Billy Graham

**William Franklin Graham Jr.**  (November 7, 1918 &ndash; February 21, 2018), better known as **Billy Graham**, was an American Evangelical Christian minister and evangelist. He was a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. Graham is known as the one of the most important and famous preachers of the 20th century. He was a spiritual advisor to several U.S. presidents. Graham preached in person to more people than any other American preacher in recorded history. Graham met every United States president since Harry S. Truman until his death. He received the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

## Biography
### Early life
Graham was born on November 7, 1918, on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. His mother and father Morrow Coffey and William Franklin Graham managed the farm. They were devout Christians and Graham's mother had a big influence on his faith. The Billy Graham Center says Graham was converted in 1934 during a revival meeting in Charlotte led by local evangelist Mordecai Ham. In Graham's part of Christianity, "conversion" means having a big faith experience, not changing from one religion to a different religion. However, he did not become a member of a local youth group because he was "too ."

### Family 
In 1946, Graham married a girl who was in a class with him, Ruth Bell. Her parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China. Her father, L. Nelson Bell, worked as a surgeon there. When talking about Bell, Graham said "She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth said that he wanted to please God more than any man she had ever met. They married two months after they graduated from college. After marriage, they lived in a log cabin that she had made. Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at age 87. They had five children together: Virginia (Gigi) Graham Foreman; Anne Graham Lotz; Ruth Dienert; Franklin Graham, and Ned Graham. They also had 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.

### Ministry
#### Beginning
Graham became a Southern Baptist minister in 1939. Then he took over and organized financing of the radio program "Songs in the Night". Afterwards, he made the baritone, George Beverly Shea director of music in his ministry. The program went well, but Graham left it in 1945. He wished to be a chaplain in the armed forces, but after trying to get in, he came down with mumps, so he had to not enlist. After some time, he  in Florida. Then he started Youth for Christ with evangelist Charles Templeton. He traveled all through the United States and Europe as an evangelist. This is because he got help from the powerful newspaper man William Randolph Hearst. Many people believe that Hearst liked Graham for his love of his country. It is also believed that he may have thought that Graham could help with his conservative, anti-communist views. Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.

### Middle years
, Pennsylvania, where Graham often held revivals]]
Graham had missions in both London and the Madison Square Garden in 1957. The London mission lasted 12 weeks and the New York mission was about 16 weeks. He also led his first crusade in Australia in 1959.

Graham was the president of Northwestern College in Minnesota from 1948 to 1952. He began many organizations, such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He also spoke against racial segregation during the 1960s. Graham did not want to speak to segregated auditoriums. He even once tore down ropes that had been put up to split the audience. Graham paid bail money to get Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of jail. That was during the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He asked King to join him in the pulpit at the revival meeting at New York City in 1957. During that 16-week tour, he was heard by many people, who came to hear him at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and the Times Square.

### Later years
During the Cold War, Graham was the first evangelist to speak behind the Iron Curtain. During the Apartheid times, Graham would not go to South Africa until the government let all people sit together. He finally preached his first crusade there in 1973, during which he taught that apartheid was not right.

Graham went to China, where his wife Ruth was born. He also appeared in North Korea in 1992. On September 14, 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, Graham led prayer at the Washington National Cathedral. President George W. Bush went to this service. On June 24, 2005, he began what he said would be his last North American crusade. On the weekend of March 11 and March 12, 2006 Graham held the "Festival of Hope". It was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Graham said that he had to retire because of his failing health. He had had Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, as well as many other problems. In August 2005, though weak, he used a walker to go to at the start of his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. On August 18, 2007, Graham, aged 88, was treated for intestinal bleeding.

Graham preached Christianity to nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories. He also preached to hundreds of millions more through television, videos, movie, and webcasts. He went to over 41 evangelistic crusades. He began this ministry in 1947, and kept doing it until recently. He would often use a big area, such as a stadium, park, or a large street to speak at. Groups of up to 5,000 people would often sing in choir at his meetings. Graham would preach the gospel and then invite people to come forward. In 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 in his Moscow audience came for salvation upon his request.

## Politics
In politics, Graham was a member of the Democratic Party, but changed to Republican during the presidency of his friend Richard Nixon. Though he did not support people running on politics in general, he gave his support in some cases over the years.

### Pastor to Presidents
 Richard Nixon]]
Graham met every United States President from Harry Truman to Donald Trump. He became close friends with Vice-President Richard Nixon while on a golf course. Dwight D. Eisenhower asked to see Graham while on his deathbed. Graham also worked with Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, the Bush family,

Graham played golf with John F. Kennedy, even though Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. Graham spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House. He was also there for the first night of Nixon's.

Graham spoke at many funerals over the years, but he was unable to do Reagan's on June 11, 2004, because of recent hip surgery. Graham had been Reagan's first choice. Bad health also kept Graham from doing the funeral of President Gerald R. Ford in Washington D.C., on January 2, 2007.

### Foreign policy views
Graham spoke against communism. He was in favor of the U.S. Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. However, in a 1999 speech, he talked about his  with the late North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung. He said that he was a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese." Graham went on to say that even though he had never met Kim's son and former North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, he had "exchanged gifts with him." Graham gave a globe covered with doves to the *North Korean Friendship Museum*.

## Controversy
### Agreement with Richard Nixon's antisemitism
 and First Lady Nancy Reagan]]
In 1994, the people read in the diaries of H. R. Haldeman that Graham had talked with President Nixon about "Jewish  of the media". (H. R. Haldeman worked with Richard Nixon at the White House). Because what Haldeman had written was different from things that Graham usually said in public, most Jewish groups did not really believe it. Graham d a statement that he never spoke "publicly or privately about the Jewish people, including conversations with President Nixon, except in the most  s." He said, "Those are not my words." In 2002, however, "Richard Nixon tapes" showed that Graham had talked about it, in the 1970s. This was like Haldeman had written. On the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews had control over the American media. He called it a "" in 1972.  Graham said "This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain." When the videotapes were released, Graham said he was sorry for his remarks, saying, "although 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." He also said that "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  to them to ask their ."

### Ideas about women
In 1970, Graham said feminism was part of a society with fewer rules and that women did not want to compete with men. He also said that a women should be a wife, mother, and homemaker. This idea of the role of women was published in the ''Ladies' Home Journal*. Many people sent letters of protest. The magazine added a section called "The New Feminism" after a sit-in protest at the *Journal''.

Graham was never alone with any woman except his wife. This was called the Billy Graham rule.

Billy's daughter Bunny said that her father did not allow her and her sisters higher education.

## Awards and honors
### Recognition
Between 1950 and 1990, Graham appeared many times on ''Gallup's list of most admired people*. The United States Postal Service has said that he is one of the few Americans, along with the current President, who can get mail that simply says his name and country: "Billy Graham, America". On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to speak right before the Indianapolis 500. On May 31, 2007, the $27 million *Billy Graham Library* was officially started in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton came. In 1990, the band "The Swirling Eddies" gave homage to Graham with its song "Billy Graham" on the album *Outdoor Elvis*.

### Awards
Graham got the "Big Brother of the Year Award" for his work on behalf of children.  He also got the "Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion" and the *Sylvanus Thayer Award'' for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, and Country."

## Related pages
* Catholicism
* Protestantism
** Baptist
** Calvinism
** Anglicanism
** Lutheranism
* Eastern Christianity
** Greek Orthodox Church
** Eastern Orthodox Church
** Orthodox Church of Ukraine
* Oriental Orthodoxy
** Armenian Apostolic Church
** Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria

## References
## Other websites
* Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
* Anti-Semitic charges
* Billy Graham Training Center
* Streaming video clip from 1957 event in Times Square 
* New York journalist goes to Graham's crusade and the gay pride march