Billy graham biography video walt

Graham spoke out against the evils of Communism—one of the biggest fears threatening the American consciousness. In a interview, Graham stated, "Either communism must die, or Christianity must die, because it is actually a battle between Christ and anti-Christ. Thus, Graham helped bind together a vulnerable nation through a religious revival. By glazing over the finer details of Christianity and focusing on more moderate doctrines, Graham made evangelism enticing, non-threatening, even easy — and the media made his messages accessible to the masses.

Graham began broadcasting his sermons over the radio during a Christian show called Songs in the Night. Once a week he also hosted a program called The Hour of Decisiona program ABC initially transmitted to stations before reaching its peak of 1, stations across America. Eventually, this program was converted into a television show which ran for three years.

The success of Graham's radio and television programs speak to his role as a Christian media visionary. Graham used the media as a means for spreading the gospel of Christ, allowing him to access millions of people around the globe. With Graham's success, BGEA opened numerous international offices and started publishing periodicals, records, tapes, films and books.

BGEA also accepted invitations from religious figures around the world to hold evangelical "crusades. At the end of these events, audience members would be invited to commit to Christ and meet with volunteer counselors. These new recruits would be given workbooks for at-home bible study and referrals to local evangelist pastors. BGEA eventually began to air footage of these crusades on national television with subscriber information.

Inthe Billy Graham Evangelistic Association created the Billy Graham Evangelistic Film Ministry as a means of distributing personal conversion stories to the public through films. BGEA also acquired several radio stations around America in an effort to broadcast Graham's radio shows to a wider audience. This magazine continues to be the leading journal for evangelical Christians.

InBGEA started Decision magazine, a monthly mailer with bible studies, articles, church histories and crusade updates. Uploaded by station Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.

Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Graham spoke at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Urbana Student Missions Conference at least nine times — in,, and At each Urbana conference, he challenged the thousands of attendees to make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ for the rest of their lives.

He often quoted a six-word phrase that was reportedly written in the Bible of William Whiting Bordenthe son of a wealthy silver magnate: "No reserves, no retreat, no regrets". Graham also held evangelistic meetings on a number of college campuses: at the University of Minnesota during InterVarsity's "Year of Evangelism" in —51, a 4-day mission at Yale University inand a week-long series of meetings at the University of North Carolina's Carmichael Auditorium in September Inhe was invited by Cambridge University students to lead the mission at the university; the mission was arranged by the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Unionwith London pastor-theologian John Stott serving as Graham's chief assistant.

This invitation was greeted with much disapproval in the correspondence columns of The Times. The association relocated to Charlotte, North Carolinain[ 60 ] and maintains a number of international offices, such as in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires. It encouraged church members to spread the gospel in small group meetings, after showing a video message by Graham.

Graham's early crusades were segregatedbut he began adjusting his approach in the s. In his memoirs, he recounted that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down "or you can go on and have the revival without me. They are rising all over the world. We have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you that we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride.

InGraham's stance towards integration became more publicly shown when he allowed black ministers Thomas Kilgore and Gardner C. Taylor to serve as members of his New York Crusade's executive committee. Despite their friendship, tensions between Graham and King emerged inwhen the sponsoring committee of a crusade that took place in San AntonioTexas, on July 25 arranged for Graham to be introduced by that state's segregationist governor, Price Daniel.

Graham's faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation. He told a member of the Ku Klux Klan that integration was necessary, primarily for religious reasons. The friendship between Graham and John Stott led to a further partnership in the Lausanne Movementof which Graham was a founder. Women were represented by Millie Dienertwho chaired the prayer committee.

Its purpose was to strengthen the global church for world evangelization, and to engage ideological and sociological trends which bore on this. Graham played multiple roles that reinforced each other. Graham deliberately reached into the secular world as a bridge builder. For example, as an entrepreneur he built his own pavilion for the New York World's Fair.

During his first crusade there inhe openly denounced apartheid. Inhe led a series of summer meetings—Mission England—in the United Kingdom, and he used outdoor football soccer fields for his venues. Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. Inand he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists; this was, at the time, the largest representation of nations ever held.

At one revival in SeoulSouth Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. He appeared in North Korea in He was the only person functioning as a minister who received a star in that capacity. City officials estimated that more thanwere in attendance. InGraham spoke to a crowd of scientists and philosophers at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference.

Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in The festival was held in New Orleanswhich was recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Graham prepared one last sermon, "My Hope America", which was released on DVD and played around America and possibly worldwide between November 7—10, November 7 was Graham's 95th birthday, and he hoped to cause a revival.

Graham said that his planned retirement was a result of his failing health; he had suffered from hydrocephalus from on. Then 86, he used a walker during the ceremony. In AprilGraham was 91 and experiencing substantial vision, hearing, and balance loss when he made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library.

There was controversy within his family over Graham's proposed burial place. He announced in June that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte. Graham's younger son Ned argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried in the mountains at the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove near Asheville, North Carolinawhere she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice.

Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site. Inwhen asked if he would have done things differently, he said he would have spent more time at home with his family, studied more, and preached less. He also said he had a habit of advising evangelists to save their time and avoid having too many commitments. After his close relationships with Lyndon B.

Johnson and Richard NixonGraham tried to avoid explicit billy graham biography video walt. Bailey says: "He declined to sign or endorse political statements, and he distanced himself from the Christian right His early years of fierce opposition to communism gave way to pleas for military disarmament and attention to AIDS, poverty and environmental threats.

Graham was a lifelong registered member of the Democratic Party. Kennedyfearing that Kennedy, as a Catholic, would be bound to follow the Pope. Graham worked "behind the scenes" to encourage influential Protestant ministers to speak out against Kennedy. After his election, Kennedy invited Graham to play golf in Palm Beach, Floridaafter which Graham acknowledged Kennedy's election as an opportunity for Catholics and Protestants to come closer together.

Graham opposed the large majority of abortions, but supported it as a legal option in a very narrow range of circumstances: rape, incestand the life of the mother. Graham leaned toward the Republicans during the presidency of Richard Nixon, whom he had met and befriended as vice president under Dwight D. InGraham explained his refusal to join Jerry Falwell 's Moral Majority insaying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice.

We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future.

According to a Newsweek interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel When Newsweek asked Graham whether ministers — whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both — should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord.

A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some — like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out. Inalthough grateful to have met politicians who have spiritual needs like everyone else, he said he sometimes crossed the line and billy graham biography video walt have preferred to avoid politics.

InGraham endorsed the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. Franklin denied this, and said that he would continue to act as his father's spokesperson rather than allowing press conferences. Graham had a personal audience with many sitting US presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama — 12 consecutive presidents. After meeting with Truman inGraham told the press he had urged the president to counter communism in North Korea.

Truman disliked him and did not speak with him for years after that meeting. Truman made his contempt for Graham public. He wrote about Graham in his autobiography Plain Speaking : "But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He claims he's a friend of all the presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President.

I just don't go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper. Graham became a regular visitor during the tenure of Dwight D. He purportedly urged him to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine to gain admission of black students to public schools. Graham met and became a close friend of Vice President Richard Nixon, [ ] [ ] and supported Nixon, a Quakerfor the presidential election.

On December 16,U. President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was impressed by the way Graham had praised the work of his great-grandfather, George Washington Bainesinvited Graham to the White House to receive spiritual counseling. After this visit, Johnson frequently called on Graham for more spiritual counseling as well as companionship. He was always trying to keep me there.

He just never wanted me to leave. In contrast with his more limited access with Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, Graham would not only visit the White House private quarters but would also at times kneel at Johnson's bedside and pray with him whenever the President requested him to do so. Graham once recalled "I have never had many people do that.

Johnson was also the first sitting president to attend one of Graham's crusades, in Houston, Texas, in During the United States presidential election, supporters of Republican nominee Barry Goldwater sent an estimated 2 million telegrams to Graham's hometown of Montreat, North Carolinaand sought the preacher's endorsement. Supportive of Johnson's domestic billies graham biography video walt, and hoping to preserve his friendship with the president, Graham resisted pressure to endorse Goldwater and stayed neutral in the election.

Following Johnson's election victory, Graham's role as the main White House pastor was solidified. At one point, Johnson even considered making Graham a member of his cabinet and grooming him to be his successor, though Graham insisted he had no political ambitions and wished to remain a preacher. He spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.

InNixon appeared at a Graham revival in East Tennesseewhich they thought safe politically. It drew one of the largest crowds in Tennessee of protesters against the Vietnam War. Nixon was the first president to give a speech from an evangelist's platform. Graham officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B.

Johnson in and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated at the funeral services of former First Lady Pat Nixon in[ 23 ] and the death and state funeral of Richard Nixon in Bush in his eulogy. Graham had a friendly relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and was frequently invited by the Royal Family to special events.

Their friendly relationship may have been because they shared a traditional approach to the practical aspects of the Christian faith. Graham was outspoken against communism and supported the American Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. In a secret letter from April 15,made public twenty years later, Graham encouraged Nixon to bomb the dikes in North Vietnam if the peace talks in Paris should fail.

This action would "destroy the economy of North Vietnam" and, by Nixon's estimate, would have killed a million people. InGraham preached in the Soviet Union and attended a wreath-laying ceremony to honor the war dead of World War IIwhen the Soviets were American allies in the fight against Nazism. He voiced fear of a second holocaust, not against Jews, but "a nuclear holocaust " and advised that "our greatest contribution to world peace is to live with Christ every day.

In a speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sungpraising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese ". Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and then-current North Korean leader Kim Jong Ilhe had "exchanged gifts with him".

During the Watergate affair, there were suggestions that Graham had expressed antisemitic opinions in private discussions with Richard Nixon; he denied this, stressing his efforts to build bridges to the Jewish community. Inthe controversy was renewed when declassified " Richard Nixon tapes " confirmed remarks made by Graham to Nixon three decades earlier.

When the tapes were made public, Graham apologized [ ] [ ] and said, "Although I have no memory of the occasion, I deeply regret comments I apparently made in an Oval Office conversation with President Nixon They do not reflect my views and I sincerely apologize for any offense caused by the remarks. Inmore Nixon tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in a conversation with Nixon referring to a group of Jewish journalists as "the synagogue of Satan ".

A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an antisemite and that the comparison in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation [ ] was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews, but not billy graham biography video walt to traditional Jewish values. After a crusade in New York, some more fundamentalist Protestant Christians criticized Graham for his ecumenismeven calling him " Antichrist ".

Graham expressed inclusivist views, suggesting that people without explicit faith in Jesus can be saved. In a interview with Robert SchullerGraham said:. I think that everybody that loves or knows Christ, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are members of the body of Christ They may not know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something they do not have, and they turn to the only light they have, and I think that they are saved and they are going to be with us in heaven.

Iain Murraywriting from a conservative Protestant standpoint, argues that "Graham's concessions are sad words from one who once spoke on the basis of biblical certainties. InGraham stated that feminism was "an echo of our overall philosophy of permissiveness" and that women did not want to be "competitive juggernauts pitted against male chauvinists".

Graham's assertions, published in the Ladies' Home Journalelicited letters of protest, and were offered as rebuttal to the establishment of "The New Feminism" section of the publication that had added following a sit-in protest at the Journal offices demanding female representation on the staff of the publication. Graham's daughter Bunny recounted her father denying her and her sisters higher education.

As reported in The Washington Post : [ ]. Bunny remembers being groomed for the life of wife, homemaker, and mother. No reason, no explanation, just 'No. Mother has not. Graham talked his future wife, Ruth, into abandoning her ambition to evangelize in Tibet in favor of staying in the United States to marry him — and that to do otherwise would be "to thwart God's obvious will".

Graham regarded homosexuality as a sin, and in described it as "a sinister form of perversion". InGraham and his son, Franklinpublicly endorsed North Carolina Amendment 1a measure to ban same-sex marriage in the state. They both condemned President Obama's public declaration of support for same-sex marriage later that year. Graham was frequently honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American", and consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world.

Inhe was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey Collegea Roman Catholic school. Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He was cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. Graham was a friend of the Reagans for years.

InQueen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary knighthood. Graham received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more. Former presidents Jimmy CarterGeorge H. Bushand Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. As Graham's final crusade approached inhis friend Pat Boone chose to create a song in honor of Graham, [ ] which he co-wrote and produced with David Pack and Billy Dean[ ] who digitally combined studio recordings of various artists into what has been called a "' We Are the World '-type" production.

The movie Billy: The Early Years officially premiered in theaters on October 10,less than one month before Graham's 90th birthday. He has received several honorary doctorates. Nelson Bellwas a general surgeon. Graham and his wife had five children together. At the time of his death at age 99 inGraham was survived by 5 children, 19 grandchildren including Tullian Tchividjian and Will Graham41 great-grandchildren, and 6 great-great-grandchildren.

Inhe became a member of the First Baptist Church Dallasalthough he never lived in the state of Texas. You bless us with your comment. May God lead and bless YOU all the days of your life. In looking for the largest gospel crusade ever up came the Seoul Korea crusade. Thank you Billy for your impact for the Lord. Amen, David! Thank you for your comment.

May your ministry and life be greatly blessed. Donna, could you tell me the date that you wrote this biography? My son is using it as a reference for a research paper on Billy Graham and he needs to reference this biography with the date it was written. Thank you! Cindy, thank you so much for sharing your personal history with relation to Reverend Billy Graham.

What a lovely memory. The additional information you provide is much appreciated. God bless you for taking time to write in! Very well-written, spell-binding biography, about such a wonderful man!! I really like the response Ruth had about coming in the closed door. I had the priviledge to participate in the choir in in Denver, with Cliff and Tom Bledsoe.

Must be like what heaven is like on a smaller scale. Very good wording and description for people who use screen-readers. Thank you. Thank you so much for the life of Ms. Donna for job well done. In this generation of our we really need an inspiration and a testimony like life of Rev. Glory and honor belongs to our living God. More blessing to you Ms.

Donna Wyland. He truly is a faithful man called by God to perform extraordinary tasks. Waaw, what amazing biograph, its so inspiring and life changing story. God bless you Donna. I was pretty pleased to discover this web site. I want to to thank you for ones time just for this wonderful read!! I definitely liked every little bit of it and i also have you saved to fav to look at new things on your website.

I was so inspired that I did some research on the Graham family. Forgive me. I just saw your comment and question. All of her books contain beautiful and powerful truth and are worthy of study. I am a catholic priest, namely fr. Billy Graham. Thank you and God Bless him. WIlliam Sahota. And God bless you, Father Sahota! May God use you mightily to lead many in India to eternal life in Jesus.

Thank you so much for sharing your inspiring testimony. Wonderful article Donna. I was wondering who and when gave him the title of Reverend? Thank you so much. I assume during his active years as pastor and evangelist he was referred to as Reverend by church members and Crusade attendees. Thank you for an excellent question! Thank you so much for your well-written piece of work.

I knew the Graham family, having lived in Charlotte,NC. My father was their pastor in the sixties. We would pass by a small house that I understood was the birthplace of Billy Graham. It was on Park Road, near the house pictured and re-located at the library. I was just wondering why this house is never mentioned. I cannot find any information or pictures online.

It has since been torn down. There is a plaque on the location where the house once stood.

Billy graham biography video walt

Thank you and God bless. I know Dr Billy Graham is man of God. When I was praying to Lord Jesus, that voice I heared. Thanks be to God. God bless you all. Billy Graham is a great man of God. He has served our Lord, Jesus Christ. One day he will go to heaven and he will be sorely missed. Her grandmother Webb was named Graham before she married her husband, my grandfather in law.

I would imagine that my Scottish-American wife is a distant cousin to Billy. May God bless him and give him peace. An inspired biography, am amazed the work the man of God did for such number of born again — men and women. Blessed be to our Heavenly father and all anointing men and women who associated in such a great ministry. Donna thank you for being touched and wrote an inspired biography.

Thank you for taking us on a journey to travel the extraordinary call, the extraordinary man, and the extraordinary response from the world toward Billy Graham. The images captivated the milestones in his life and ministry, while the writing captivated the person of Billy Graham. An amazing well written biography on Dr.