Everybody has a little bit of Watergate in him."

"The men who followed Him were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same."

"No man ever loved like Jesus. He taught the blind to see and the dumb to speak. He died on the cross to save us. He bore our sins. And now God says, Because He did, I can forgive you."

See more famous quotes by Billy Graham

Artist: Rev. Billy Graham
Top

Similar Artists:

Influenced By:

Homer Rodeheaver

Formal Connection With:

  • Active: '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Gospel
  • Instrument: Main Performer, Performer, Text
  • Representative Albums: "Billy Graham Crusade," "Passing the Baton," "Billy Graham: Words That Will Live Forever"

Biography

There are those who would deny the Reverend Billy Graham any place at all in the history of commercial recordings, if only he because he has railed against rock and roll, possibly even prompting mobs to ignite a few Beatles albums after John Lennon made fun of Jesus Christ. There would still be plenty of stuff to stockpile in used record stores even if rock and roll had never happened, however, and some of it would have the good Reverend's name and face on it. To be fair, the entertainment medium that he took the greatest advantage of was television--his specialty was the sermon and his backers seemed to feel Graham came across best when his visual image was present, especially in an actual live tent meeting.

Performers from the white gospel scene did not, as a rule, embrace the kind of vibrant rhythm and blues structures that are part of the black gospel environment. The natural route to go as a so-called "honkie" was country and western and bluegrass, but interestingly enough Graham supposedly detested the genre, an aesthetic he shares with jazz bandleader Buddy Rich if not many of fellow evangelists. For decades Graham sermons were pressed on album and cassette for radio syndication and sale to his faithful following, but it wasn't until the new millenium that lavish sets collecting old and new performances began competing for space in the Christian music record rack. The dignified voice of Graham has featured in a recording of Haydn's "Seven Last Words of Christ". A somewhat less dignified side of the man appears on a declassified White House recording of he and former President Richard Nixon running down Jews and Afro-Americans. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Billy Graham
Top
Dr. Billy Graham

Billy Graham, April 4, 1966.
Born November 7, 1918 (1918-11-07) (age 91)
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Residence Walhalla, South Carolina, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Evangelist
Religious beliefs Baptist
Spouse(s) Ruth Graham (m. 1943–2007) «start: (1943)–end+1: (2008)»"Marriage: Ruth Graham to Billy Graham" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham)
Signature
Website
BillyGraham.org

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr., (born November 7, 1918), is an American evangelist and an Evangelical Christian. He has been a spiritual adviser to multiple United States presidents[1] and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 21st century. He is a Southern Baptist.[2][3] He rose to celebrity status due to his sermons being broadcast on radio and television.

Graham has preached in person to more people around the world than any other Protestant in history.[4] According to his staff, as of 1993 more than 2.5 million people had "stepped forward at his crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior".[5] As of 2008, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.[4]

Contents

Early life

Born on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, Billy Graham was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents, Morrow Coffey and William Franklin Graham. In 1933, when Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced Graham and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they vomited, which created a lifelong aversion, in both of them, to alcohol and drugs.[5] According to the Billy Graham Center, Billy Graham was converted in 1934 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte which were led by evangelist Mordecai Ham.[6] However, he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly."[5] He was persuaded to go see Ham at the urging of one of the employees on the Graham farm.[7]

Part of a series on
Southern Baptists

Background

Christianity
Protestantism
Anabaptists
General Baptists,
Strict Baptists
& Reformed Baptists
Landmarkism
"Conservative Resurgence"


Baptist theology

London Confession, 1689
New Hampshire Confession, 1833
Baptist Faith & Message


Doctrinal distinctives

Biblical inerrancy
Autonomy of the local church
Priesthood of believers
Two ordinances
Individual soul liberty
Separation of church and state
Two offices


People
Deceased

E. Y. Mullins | James P. Boyce
John A. Broadus | A. T. Robertson
John Spilsbury
Lottie Moon · Annie Armstrong
B. H. Carroll
W. A. Criswell ·
Monroe E. Dodd
Adrian Rogers ·
Jerry Falwell, Sr.

Living

Mark Dever · James T. Draper, Jr.
Billy Graham ·
Franklin Graham
Duke K. McCall
Jack Graham ·
Richard Land
Mike Huckabee ·
Johnny Hunt
James Merritt ·
Albert Mohler
Paige Patterson ·
Pat Robertson
Charles F. Stanley
Rick Warren


Related organizations

Cooperative Program
North American Mission Board
International Mission Board
LifeWay Christian Resources
Women's Missionary Union
Religious Liberty Commission
Baptist Press
Canadian Convention


Seminaries

Golden Gate
Midwestern
New Orleans
Southeastern
Southern
Southwestern

After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College (now Bob Jones University), then located in Cleveland, Tennessee, for one semester but found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules.[5] At this time, he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was almost expelled, but Bob Jones, Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily."[5] In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida) on the site of today's Florida College in Temple Terrace, Florida. In his autobiography he writes that he "received [his] calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club," which is immediately in front of today's Sutton Hall at Florida College in Temple Terrace. A Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park is today located on the Hillsborough River directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would preach to the birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. Graham eventually graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois with a degree in anthropology, in 1943. It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to take the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue, which was settled at Forest Home Christian camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California. A memorial there marks the site of Graham's decision.

Family

On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell (1920–2007), whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China, where her father, L. Nelson Bell, was a general surgeon. He met Ruth at Wheaton: "I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth thought that he "wanted to please God more than any man I'd ever met."[8] They married two months after graduation and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat, North Carolina.[5] Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at age 87, 4 days after Ruth's final birthday. They have five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham Tchividjian (b. 1945); Anne Graham Lotz (b. 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (b. 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends); Franklin Graham (b. 1952; administers an international relief organization called Samaritan's Purse and will be his father's successor at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association);[9] and Nelson "Ned" Graham (b.1958; a pastor who runs East Gates International,[10] which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Ministry

Beginning

He transferred in January 1937 from Bob Jones College to Florida Bible Institute (now Florida College) in Temple Terrace, Florida, from which he graduated in 1940 with a BTh (Bachelor of Theology degree). Florida Bible Institute later relocated and became Trinity College (Florida) in Trinity, Florida.

Graham attended Wheaton College from 1939 to 1943, when he graduated with a BA in anthropology.[11] While attending college, he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.

Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called "Songs in the Night," Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945. He served as president of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1947, and at age 30 was, and continues to hold the distinction of being, the youngest person to serve as a sitting college president.

Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces, but shortly after applying for a commission he came down with a severe case of mumps that ended that plan. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International which was co-founded by Torrey Johnson and evangelist Charles Templeton. He traveled throughout the United States and Europe as an evangelist for YFCI. Unlike many evangelists then and now, Graham had little formal theological training; he turned down offers to attend Princeton Theological Seminary.[5]

Hearst intervention

Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot.[4] The Los Angeles revival is considered to be the time when Graham became a national religious figure.[12] Graham's rise to national prominence is due in part to the assistance he received from news mogul William Randolph Hearst, whose interest in Graham was that he respected Graham for being his own person and following what he believed, though the two never met.[13] Most observers believe that Hearst appreciated Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth, and thought that Graham would be helpful in promoting Hearst's conservative anti-communist views.[13][14] Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Billy Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.[5][2]

The result of the increased media exposure from Hearst's newspaper chain and national magazines[13] caused the crusade event to run for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Henry Luce put him on the cover of TIME in 1954. At the Los Angeles revival, a fellow evangelist accused Graham of setting religion back 100 years. Graham replied, "I did indeed want to set religion back, not just 100 years but 1,900 years, to the Book of Acts, when first century followers of Christ were accused of turning the Roman Empire upside down."[7]

Crusades

Billy Graham has conducted many evangelistic crusades since 1948. He began this form of ministry in 1947 and continued until recently. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. He arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir and then preached the gospel and invited people to come forward. These people, called inquirers, were then given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a counselor who clarified any questions the inquirer may have had and would pray with that person. The inquirers were often given resources, such as a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in his audience came forward upon his request.[5]

Graham was offered a five-year, $5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals due to his pre-arranged commitments.[8] Graham had missions in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden, in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks. In 1959, he also led his first crusade, which was in Australia.

Graham served as the president of Northwestern College, in Minnesota, from 1948 to 1952. He founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950, headquartered in Minneapolis. The association later relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:

  • Hour of Decision, a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years
  • Mission television specials that are regularly broadcast in prime time in almost every market in the U.S. and Canada
  • A newspaper column, My Answer, carried by newspapers across the United States
  • Decision magazine, the official publication of the Association
  • Founded Christianity Today in 1956 with Carl F.H. Henry as its first editor
  • Passageway.org, the website for a forthcoming children's program created by BGEA
  • World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 productions

Graham opposed segregation during the 1960s and refused to speak to segregated auditoriums, once dramatically tearing down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience.[7][15] Graham said, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation.... The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross."[7] Graham paid bail money to secure the release of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from jail during the 1960s civil rights struggle; he invited King to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City in 1957.[15] During that 16-week stint, Graham was heard by 2.3 million listeners, who gathered to hear him at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square.[4]

Later years

Graham with son Franklin at Cleveland Stadium, June 1994

During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace.[16] During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government finally allowed attending audiences to sit desegregated. His first crusade there was in 1973, during which he openly denounced apartheid.

Billy Graham in het Feyenoord stadion.ogg
Billy Graham at the Feyenoord-stadion in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (30 June 1955)

In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.

At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted one million people to a single service.[8] He appeared in China in 1988—for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.[7]

In 1998, Graham spoke at TED (conference) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers.

On September 14, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Graham led a prayer and remembrance service at Washington National Cathedral, which was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.[7] On June 24, 2005, Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade, at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City. But on the weekend of March 11–March 12, 2006. Billy Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health. He has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer. In August 2005, a frail Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker to assist with mobility during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, Graham spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Until a June 13, 2007 press release saying that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, there had been controversy over where the burial place would be. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried, not in Charlotte, but in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice.[17] Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site.[17] At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.

On August 18, 2007, Graham, 88, was in fair condition in Mission Health & Hospitals in Asheville, North Carolina, after undergoing treatment for intestinal bleeding, but his condition was not life-threatening.[18]

Billy Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including Mission World and Global Mission. Graham has also reached hundreds of millions more through television, video, film, and webcasts.[19]

Politics

Politically, Graham is and has been a registered member of the Democratic Party.[20] He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon.[13] He has not completely allied himself with the religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party.[5] He does not openly endorse political candidates, but he has given his support to some over the years.[13]

He refused to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."[7]

According to a 2006 Newsweek interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel.... When Newsweek asked Graham whether ministers—whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both—should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'".[21]

Pastor to presidents

President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan greet Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast of 1981

Graham has had a personal audience with every sitting United States President from Harry S Truman to Barack H Obama. He visited in the Oval Office with Truman in 1950, urging him to counter communism in North Korea. However, Graham and his accompanying pastors were not aware of Washington protocol; they appeased the press corps waiting outside with details of the visit, with the three pastors even acquiescing to the calls of the press to kneel on the White House lawn, as if praying.[13] This led to Truman calling Graham a "counterfeit" publicity seeker, and Truman did not speak to Graham for years afterward.[5][13] Graham has often told the story, usually as a warning that he would not reveal his conversations with world leaders.[13] Graham became a regular in the Oval Office during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he urged to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine,[5] and it was at that time, on a Washington golf course, that he met and became close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon.[13] Eisenhower asked to see Graham on his deathbed.[22] Graham also counseled Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and the Bush family.[12]

The single notable exception among modern presidents is John F. Kennedy, with whom Graham golfed but Kennedy was Roman Catholic;[23] Graham enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and prominently supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.[5] Nixon wrote to Graham after that election: "I have often told friends that when you went into the ministry, politics lost one of its potentially greatest practitioners."[5] Graham spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.[22]

After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham was an adviser, visiting the White House and leading some of the private church services that the President organized there.[13] Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel in a meeting they had with Golda Meir, but Graham turned down Nixon's offer.[5] Nixon appeared at one of Graham's revivals in East Tennessee in 1970; the event drew one of the largest crowds to ever gather in Tennessee.[13] Nixon became the first President to give a speech from an evangelist's platform.[13] However, their friendship became strained when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes; they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation.[13] Graham announced at that time, "I'm out of politics."[7]

After a special law was passed on his behalf, Graham was allowed to conduct the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building in 1952.[5] When Graham was hospitalized briefly in 1976, three Presidents called in one day to wish him well: former President Nixon, current President Ford and President-elect Carter.[22]

He was one of Reagan's personal guests at his inauguration and gave the benediction at George H. W. Bush's inauguration.[22] He stayed at the White House the night before George H. W. Bush (who called Graham "America's pastor") launched the Persian Gulf War.[12] Two days before the 2000 presidential election, Graham spoke at a prayer breakfast in Florida with George W. Bush in attendance. At a New York revival in 2005, Bill Clinton recalled how he had attended Graham's revival as a boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.[7]

Graham has officiated one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated the funeral service of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993[5] and the funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994. He was unable to officiate the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, because of recent double hip replacement surgery, which former President George H. W. Bush acknowledged during his eulogy. Graham had been Reagan's first choice. Because of his hospitalization, the Reverend John Danforth, a Missouri Republican Senator during Reagan's tenure, officiated the funeral. Failing health prevented Graham from officiating at the state funeral of Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007, as well as the funeral of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in July 2007.

Foreign policy views

Graham has been outspoken against communism and supportive of U.S. Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. However, in a 1999 speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung, praising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese." Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and current North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, he had "exchanged gifts with him."[24] Graham has given a globe surmounted with doves to the North Korean Friendship Museum.

During a March 12, 1991 CBS broadcast of Billy Graham's Long Island, New York crusade, Graham said in reference to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, "As our President, President Bush, has said, it is not the people of Iraq we are at war with. It is some of the people in that regime. Pray for peace in the Middle East, a just peace."[25] Graham had earlier said that "there come times when we have to fight for peace." He went on to say that out of the war in the Gulf may "come a new peace and, as suggested by the President, a new world order."[26]

Controversy

Discussion of Jews with Nixon

In 2002, declassified "Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to President Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon.[27] These remarks were characterized as anti-Semitic by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League [15] and evangelical author Richard Land.[28]

When the tapes were publicly released, Graham stated, "[A]lthough I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made... They do not reflect my views, and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks,"[29] and "If it wasn't on tape, I would not have believed it. I guess I was trying to please... I went to a meeting with Jewish leaders and I told them I would crawl to them to ask their forgiveness."[30] According to Newsweek magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews."[30]

In 2009 fresh tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and "the synagogue of Satan." However, a spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an anti-Semite and that the remarks should be understood in context, as part of a conversation with the president.[31]

Moral leadership

Graham, along with associates whom he called the "Team", created in 1948 what one of them called, "The Modesto Manifesto", because they produced it in Modesto, California. They decided among themselves to avoid certain problems that gave evangelists a bad name. The first item on the list was a matter of money, to which Graham was sensitive, because of the practices of some unscrupulous evangelists. (The "manifesto" proceeded to note the dangers of sexual immorality, criticism of local churches, and exaggerated publicity.).[32][33][33][34]

Finances

In 1977, the Charlotte Observer published a story intimating that Graham's ministry had a secret stash of $22 million and that Graham had ties to organized crime.[35] However, the story proved groundless, and Graham was shown to take a small salary; the $22 million was not secret and was in fact a fund to create a Bible college in Asheville, North Carolina.[35] Graham has been careful to take reasonable compensation far below what other television evangelists would later receive.

Awards and honors

Graham has frequently been honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world.[8] Between 1950 and 1990, he appeared most frequently on Gallup's list of most admired people.[36] The United States Postal Service has said that Graham is one of the few Americans, along with the current President, who can be delivered mail that simply reads his name and the country: "Billy Graham, America."[36]

He has received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan, America's highest civilian honors.[36] President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole awarded Graham the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the US Capitol in 1996.[37] In December 2001, he was presented with an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for his international contributions to civic and religious life over 60 years.

In 1971, Graham's hometown of Charlotte held "Billy Graham Day" at which President Nixon made an appearance.[13] On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to give the pre-race invocation at the Indianapolis 500. On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham.[38][39] A highway in Charlotte also bears Graham's name.[17] In addition, in 1986, Graham was given North Carolina's highest honor, the North Carolina Award, for public service.[40]

In 2000, Former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years.[41]

Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham.[37]

In 1971, Graham received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. After the Nixon tapes were released, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called for Graham to return the award.[15] He was honored by the American Jewish Committee with its National Interreligious Award for his efforts on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations; the committee called him one of the century's greatest Christian friends of Jews.[15]

For providing a platform during his events for many Christian musical artists, Graham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Gospel Music Association. A professorial chair is named after him at the Southern Baptist Samford University, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth.[15] His alma mater Wheaton College has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center.[4] The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. Graham has received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more.[8]

A movie has been produced to capture the essence of Graham’s journey from a young man at the crossroads of faith and doubt to ultimately facing the moment of decision that gave way to one of history’s most influential evangelists. Billy: The Early Years premiered in theaters officially on October 10, 2008 - less than a month before Graham's 90th birthday.[42] Graham has yet to comment on the film but his eldest son, Franklin, released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie."[43] Graham's eldest daughter, Gigi, however, has praised the movie and also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film.[44]

Books authored

Graham has authored the following books:[45]

  • Calling Youth to Christ (1947)
  • America's Hour of Decision (1951)
  • I Saw Your Sons at War (1953)
  • Peace with God (1953, 1984)
  • Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins (1955)
  • The Secret of Happiness (1955, 1985)
  • Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers (1958)
  • My Answer (1960)
  • Billy Graham Answers Your Questions (1960)
  • World Aflame (1965)
  • The Challenge (1969)
  • The Jesus Generation (1971)
  • Angels: God's Secret Agents (1975, 1985)
  • How to Be Born Again (1977)
  • The Holy Spirit (1978)
  • Till Armageddon (1981)
  • Approaching Hoofbeats (1983)
  • A Biblical Standard for Evangelists (1984)
  • Unto the Hills (1986)
  • Facing Death and the Life After (1987)
  • Answers to Life's Problems (1988)
  • Hope for the Troubled Heart (1991)
  • Storm Warning (1992)
  • Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (1997, 2007)
  • Hope for Each Day (2002)
  • The Key to Personal Peace (2003)
  • Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade (2005)
  • The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (2006)

References

  1. ^ "The Transition; Billy Graham to lead Prayers". The New York Times. December 9, 1992. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6D61E3AF93AA35751C1A964958260. Retrieved 2007-12-24. 
  2. ^ The text originally said that Graham "is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention," but individuals cannot be members of the SBC. The SBC is a convention of churches. Individuals can be members of Southern Baptist churches and can consider themselves to be Southern Baptists, but cannot be members of the Convention.
  3. ^ "Billy Graham joins FBC Spartanburg". Baptist Press. 2008-12-29. http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=29579&ref=BPNews-RSSFeed1229. Retrieved 2008-12-29. 
  4. ^ a b c d e "BILLY GRAHAM: A MAN WITH A MISSION.(SPECIAL SECTION)". Cincinnati Post. June 27, 2002. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979573,00.html Time, God's Billy Pulpit, November 15, 1993
  6. ^ Who led Billy Graham to Christ and was it part of a chain of conversions going back to Dwight L. Moody?
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Billy Graham: an appreciation: wherever one travels around the world, the names of three Baptists are immediately known and appreciated--Jimmy Carter, Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. One is a politician, one an evangelist, and the other was a civil rights leader. All of them have given Baptists and the Christian faith a good reputation. (Biography)". Baptist History and Heritage. June 22, 2006. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  8. ^ a b c d e Billy Graham: the world is his pulpit.
  9. ^ Samaritan's Purse | International Relief
  10. ^ East Gates International
  11. ^ http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/bio.html
  12. ^ a b c http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/graham01.html Time, Billy Graham, June 14, 1999
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "When worlds collide: politics, religion, and media at the 1970 East Tennessee Billy Graham Crusade. (appearance by President Richard M. Nixon)". Journal of Church and State. March 22, 1997. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19592304.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  14. ^ "In 1949, for example, William Randolph Hearst, head of one large publishing empire, and Henry Luce, chief of another, Time, Inc., were both worried about communism and the growth of liberalism in the United States." "Billy Graham, an obscure evangelist holding poorly attended tent meetings in Los Angeles. (...) Hearst and Luce interviewed the obscure preacher and decided he was worthy of their support. Billy Graham became an almost instantaneous national and, later, international figure preaching anticommunism. In late 1949, Hearst sent a telegram to all Hearst editors: "Puff Graham." The editors did - in Hearst newspapers, magazines, movies, and newsreels. Within two months Graham was preaching to crowds of 350,000." (from Ben Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly, Boston, Mass Usa: Beacon Press, 2000 6th ed., p. 39 ff)
  15. ^ a b c d e f New York Times, Billy Graham Responds to Lingering Anger Over 1972 Remarks on Jews, 17 March, 2002
  16. ^ http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627139,00.html, Duffy, Michael and Gibbs, Nancy. TIME. Billy Graham: A Spiritual Gift to All, 2007-31-05. Retrieved on 2007-24-11.
  17. ^ a b c "A Family at Cross-Purposes". Washington Post. December 13, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/12/AR2006121201338.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  18. ^ http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=nation_world&id=5582690 ABC12.com, Evangelist Billy Graham hospitalized, 19 August, 2007
  19. ^ http://www.billygraham.org/mediaRelations/bios.asp?p=1 Billy Graham Bio
  20. ^ "Rev. Billy Graham on his lasting legacy". Today Show. June 23, 2005. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8326362/. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  21. ^ "Pilgrim's Progress, page 4". Newsweek. August 14, 2006. http://www.newsweek.com/id/46365/page/5. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  22. ^ a b c d "The President Preacher; In Crisis, White House Turns to Billy Graham". The Washington Post. January 18, 1991. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1044879.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  23. ^ "The Essence of Billy Graham; A Warm but Honest Biography of the Evangelist". The Washington Post. October 25, 1991. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1091805.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  24. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2553945.ece Independent Article, Preacher power: America's God squad, 25 July, 2007
  25. ^ Quotation of section
  26. ^ [given source: March 1991 CIB Bulletin]
  27. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1850077.stm BBC, Graham Regrets Jewish Slur, 2 March, 2002
  28. ^ Christian Post
  29. ^ http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=32770 Eric J Greenberg, United Jewish Communities
  30. ^ a b "Pilgrim's Progress, page 5". Newsweek. August 14, 2006. http://www.newsweek.com/id/46365/page/5. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  31. ^ Cathy Lynn Grossman. "In Nixon tapes, Billy Graham refers to 'synagogue of Satan'". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-06-24-graham-tapes_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-31. 
  32. ^ MinistryWatch Summary Report
  33. ^ a b Billy Graham - AOL Research & Learn
  34. ^ The official biography of Graham is John C. Pollock's Billy Graham: The Authorized Biography (1966). Other helpful biographical studies include William G. McLoughlin's Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age (1960), Curtis Mitchell's Billy Graham: The Making of a Crusader (1966), The Reader's Companion to American History (1997), Gospel Communications Network (GCN), Time Daily (Nov. 95), and People (1997).
  35. ^ a b Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0465041957. 
  36. ^ a b c "The Billy pulpit: Graham's career in the mainline.". Christian Century. November 15, 2003. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-111114181.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  37. ^ a b "Billy and Ruth Graham awarded Congressional Gold Medal for service.". Knight-Ridder News Service. May 2, 1996. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18252882.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  38. ^ [1]
  39. ^ ABC News: 3 Ex-Presidents Open Graham Library
  40. ^ "A MAN IN FULL; EVEN THOSE FAMILIAR WITH BILLY GRAHAM'S LIFE, EXHIBIT MAY OFFER REVELATIONS.(LIFE)". News and Record, Piedmont Triad, North Carolina. June 3, 2001. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-80571622.html. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  41. ^ Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library
  42. ^ http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080729/billy-graham-movie-prepares-for-oct-10-release.htm The Christian Post, Billy Graham Movie Prepares for Oct. 10 Release, June 29 , 2008
  43. ^ http://www.billygraham.org/News_Article.asp?ArticleID=358 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, A response from Franklin Graham, August 18, 2008
  44. ^ http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080826/franklin-graham-among-billy-movie-critics.htm The Christian Post, Franklin Graham Among 'Billy' Movie Critics , August 26, 2008
  45. ^ Graham, Billy. Just As I Am. New York: Harper Collins Worldwide, 1997. Copyright 1997 by the Billy Graham Evangelist Association.

External links

Find more about Billy Graham on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Search Wiktionary Definitions from Wiktionary
Search Wikibooks Textbooks from Wikibooks
Search Wikiquote Quotations from Wikiquote
Search Wikisource Source texts from Wikisource
Search Commons Images and media from Commons
Search Wikinews News stories from Wikinews
Search Wikiversity Learning resources from Wikiversity
Awards
Preceded by
Neil Armstrong
Recipient of The Sylvanus Thayer Award
1972
Succeeded by
Omar Bradley
Preceded by
Margaret Thatcher
Recipient of The Ronald Reagan Freedom Award
2000
Succeeded by
Rudy Giuliani

Shopping: Billy Graham
Top
 
 
Learn More
Souls in Conflict (1955 Drama Film)
Billy Graham: Are You a Follower of Christ? (1987 Spirituality & Philosophy Film)
Billy Graham (Rock Artist, '70s, '80s)

What was the Billy Graham Crusade? Read answer...
Where was billy graham's first crusade? Read answer...
What was Billy Graham known for? Read answer...

Help us answer these
What made Billy Graham heroic?
Who is billy graham's wife?
Can you have the address of the Billy Graham Library?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Billy Graham biography from Who2.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
US History Companion. The Reader's Companion to American History, Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
History Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes By. Copyright © 2008 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Billy Graham" Read more