Billy Graham, The Peerless Preacher

A young Billy Graham addresses 100,000 people at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 1954 (AP)

February 21, 2018 — American evangelist Billy Graham, a spiritual adviser to every US president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama, died on this day at the age of 99.

Graham, the most successful evangelist the world has known, preached the gospel to more people than anyone in history.

His meetings were called “crusades” – and he held 417 of them around the globe. According to The Billy Graham Library, his biggest crusade was in Seoul, South Korea in 1973, when 3.2 million people attended the five-day event.

He has been rated by the Gallup organisation as "One of the Ten Most Admired Men in the World" no less than 51 times.

William Franklin Graham, Jr. was born on November 7, 1918, in Charlotte, North Carolina, the first of four children in a modestly prosperous dairy farming family.

While attending college he poured all his energies into the art of preaching, sometimes memorising whole texts of sermons that he had read. He attended the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College) and while there joined a Southern Baptist Convention church, where he was ordained in 1939.

Soon, he was a member of Youth for Christ (YFC), an evangelical missionary group, which gave him the opportunity and means to preach at high schools and colleges, civic clubs and business groups across the country.

With funds supplied by the group’s wealthy backers, he visited 47 states during 1945, logging up 135,000 miles. United Airlines named him as their most frequent civilian flyer.

YFC rallies, which continued for some years, featured a horse that knelt before the cross and tapped its hoof 12 times when asked to give the number of Christ’s apostles. The rallies also offered youth choirs and music played on a “consecrated saxophone”.

All this came to the attention of publisher William Randolph Hearst, and Graham tells in his autobiography, "Just As I Am" (HarperCollins), how Hearst’s two-word directive to his newspaper executives – “puff Graham” – helped turn him into a nationwide celebrity.

The front-page coverage showered on Graham by Hearst newspapers was quickly followed by other publications. But the evangelist never knew why Hearst acted as he did. He says in his book: “Hearst and I did not meet, talk by phone, or correspond as long as he lived.”

Whatever the reason, the publicity helped turn Graham into a Christian superstar, a status that was reinforced in 1950 when he entered major-league broadcasting.

Within weeks of its launch, his radio show, "The Hour of Decision", had attracted the largest audience ever recorded for a religious broadcast, spreading to 1,000 radio stations in the US. A television version was broadcast on the ABC network the following year.

By the end of the 20th century, Billy Graham had preached the gospel on every inhabited continent. But convinced that Satan would stop at nothing to trap him, he told staff to screen his hotel rooms for possible female infiltrators, and he never travelled in a car with any woman except his wife.

Millions sought Graham’s spiritual guidance, including celebrities such as Martin Luther King Jr., Bono and Muhammad Ali, not to mention a line of US presidents from Harry Truman, through Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. He played golf with Gerald Ford and went on holiday with George H. W. Bush.

In 1955 he held a three-month crusade in London which attracted 12 million people. And there he met the Queen – the start of a long friendship. He returned to the UK the following year for a tour of Scotland, and a week-long stint in London. He then preached at Windsor Chapel by royal invitation.

In his book Graham wrote: “Good manners do not permit one to discuss the details of a private visit with Her Majesty, but I can say that I judge her to be a woman of rare modesty and character. . . She is unquestionably one of the best-informed people on world affairs I have ever met. . . I have always found her highly intelligent and knowledgeable about a wide variety of issues, not just politics.”

In 1992, doctors told Graham that he had hydrocephalus, a disease similar to Parkinson's. He died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, on February 21, 2018, at the age of 99.

“I’m looking forward with great anticipation to going to heaven,” he told an interviewer just before his final crusade in New York in June 2005, which was attended by 80,000 people. Heaven is a physical place, as real as London or Chicago, he said. Among other celebrities, he expected to find Elvis Presley there!

After Graham’s death former President George H. W. Bush said: "I think Billy touched the hearts of not only Christians, but people of all faiths, because he was such a good man.”

Donald Trump tweeted: "The GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man.”

Barack Obama wrote: “Billy Graham was a humble servant who prayed for so many – and who, with wisdom and grace, gave hope and guidance to generations of Americans.”

UK pop singer Cliff Richard, who revealed he had become a Christian at a Billy Graham crusade in London in 1966, said the world had lost someone special. "Dr Billy Graham was the most honourable and honest of men. I found him inspiring. His rallies were always moving and enlightening and he presented a 'hope' to many who didn't know that one existed.”

A social conservative, Graham opposed same-sex marriage and abortion, and held 20th century views that would shock the 21st century LGBT community. He also embraced the civil rights movement and spoke out against communism – one of America’s biggest fears in the 1950s.

He said in a 1954 interview: “Either communism must die, or Christianity must die, because it is actually a battle between Christ and anti-Christ."

He was much admired by his followers and picked up a sackful of awards.

They included the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Freedom Award, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion, the Big Brother Award, and the Speaker of the Year Award.

He was also recognised by the National Conference of Christians and Jews for promoting understanding between faiths. And, last but not least, the Queen bestowed upon him the honour of Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

Time magazine called him “the Pope of Protestant America.” And the evangelist was even given a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame for his media-savvy use of radio, television and films to boost his crusades.

Hopefully, he is now where he wanted to be – in heaven, singing along with Elvis!

Published: February 13, 2022
Updated: February 15, 2022