Bessie is an animatronic cow that greets visitors to the Billy Graham Library. Seriously.
She has the Southern twang and low, sugary voice of an old black woman (an early voice over was determined to be “too Yankee”) and serves to draw kids into the experience. Bessie talks with pride of young ‘Billy Frank’ and emphasizes how God used Billy Graham. She also urges kids to take a quiz and exchange it for a prize at the end of the tour.
Billy Graham spoke at the TED technology conference in 1998. The video of his session is available online. While Graham marvels at the wonders of technology, he focuses on three things that technology can’t overcome: evil, suffering and death.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has rarely been known for their brilliant graphic design. Some has been good, some has been awful and most has probably been mediocre.
I don’t know who worked on these, if they were in-house or hired guns—but they rock. It’s certainly a visual style that could be beat to death, but in this context and this occasion it works. Take a peek:
The January 2009 Billy Graham TV Special is now airing, but you won’t be able to check your local listings for this TV special. It’s airing mostly on Christian satellite or cable networks like INSP, Daystar and FaithTV, and not your local stations.
The focus of the special is less on preaching the gospel and more on raising support for the urgent work of spreading the gospel that has defined the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for more than 50 years. That approach probably explains why they’re not airing this special on local stations but instead targeting Christians more likely to support the effort.
In a clip from the 1996 Christmas Special, Billy Graham reflects on the joys of Christmas and wishes your family a happy Christmas:
“Ruth and I have treasured these moments spent with family and friends each year at Christmas as we gather together and celebrate how the Christmas message can bring peace to a fragile world. Certainly we’re all praying that you will have a blessed and happy Christmas.”
It sounds like a detective thriller, but it’s really just the story of the innkeeper who was too busy to notice a woman about to give birth and missed the very first Christmas. Billy Graham tells this story in the 1979 Christmas Special.
He finishes by asking if we’ll be like the innkeeper:
“We in America have so much, but we are preoccupied with our own comforts and our own desires. And I have to ask you, are you going to make this same mistake and just give Jesus the stable compartment of your life? I’m asking you to let him be born this Christmas in the central places of your heart and life.”
You can watch the original Billy Graham Christmas Special from 1952 online. The TV special is less than 15 minutes long and includes some awkward decorating, a song from George Beverly Shea, a [questionable] history of the Christmas tree from Cliff Barrows and a sermon from Billy Graham:
“Jesus Christ did not come for the purpose of being born in order that we might have a great holiday. Jesus Christ came for the purpose of dying! That was his mission. He looked over the battlements of heaven centuries ago and saw this world lost and doomed and separated from God. And he said, ‘I’m going to save that world.’”
That’s probably a subdued sermon for 1952, but it still has some fiery, finger-wagging moments (skip ahead to 5:34 to hear Billy’s sermon).
Bono, the global crusader and front man for the rock band U2, expresses his thanks to Billy Graham in a video on the now defunct Thank You Billy Graham web site:
“At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God’s work, with its shopping mall sales pitch and its bumper sticker reductionism—I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham, for that clear, empathetic voice of his and that southern accent, and part poet, part preacher, the singer of the human spirit I’d say. Yeah, I give thanks to Billy Graham. Thank you, Billy Graham.”
"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 > >
Perhaps the most mocked and ridiculed element of the controversial Billy Graham Library is Bessie the cow. But the kids love her.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has rarely been known for their brilliant graphic design. Some has been good, some has been awful and most has probably been 
The January 2009 
You can watch the original 
Bono, the global crusader and front man for the rock band U2, expresses his thanks to Billy Graham in a 
