The Unofficial Billy Graham Blog
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 30, 2009
“I am not a great preacher, and I don’t claim to be a great preacher. I’ve heard great preaching many times and I wished I was one of those great preachers. I’m an ordinary preacher, just communicating the gospel in the best way I know.”
-Billy Graham
(Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 29, 2009
Billy Graham has had personal contact with ten U.S. presidents, from George W. Bush back to Harry Truman. He had close, personal friendships with a number of them, and counseled and prayed with all of them. These relationships have given Billy Graham the title of America’s pastor and access to the most powerful men in the world.
The book The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House, by TIME magazine veterans Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, profiles Graham’s relationship with each president and their families. The book goes into incredible detail, digging through personal correspondence and White House records.
The result is a 50-years snapshot of presidential politics that have tried and tested the world’s greatest evangelist. Though Graham tried to stay out of politics and offer neutral prayer and counsel regardless of political party, he didn’t always live up to that. On multiple occasions he allowed his bias to sway votes, though he would often step back from the brink and regret too much political action.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on
“I would be very happy if the Lord would say it’s time to go home. I’m looking forward to it because the pressures of my particular life are very heavy and I get very homesick for heaven … But I don’t want to be a cop-out either. I want to stay and do what he wants me to do.”
-Billy Graham
(Texas Monthly, March 1978)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 28, 2009
Billy Graham’s name kept coming up in the flap over Rick Warren giving the inaugural prayer—every article seemed to pose the question whether or not Rick Warren is the next Billy Graham—but no one mentioned the most concrete connection: Warren was wearing Graham’s hat.
According to Rick Warren’s Jan. 25 sermon, he received a box from Billy Graham a week before the inauguration. The box contained a hat and a note saying that this was the hat Graham had worn to previous inaugurations and he wanted Warren to have it.
Nobody can replace Billy Graham, but the hat has been literally passed on.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 27, 2009
While reading the TIME 100 biography of Billy Graham, which profiled him as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century, I came across this odd statement:
“Though Graham has never, to my knowledge, spoken out on behalf of the poor, it seems legitimate to conclude that his almost exclusive emphasis upon soul saving is his passionate center, even his authentic obsession.” (emphasis mine)
The author, Harold Bloom, is making the correct point that Billy Graham has focused on telling people about Jesus above all else. But he also makes a very incorrect statement, assuming that Graham has never “spoken out on behalf of the poor.”
You don’t have to look far to come across one of Graham’s most quoted statements about social justice:
“As Christians we have a responsibility toward the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden and the many innocent people around the world who are caught in wars, natural disasters and situations beyond their control.” (from Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador, among other sources)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 26, 2009
Billy Graham has a long history of involvement in presidential politics, sometimes being less than completely neutral. But the then-89-year-old evangelist mostly stayed out of the 2008 presidential campaign. He did meet with Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the summer of 2008. In October eventual winner and Democratic candidate Barack Obama tried to meet with the evangelist but the visit was canceled due to Graham’s health.
But perhaps the under-reported story is how Billy Graham felt about the vice-presidential candidate and Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. According to Gigi Graham, Billy’s oldest daughter, the evangelist was fond of Palin:
“He’s a typical man. I don’t care if he’s 90 years old, he thought that she is so pretty,” Gigi Graham said. “He loves a pretty woman.”
The comment has little context and is buried in an article about Billy Graham turning 90, but it’s still bizarre. It’s also sad that the comment continues the widespread emphasis on Palin’s looks instead of her politics. Hopefully it’s more an out-of-context joke on Gigi’s part.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on
George Beverly Shea has been singing solos at Billy Graham crusades for nearly 60 years and on February 1, 2009 he’ll celebrate his 100th birthday. There’s a private party planned for Shea at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove and a concert scheduled for March 28 that will likely be televised sometime in May.
Billy Graham first recruited Shea in 1944 to appear on his new radio show “Songs in the Night.”
“Bev was the very first person I asked to join me in evangelism,” Graham said. “He was well known in the Midwest, but at the same time he was humble … It was God who brought us together. [Shea's] rich, bass baritone voice has touched the hearts of millions in our Crusades … I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him utter an unkind or critical word about anyone.”
Christian publisher Ambassador International is also collecting birthday wishes for Shea as a part of promotions for their upcoming biography, George Beverly Shea: Tell Me the Story.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 25, 2009
As a young man Billy Graham had quite the head of hair. A mane, as it were, which went gray and then pure white as he grew old, the proverbial lion in winter.
Author and pastor Dan Kimball, who has a stylish and gelled head of hair himself, noticed the wavy locks of the young evangelist on a visit to the Billy Graham Center Museum in Wheaton, Ill., and blogged about it.
Oh, Kimball talked about the importance of evangelism and some other stuff. But the hair, that’s pretty cool.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 24, 2009
The world-famous evangelist Billy Graham came to Jesus himself at the age of 16 thanks to the fiery preaching of another evangelist, Mordecai Ham. But the message didn’t sink into the teenage Graham right away. The conviction tugged at his heart until he could ignore it no longer:
“What was slowly dawning on me during those weeks was the miserable realization that I did not know Jesus Christ for myself. I could not depend on my parents’ faith. Christian influence in the home could have a lasting impact on a child’s life, but faith could not be passed on as an inheritance, like the family silver. It had to be exercised by each individual.
“I could not depend on my church membership either. Saying ‘I believe’ in the Apostles’ Creed every Sunday, or taking the bread and wine of Communion, could so easily become nothing but rote and ritual, without power in themselves to make me any different.
“Nor could I depend on my own resolution to do better. I constantly failed in my efforts at self-improvement. Nobody needed to tell me that.
“As a teenager, what I needed to know for certain was that I was right with God. I could not help but admit to myself that I was purposeless and empty-hearted. … And then it happened.” (Just as I Am)
During the last verse of the last song, a 16-year-old Billy Graham came forward at the call of a finger-wagging evangelist to accept Jesus Christ.
“I didn’t have any tears, I didn’t have any emotion, I didn’t hear any thunder, there was no lightning,” Graham told TIME magazine. “But right there, I made my decision for Christ. It was as simple as that, and as conclusive.”
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 23, 2009
In 1952 Billy Graham hit a wall of exhaustion in his early 30s and wasn’t sure he could go on.
“I’ve always thought my life would be a short one,” Graham said at the time. “I don’t think my ministry will be long. I think God allowed me to come for a moment and it will be over soon.”
Yet Billy Graham continued to do crusade ministry until 2005, speaking to nearly 215 million people in live audiences in over 185 countries. While frail and mostly homebound today, he continues to minister.
“The New Testament says nothing of Apostles who retired and took it easy,” Graham said in a 1993 article about his 75th birthday. Graham turned 90 last fall and is currently writing a book about growing old.
“It doesn’t make me feel any different, turning 75, than when I turned 45,” Graham said in 1993. “But when I see pictures of my 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, I know some time has passed. I let days like that slip by and try to forget it. I’m not looking backward. I’m looking to the future.”
"I'm counting totally and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on Billy Graham. I'm not going to heaven because I've read the Bible, nor because I've preached to a lot of people. I'm going to heaven because of what Christ did." Learn more about Jesus > >
Follow Billyspot on Twitter.
