The world is a lesser place today, but Heaven is a better place because he is there. What a Christian! The man has been around my entire lifetime preaching and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave the invocation in Fayetteville in December 1969 before the big Shootout. As President George Bush said, “He was America’s Pastor”.
God speed. A wonderful person and role model.
My wife made it a point to call me earlier this morning to tell me. That’s a man she loved to hear speak. I mourn for so many who followed him all these years. The trip to Charlotte two years ago was interesting to me when you realize the impact Billy Graham had on that city and that area. You drive the Billy Graham Parkway and it gives you chills. You can’t help but think of the lives he has impacted.
“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.” — Billy Graham
50-100 years from now, will history look back and say that he was America’s last great evangelist? So many lives changed by Mr. Graham and time spent with Presidents and leaders, not just is the US but all across the world.
Jeff H.
He was totally devoted to one thing - spreading the gospel. No politics. No nonsense.
He was a positive influence in the lives of millions.
He made this world a better place.
RIP, Billy Graham.
Dr. Graham had a crusade in Little Rock at WMS (the 80’s I think). Our church was involved and we went every night. Many lives were changed that week. He was a man who lived to spread the good news.
What a man. Today he is healed and rejoicing with Jesus.
Wow! I didn’t see this and haven’t heard that Billy Graham had passed away!
I do know that he just did a change of address! What a wonderful man of God!
He will be missed! I know he is in heaven so I will see him again!
I never saw him in person (regret not going to the LR crusade in the 80’s) and didn’t frankly watch his stuff on TV growing up. I have been listening to old sermons of his on XM for the past few days and they are really good.
A true evangelistic icon across the world.
RIP Billy Graham.
For a guy who supposedly wasn’t involved in politics, he sure cozied up to a lot of presidents. Remember he was in Fayetteville with Richard Nixon for the '69 Texas game. And many observers give him a leading role in the increasing political involvement of American Protestant churches late in the 20th century.
Swine fusion, he was a friend and adviser to all Presidents (either party). He probably would have even been a friend to someone as obnoxious as you.
Agree with all that has been said. A great and wise man singularly focused on bringing the Good News to every corner of the world. Doubt we will ever see another like him.
I know he is in heaven. He earned his place there. I was blessed to have heard him speak while stationed in Vietnam.
Without getting into politics, as noted by another, he “cozied up to” Presidents from both sides. Listening to his old sermons: (1) it is clear he is a conservative at heart (2) unlike a lot of others, there is nothing overtly political in the ones I have listened to lately (no “get out and vote for this or that”) (3) was he anti pornography, anti premarital sex, anti drug use,etc. Yes. (4) did he call racism a sin? Yes.
In general, from listen to several hours of of sermons from the 50’s through the 80’s, he seemed to not put much faith in the government to solve problems like racism, crime, drug use, etc. At the time of course there wasn’t even a discussion about decriminalizing drugs, he just preached not to use them, that it was a sin. He continually called for individuals to make a change in their lives to deal with societies problems. For example, I just listened to a sermon from 1964 where he was lamenting the change in morals among the college age kids at the time. He quoted from several articles (Time, etc.) where college kids were talking about how sex outside of marriage was common, etc. No where in the sermon did he call for political action. He talked about pornographic magazines (I assume he was talking about Playboy at the time) and movies. No where did he call for political action. Did he call for those listening to not partake in such things? Yes.
Obviously when someone has a contrary opinion to you, they must be obnoxious. I think Billy Graham did some very good things and did a whole lot of damage too.
It is true that Graham was close to presidents of both parties. It is also true that he did all he could to make sure John Kennedy didn’t get elected because John Kennedy wasn’t a Protestant. One of Nixon’s White House tapes recorded a conversation with Graham in which they both decried the Jewish “stranglehold” on the media.
To be fair, it does seem that Graham’s kids Franklin and Ruth, both also evangelists, are much more involved in telling their audiences how to vote than Dad was, and perhaps I’m blaming him a bit for how his kids turned out.
I did not remember the Kennedy thing (don’t doubt it, just didn’t remember it). I know Jewish comments were made and he apologized for those comments later (doesn’t make it right, but it appears that most think the apology was sincere.) And you are 100% correct as to Franklin (don’t know much about Ruth). He is very politically active.
Franklin is a huckster. Just another person getting rich off of religion.
I don’t post much on here, but read the boards regularly, so my opinion may not matter much. Making a thread like this political is in poor taste. A great man, highly respected around the world, has died. Is it so hard to simply pass along a nice comment? Whatever happened to the adage about “if you can’t something nice, don’t say anything at all?”
As for the Franklin Graham comments, I can tell you first hand that he’s a very good man too. I know the man personally and work for him at Samaritan’s Purse. He cares deeply about hurting people all over the world and does all he can to help in a moments notice - and does so in the name of Jesus. Articles like this come out from time to time in reference to his “salary” and are incredibly misleading, and an example of poor journalism. That number you might read as his “salary” in the Washington Post isn’t the cash he takes in - it’s his taxable combined compensation for running two organizations. Almost half of that number are his flights to many less this fortunate places all over the world, which are required to be reported as compensation because he flies private and not commercial. He flies private because the boards of directors require him to do for security purposes as he receives, on average, one death threat a week. His actual salary is significantly less than that.