Billy Graham from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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Billy Graham From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American Billy Graham evangelical Christian evangelist, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who rose to celebrity status in 1949 reaching a core constituency of middle class, moderately conservative Protestants. He held large indoor and outdoor rallies; sermons were broadcast on radio and television, some still being rebroadcast today.[4] In his six decades of television, Graham is principally known for hosting the annual Billy Graham Crusades, which he began in 1947, until he concluded in 2005, at the Graham in 1966 time of his retirement. He also hosted the popular radio show Hour of Decision Born William Franklin Graham, Jr. from 1950 to 1954. He repudiated November 7, 1918 segregation and, in addition to his Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. religious aims, helped shape the Nationality American worldview of fundamentalists and Education Florida Bible Institute evangelicals, leading them to appreciate Wheaton College the relationship between the Bible and contemporary secular viewpoints. Occupation Evangelist Years active 1947–2014 Graham was a spiritual adviser to American presidents; he was particularly Known for Christian minister, author of books close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon about Christianity B. Johnson (one of Graham's closest Notable work How to be Born Again, Angels [5] [6] friends) and Richard Nixon. He Net worth $25 million[1] insisted on integration for his revivals and crusades in 1953 and invited Martin Television Billy Graham Crusades (1947–2005) Luther King, Jr. to preach jointly at a Title Doctor (honorary) revival in New York City in 1957. Political Democratic[2] Graham bailed King out of jail in the party 1960s when King was arrested in demonstrations. He was also lifelong Spouse(s) Ruth Graham friends with another televangelist, Robert (m. 1943–2007; her death) H. Schuller, whom Graham talked into Children Virginia, Anne, Ruth, William doing his own television ministry. Franklin III, and Nelson Graham operates a variety of media and Website billygraham.org (http://billygraham. publishing outlets.[7] According to his org/) staff, more than 3.2 million people have Signature responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to "accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior". As of 2008, Graham's estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. Because of his crusades, Graham has preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone in the history of Christianity.[7] Graham has repeatedly been on Gallup's list of most admired men and women. He has appeared on the list 60 times since 1955, more than any other individual in the world.[8] Grant Wacker reports that by the mid1960s, he had become the "Great Legitimator": By then his presence conferred status on presidents, acceptability on wars, shame on racial prejudice, desirability on decency, dishonor on indecency, and prestige on civic events.[9] Contents 1 Early life 2 Family 3 Ministry career 3.1 Crusades 3.1.1 Student ministry 3.1.2 Evangelistic association 3.1.3 Civil rights movement 3.1.4 Lausanne Movement 4 Multiple roles 4.1 Illness 5 Retirement 6 Politics 6.1 Pastor to presidents 6.2 Foreign policy views 7 Controversy 7.1 Discussion of Jews with President Nixon 7.2 Vietnam War 7.3 Ecumenism 7.4 Views on women 8 Writings 9 Awards and honors 9.1 Other honors 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Early life William Franklin Graham, Jr. was born on November 7, 1918. He is the eldest of four children born to Morrow (née Coffey; 1892–1981) and William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888–1962). Graham grew up on a family dairy farm, near Charlotte, North Carolina, with his two younger sisters and younger brother. In 1927, when he was eight years old, the family moved about 75 yards (69 m) from their white frame house to a newly built red brick home.[10] He was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents and is of ScotchIrish descent.[11][12] Before this, in 1924, when Graham was only five, he focused on the outdoors, but rarely did he walk, as he was running and zooming, constantly. At the same time, he started as a student at the Sharon Grammar School.[13] Starting to read books from an early age, Graham loved to read novels for boys, especially Tarzan. Like Tarzan, he would hang on the trees, and gave the popular Tarzan yell, scaring both horses and drivers. According to his father, that yelling had led him to become a minister.[14] In 1933, when he was fourteen, as Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced him and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they got sick. This created such an aversion that both avoided alcohol and drugs for the rest of their lives.[15] After Graham was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly",[15] Albert McMakin, who worked on the Graham farm, persuaded him to go and see the evangelist Mordecai Ham.[7] According to his autobiography, Graham was converted in 1934, at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte led by Ham.[16][17] After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College, then located in Cleveland, Tennessee. After one semester, he found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules.[15] 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."[15] In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida). (Today's Florida College is now located at that site in Temple Terrace, Florida.) In his autobiography, Graham wrote of receiving 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. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was established 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.[18] It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, California) was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue. He settled it at Forest Home Christian Camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California.[19] 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. Her father, L. Nelson Bell, was a general surgeon.[20] Ruth Graham died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87. The Grahams were married almost 64 years. Graham and his wife had five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham (born 1945; an inspirational speaker and author); Anne Graham Lotz (born 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (born 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends, leads conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada); Franklin Graham (born 1952), who serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and as president and CEO of international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse;[21] and Nelson Edman Graham (born 1958; a pastor who runs East Gates Ministries International,[22] which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and numerous greatgrandchildren. Notably, his grandson Tullian Tchividjian, son of Gigi, was the senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida until he was defrocked in June 2015 after admitting to an extra marital affair.[23][24] Tchividjian later filed for divorce from his wife, Kim.[25] Ministry career While attending college, Graham became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements. Graham served briefly as pastor of the First Baptist 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 due to 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 congregation. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called Songs in the Night, Graham recruited the bassbaritone 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. In 1947, at age 30, he was hired as president of Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis—at the time, the youngest person to serve as a sitting president of any U.S. college or university. Graham served as the president from 1948 to 1952. Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces but, shortly after applying for a commission, contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, he was hired as the first fulltime evangelist of the new Youth for Christ (YFC), cofounded by Torrey Johnson and the Canadian evangelist Charles Templeton.