25 Things About Billy Graham

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 11, 2009

The ‘25 Things’ meme is sweeping the nation (or at least Facebook), with an estimated 5 million people taking part. So maybe it’s time for 25 Things About Billy Graham:

1. Billy Graham’s first formal sermon lasted eight minutes and included four separate sermons, the only ones he knew.
2. As a senior in high school a young Billy Graham found himself in a dark classroom with a girl who begged Graham to have sex. Instead of rounding the bases, Graham made like Joseph and ran away.
3. In 1964 Billy Graham’s name came up as a potential presidential candidate. His wife, Ruth, put a stop to any consideration of forsaking his call to evangelism: “If you run, I don’t think the country will elect a divorced president.”
4. Though close with many U.S. presidents, Billy Graham actually went skinny-dipping with Lyndon Johnson.
5. In 1937 Billy Graham fell in love with Emily Cavanaugh and proposed to her in the summer. She had to think about it and eventually said yes in the fall. But by 1938 she was having second thoughts and in the spring she dumped Billy Graham for one of his classmates, Charles Massey.
6. Billy Graham spoke at the TED technology conference in 1998.
7. Billy Graham served as a pastor to Western Springs Baptist Church in Western Springs, Ill., for a year in the 1940s. It was the only time he would officially pastor a local congregation. During his time there he changed the name to the Village Church since there were few Baptists in the area.
8. In 1979 the Mexican Navy detained Billy Graham for trespassing. At the time he was wearing nothing but a borrowed swimsuit belonging to George H.W. Bush.
9. In 1948 Billy Graham became the youngest college president in history as president of Northwestern College in Minneapolis.
10. As early as the 1950s Billy Graham held integrated crusades, at one point tearing down ropes that separated white sections from black sections, causing the head usher to resign in protest.
11. Billy Graham was knighted in 2001.
12. Martin Luther King Jr. insisted Billy Graham call him “Mike.”
13. As a child, Billy Graham went to church only “grudgingly” and the minister at his family’s church reminded him of a mortician.
14. The first time Billy Graham shared his testimony was with a group of about ten prisoners. The experience “reinforced my conviction that I would never become a preacher.”
15. Billy Graham attended Bob Jones University for one semester and upon leaving Bob Jones Sr. predicted nothing but failure for Graham.
16. At Florida Bible Institute Billy Graham would paddle out to a small island in the Hillsborough River to practice his sermons and preach to the alligators and birds, like a St. Francis of Florida. If the animals wouldn’t stop to listen, he’d preach to a captive audience of cypress tree stumps.
17. Throughout his life Billy Graham participated in nine presidential inaugurations and in 2009 passed on the hat he often wore to those inaugurations to Rick Warren who offered a prayer at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
18. On his wedding night Billy Graham had trouble falling asleep in the bed, so he crawled out of bed and fell asleep on the floor. In the morning Ruth woke up to find her new husband gone—it took her a few minutes to find him curled up on the floor, sound asleep.
19. During World War II the U.S. Army rejected Billy Graham for the chaplaincy program because he was three pounds underweight.
20. In the 1970s Billy Graham attended various rock festivals, protests and love-ins in order to better understand and connect with young people. To maintain anonymity, he attended “incognito” (meaning he donned a hat, sun glasses, and a big sweater).
21. Billy Graham left on a trip the day his first child was born, dismissing Ruth’s insistence that the baby would come soon and he should stay home. Billy predicted it would take another two or three weeks. Virginia “Gigi” Graham was born that evening.
22. He has always tried to minimize his own prominence, to the point that he strongly resisted naming his organization after himself in 1950 and when the Billy Graham Library opened in 2007 he declared there was “too much Billy Graham.”
23. In 1993 Billy Graham participated in an AOL chat session, his first foray into the world of online evangelism.
24. Billy Graham once loaned money to then-president Richard Nixon. When the offering plate was passed at a 1970 crusade in Knoxville, Tenn., the president didn’t have any money on him, but Graham discreetly slipped the president a few bills. A few months later Nixon repaid the loan.
25. Billy Graham is one of the few Americans who can get mail that’s simply addressed, “Billy Graham, America.”

The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House

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.

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Billy Graham Inaugural Prayer

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 17, 2009

Billy Graham has offered many inaugural prayers and sermons for incoming presidents. He won’t be doing so this year, though his name still comes up, but we can look to one of his past prayers, the 1969 inaugural prayer for Richard Nixon:

“We beseech Thee that he will have Thy divine guidance and power daily. Help him as Thou didst help Thy servants of old. Our Father, we know his burdens and responsibilities will be overwhelming. He will hold in his hands the destiny of more people than any man in history. O God, our new President needs Thee as no man ever needed Thee in leading a people! There will be times when he will be overwhelmed by the problems at home and abroad that have been building up to the breaking point for many years. Protect him from physical danger. And in the lonely moments of decision grant him an uncompromising courage to do what is morally right. Give him a cool head and a warm heart. Give him a compassion for those in physical, moral, and spiritual need. We pray that Thou wilt so guide Richard Nixon in handling the affairs of state that the whole world will marvel and glorify Thee.

Those “lonely moments of decision” didn’t turn out so well for Nixon (or Graham, for that matter), but hindsight is 20/20. These same words could be said for Barack Obama today, as Graham has reminded people time and time again to pray for presidents no matter their political party.

1978 Texas Monthly Feature on Billy Graham

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 9, 2009

Digging into the Internet archives usually produces some interesting fodder, like this 1978 feature on Billy Graham from Texas Monthly (registration required). The headline on the magazine’s colorful cover reads, “Billy Graham: The Most Powerful Evangelist Since Jesus?” The article doesn’t spend much time comparing Billy Graham to 2,000 years worth of preachers but it does give a detailed biography and includes a number of interesting tidbits.

What is the Appeal of Billy Graham?
One section seeks to explain the broad appeal of Billy Graham and bluntly admits how pedestrian Billy Graham can be:

“What does Graham have that makes him so appealing to so many? He is attractive, forceful, and confident, to be sure, but one would hardly describe him as colorful; in fact, he seems almost dynamically bland. He seldom turns a memorable phrase, his mind seems innocent of complexity, and his observations are thoroughly predictable. All of us know several people who are intrinsically more interesting. And yet he is undeniably one of the authentic All-American Heroes.”

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Presidential Inauguration Prayers & Sermons by Billy Graham

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on January 8, 2009

While Billy Graham won’t be participating in Barack Obama’s inauguration in a few weeks (though many comparisons have been made between Billy Graham and Rick Warren, who will be delivering the prayer), Graham has participated in nine presidential inaugurations. That ties Chief Justice John Marshall’s record from the early 1800s. While he didn’t participate, Billy Graham did attend a tenth inauguration, that of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.

The Billy Graham Center has an archive of the presidential inauguration prayers and sermons given by Billy Graham:

• 1965: A sermon at Lyndon Johnson’s inauguration.
• 1969: A prayer at Richard Nixon’s first inauguration.
• 1973: A sermon at a White House worship service following Nixon’s second inauguration.
• 1981: A prayer at a private service following Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration.
• 1985: A sermon at Washington Cathedral preceding Reagan’s second inauguration.
• 1989: An invocation at George H.W. Bush’s inauguration.
• 1993: An invocation at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration.
• 1997: A prayer at Clinton’s second inauguration.
• 2005: Opening prayer at the National Prayer Service for George W. Bush’s second inauguration.

The 2008 book Preacher and the Presidents gives more details on Billy Graham’s interactions with U.S. presidents.