BILLY GRAHAM: a Biography

BILLY GRAHAM: A Biography Roger Bruns GREENWOOD PRESS BILLY GRAHAM Recent Titles in Greenwood Biographies J.K. Rowling: A Biography Connie Ann Kirk The Dalai Lama: A Biography Patricia Cronin Marcello Margaret Mead: A Biography Mary Bowman-Kruhm J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography Leslie Ellen Jones Colin Powell: A Biography Richard Steins Pope John Paul II: A Biography Meg Greene Al Capone: A Biography Luciano Iorizzo George S. Patton: A Biography David A. Smith Gloria Steinem: A Biography Patricia Cronin Marcello BILLY GRAHAM A Biography Roger Bruns GREENWOOD BIOGRAPHIES GREENWOOD PRESS WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT . LONDON Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bruns, Roger. Billy Graham : a biography / by Roger Bruns. p. cm.—(Greenwood biographies, ISSN 1540–4900) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–32718–1 (alk. paper) 1. Graham, Billy, 1918– 2. Evangelists—United States—Biography. I. Title. II. Series. BV3785.G69B78 2004 269Ј.2Ј092—dc22 [B] 2003060417 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2004 by Roger Bruns All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003060417 ISBN: 0–313–32718–1 ISSN: 1540–4900 First published in 2004 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 CONTENTS Series Foreword vii Introduction ix Timeline of Events in the Life of Billy Graham xiii Chapter 1 From Tampa to New York 1 Chapter 2 A Farm Boy Becomes a Preacher 5 Chapter 3 Wheaton and Ruth 15 Chapter 4 On the Road to Los Angeles 23 Chapter 5 A Revivalist Heritage: The Great Awakening to Billy Sunday 35 Chapter 6 The Lure of Power and Politics 41 Chapter 7 The Fifties: The Message and the Media 55 Chapter 8 The London Crusade of 1954 67 Chapter 9 The Graham Phenomenon in New York 75 Chapter 10 A Careful Crusade for Equality 85 Chapter 11 Amidst the Tumult: Billy in the Sixties 99 Chapter 12 Mixing Politics with Evangelism 119 Chapter 13 A World of Souls to Save 135 Selected Bibliography 147 Index 153 Photo essay follows page 74. SERIES FOREWORD In response to high school and public library needs, Greenwood devel- oped this distinguished series of full-length biographies specifically for stu- dent use. Prepared by field experts and professionals, these engaging biographies are tailored for high school students who need challenging yet accessible biographies. Ideal for secondary school assignments, the length, format, and subject areas are designed to meet educators’ requirements and students’ interests. Greenwood offers an extensive selection of biographies spanning all curriculum related subject areas including social studies, the sciences, literature and the arts, and history and politics, as well as popular culture, covering public figures and famous personalities from all time peri- ods and backgrounds, both historic and contemporary, who have made an impact on American and/or world culture. Greenwood biographies were chosen based on comprehensive feedback from librarians and educators. Consideration was given to both curriculum relevance and in- herent interest. The result is an intriguing mix of the well known and the unexpected, the saints and the sinners from long-ago history and contemporary pop culture. Readers will find a wide array of subject choices, from fascinating crime figures like Al Capone to inspiring pio- neers like Margaret Mead, from the greatest minds of our time like Stephen Hawking to the most amazing success stories of our day like J. K. Rowling. While the emphasis is on fact, not glorification, the books are meant to be fun to read. Each volume provides in-depth information about the subject’s life from birth through childhood, the teen years and adulthood. A viii SERIES FOREWORD thorough account relates family background and education, traces personal and professional influences, and explores struggles, accomplishments, and contributions. A timeline highlights the most significant life events against a historical perspective. Bibliographies supplement the ref- erence value of each volume. INTRODUCTION He was a dairy farmer’s son from North Carolina who dreamed of becom- ing a baseball player. Although his talents on the baseball field were mid- dling, he managed in his career to fill stadiums across the country and the world. He was Billy Graham and he was an evangelist. The magnitude of his accomplishments is unquestioned. In 1957, 100,000 people jammed Yankee Stadium for the closing night of Gra- ham’s New York crusade. For 12 weeks, Graham drew an astonishing 2 million listeners in New York City and broke all attendance records for consecutive appearances at historic Madison Square Garden. Wherever he preached, from Chicago to Los Angeles to Washington, the story was the same. He drew the largest crowds ever recorded. He preached in nearly 200 countries around the world. In London’s Wembley Stadium in 1954, Graham spoke to 185,000 individuals who braced themselves against a driving rain to hear the celebrated American evangelist. Attendance at this event topped the crowd at the 1948 Olympics in the same stadium and was the largest religious gathering in British history. In Seoul, Korea, Graham’s 1973 crusade drew over one million, the largest recorded religious gathering in history. With the advent of satellite-link television, the numbers were even more impossible to fathom. In 1990, on his 72nd birthday, Graham preached in Hong Kong. His sermon was broadcast to over 100 million viewers through a network strung across the Asian continent. Graham and his organization, the Billy Graham Evangelical Associa- tion (BGEA), have been a major influence on significant international twentieth-century religious events, especially the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. x INTRODUCTION He was the first Christian evangelist after the Second World War to hold public religious gatherings behind the Iron Curtain, including con- troversial visits to the Soviet Union, North Korea, and China. He personally associated with every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, advising Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon on Vietnam and Ronald Reagan on the Soviet Union. Bible in hand, he appeared at the side of President George Bush as the United States launched the 1991 war against Iraq. President George W. Bush credits Graham with leading him out of alcohol abuse to a conversion experience. His ministry became the center of a post–World War II movement called the new evangelicalism. He played a leading role in developing the nation’s two most influential evangelical seminaries, Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Sem- inary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His work and his example inspired thousands of young men and women to pursue a career in the ministry. Graham’s magazine, Decision, became the most widely distributed religious periodical in the world. His first book, Peace with God, published in August 1953, became an immediate bestseller and sold millions. It has been translated into 50 languages. The evangelist has published over 21 books since that time Through the years, the BGEA headquarters in Minneapolis, Min- nesota, received mountains of letters from men, women, and children from all walks of life, an average of over 100,000 a week. Some of the letters bore only the words “Billy Graham, Minneapolis, Minnesota” on the envelopes. No other address was necessary. Graham has appeared on the Gallup Poll’s Ten Most Admired Men list more often than anyone in history. He was listed by Life magazine as one of the 100 most important Americans of the twentieth century. In 1971, when he opened a revival in Charlotte, North Carolina, near to his birth- place, town leaders declared a holiday. In a 1978 Ladies’ Home Journal sur- vey, under the category “achievements in religion,” Graham was higher on the list than everyone except God. His personal finances and that of his organization have been impecca- bly honest and he has been free of personal scandal. In 1950 he put him- self on an annual salary pegged at the level of a successful urban pastor. He has regularly turned down offers to star in movies and to run for political office. Graham seemed to epitomize middle-class ideals at a time when the postwar American middle class was in its ascendancy. Graham’s personality and ideals, his dress and demeanor, and all the sounds and images that INTRODUCTION xi were part of his services seemed to many a comfortable call back to basic American values and religious piety. However, if his accomplishments are unquestioned, there are those who question the truth, influence, and morality of his message. From both the left and the right of the political and religious spec- trums, Graham was attacked. One journalist likened him to a moral dwarf. Atheists and non-Christians labeled his revivals as grotesque circus charades that deceived multitudes of people. Many of the attacks centered on the meaning and techniques of the revivals that Graham had, through efficient organization and the force of his own personality, crafted with such precision and effectiveness. Those revivals sought conversion, the redirecting of one’s soul and life under God, an impulse difficult to under- stand and to influence. Learned scholar Reinhold Niebuhr of New York’s Union Seminary ridiculed Graham’s sermons as simplistic and charged that the thousands of conversions supposedly achieved by the revivals were sham.1 Once Graham made it clear that he would work with anyone who would work with him in his ministry—liberal, Catholic, or even commu- nist—fundamentalist outrage flared.

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