February 21, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Billy Graham took the role of evangelist to a new level, lifting it from the sawdust floors of canvas tents in small-town America to the podiums of packed stadiums in the world’s major cities.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
Eleven presidents, the Pope, and dozens of world leaders have
shared their personal thoughts about matters of faith with him.
(00:33):
We would like to give a wholehearted thank you to
the folks at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for granting
us permission to use the footage you're about to hear
from their exceptional film, Billy Graham An Extraordinary Journey. Here's
Greg Hengler with the story of Billy Graham.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Billy Graham was born on a dairy farm in Charlotte,
North Carolina, a November seventh, nineteen eighteen. As a boy,
he spent his time following baseball, reading Tarzan, and perfecting
his techniques swinging from vines in the nearby woods. Here's
Billy's mother, Marl Graham, his sister Jeane, his brother Melvin,
(01:17):
and Billy himself.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Every afternoon as Billy came through the doll mother, those
were his first words, and I knew Billy was on
the premises. He read every cause and book, and then
he would go down in the woods and he would
try to act out. Didn't work too well.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
He and Melvin worked on the dairy farm.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Melvin love hardwork.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
BILLI fryank Gally didn't like to do physical work.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Never did.
Speaker 7 (01:50):
My brother was interested primarily in two things. That would
be baseball and girls. I'm not sure which order.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
So I was just a camp rate kid having a
big time doing everything else that every other high school
kid was doing.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I didn't care anything about God or religion, a hell
or the devil, or anything else.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Billy was brought up in a devout Christian household, but
he had no interest in religious things. But when he
was fifteen, a friend informed him that some of the
high school students in Charlotte were going to pick it
the very popular traveling evangelist Mordecai Ham, declaring he has
no business telling us how to live our lives this
(02:33):
day and age. Billy went to see the standoff, but
when the students failed to show up, he decided to
go in and here for himself what this preacher had
to say. Here's Billy the voice of Mordecai Ham and
Billy's mother and brother.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
When Mordecai Ham came to Charlotte, I thought it was
some sort of big circle, saw a big emotionally bent
and I didn't have any thoughts about ever going. I've
never seen such a large crowd attending a religious meeting,
I think three or four thousand people, and it made
a great impression on me, and I decided I wanted
to go back the next night, and then the next
and then the next.
Speaker 9 (03:11):
You cannot be justified by your old Gilly the.
Speaker 10 (03:14):
Raised in your own works.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
It's what Christ has done for you and will.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
Do in you in all.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
By that time, I was coming under conviction that I
was a sinner, that I needed redemption myself, that I
needed Christ in my heart. I was a church member,
but I still knew that something was lacking. I knew
that I didn't have that personal relationship with Christ.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
One night, when the invitation was given, I just said, Lord,
I'm going. And it was on the last verse of
the last song that they sang in About four hundred
people went forward the night I did, and when I
stood there, I thought to myself, what a food I'm
making of myself in front of all my friends.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Here.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I went up to my room that night, didn't feel
any different. And I remember kneeling down as a full
moonlight night, and I never knelt before. I never prayed
like that before. And I said, Lord, I don't know
what's happened. I don't know what this means, but whatever
it means, I would appreciate your help.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
There was a definite turn in his life. We knew
then that the Lord had really gotten a whole lot
of it.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
His emphasis became more on what the preacher had been
preaching in wanting to know where he could go and
learn something about the Bible.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
In nineteen thirty seven, Billy enrolled in the Florida Bible Institute.
It was here where he experienced a calling he couldn't deny.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
I just felt God was speaking to me, and he
said I want to use you. And I put up
all the arguments I could that I was not Abel Paul,
didn't have the proper education. But God was calling me
and I knew that. So I got on my knees
right there and I said, Lord, I'll go where you
(05:11):
want me to go, and I'll be what you want
me to be. And I said, I'm yours. My first
sermon in a sort of big church was the first
Baptist church of Venice. I preached on a Sunday morning,
and the church was filled not to hear me. They
(05:32):
know me from Adam. I gave an invitation at the
end of my talk for people to come forward, and
I'd never done that before, and eleven people came. I'll
never forget that, and I was so moved in my
own heart that I said, Lord, maybe you have given
(05:55):
me a gift that I didn't know, that I can
give an invitation and people will come to cross. And
I began to give invitations after that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
In nineteen forty five, Billy joined the Youth for Christ
as a traveling evangelist, flying over one million miles during
the next four years. But he soon faced a dilemma
that threatened to derail his emerging ministry. Here's Billy's son,
Franklin Graham.
Speaker 11 (06:24):
There was this debate going on within his friends that
began to question scripture, and we're questioning why my father
believed in the Bible to be the wholly inspired word
of God.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
The arguments were that you couldn't really trust the scriptures
and that only the old fashioned fundamentalist could trust the scriptures.
And I began to think, well, perhaps they're right, Maybe
this Bible isn't as authoritative as I thought it was.
And I remember how disturbed I was for that, because
(06:59):
I'd all always believed in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Billy Graham was at a crossroads. The summer of nineteen
forty nine would bring him to a watershed moment.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you've been listening to the life story of Billy Graham,
as important a person as there was in the twentieth century.
And I don't mean just a pastor. And when we
come back, we'll continue this remarkable story, Billy Graham's story
here on our American Stories. Here are to our American Stories.
(07:32):
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(07:53):
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com and we continue now
with the story of Billy Graham's life, and Greg Hangler
(08:14):
is always doing a great job on the piece. Let's
get back to Billy Graham.
Speaker 12 (08:20):
I remember, many years ago I went through a terrible
struggle intellectually about the Bible. And I was concerned and
worried and battling with myself. And I remember going out
in the moonlight, out in the forest, and I took
this Bible and I said, Lord, I don't understand all
about this Bible. There are many things I cannot explain.
(08:45):
I remember laying the Bible out on a stump and
I said, Lord, this is your faviol I'm going to
accept it by faith.
Speaker 11 (08:55):
I accepted the Lord.
Speaker 13 (08:56):
Jesus Christ by faith, and he saved.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Me and changed me and transform me.
Speaker 12 (09:01):
I'm accepting this as your word by faith.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
I remember I used to prepare my sermons by getting
a little outline and then tearing up a Bible and
pasting them under those different points. And I just kept
quoting the scriptures and saying the Bible says, and it
had its own built in power to go. And God
honored the Bible says.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I am the looved. I change up evidence of his
new confidence presented itself in Los Angeles. Here's Billy Graham's biographer,
William Martin and Nephew Mill.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
When we started in those meetings in the tent at
Washington and Hill Street, I had this tremendous experience in
which I had experienced the authority of the scriptures, and
I went there and quoted the scriptures.
Speaker 13 (09:47):
I believe this sincerely from the depth of my heart.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
The meetings began to gather a little momentum during those
first three weeks, and then.
Speaker 14 (09:56):
One night, in what is one of the pivotal events
in Graham's career, he showed up at the tent and
the place was overflowing with newspaper reports.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
I said, what has happened? Why are you all here?
And one of them said, You've just been kissed by
William Randolph Hurst.
Speaker 15 (10:12):
And he showed him a piece of paper that looked
like it had been torn off of a wire service
machine and there were two famous words on it.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Puff Graham, you.
Speaker 8 (10:23):
Know, I never met mister Hurst. I never had any
correspondence with him in.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
My whole life.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
Whatever the reason, it certainly started a chain of events
that I never dreamed.
Speaker 14 (10:32):
And then that followed by Associated Press United Press International
News Service soon after its stories in Time Life, Newsweek,
and Billy Graham became nationally known. After that, the tent
was expanded, people standing outside, and a revival went on
another four weeks, which placed something of a burden on
(10:52):
Billy Graham.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
One night, at the encouragement of his wife and her
Christian friends, Louise Zamporini reluctantly joined the crowd. He gained
fame as an Olympic track star in nineteen thirty six,
and then, while on a search and rescue mission during
World War II, mechanical difficulties forced Samporini's plane to crash
into the ocean. After drifting at sea for forty seven days,
(11:20):
he was taken to a Japanese prison camp, where he
was tortured. Though he returned home a hero, he was
filled with bitter rage towards his Japanese captor, known as
the Bird, and had turned to alcohol to drown his pain.
Here's Louise Zamporini.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Billy Graham just having to quote the rich scriptures, and
he said the right change. That really stabbed me on
the heart, and I realized what I had to do.
Speaker 16 (11:48):
I'm the question in that day will be what did
you do with chasers?
Speaker 13 (11:51):
I have your trusted Christ's Jesus to say it.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
It all hit me at one time before I got
to the main aisle, and there I made my decision.
I knew when I was trying to ride, I knew
it was all over, and it was. I got back
here at Chapter Christ and my life was completely changed,
and it didn't changed ever since.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
After what became an eight week long revival, nothing would
ever be the same for Billy Graham and his wife,
Ruth Graham. Here's Billy's son ned.
Speaker 17 (12:23):
There had never been a Billy Graham without a Ruth Graham.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
In nineteen forty, at nearly twenty two years of age,
Billy was six feet and two inches tall, weighed about
one hundred and sixty pounds, and spoke with a strong
Southern drawl. It was at this time where Billy met
Ruth Bell while continuing his studies at Wheaton College near Chicago.
The daughter of medical missionaries in China, she was known
(12:49):
for her deep and disciplined Christian faith and mischievous fun.
Here's Billy and his mother.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
I was working on a furniture truck in the afternoons
for fifty cents an hour. This man that ran the
furniture truck began to tell me about this girl from China.
He said, she's the girl for you.
Speaker 17 (13:06):
Well, I had my eyes already on another girl, but
when I came out and saw her standing there, he said,
that is Ruth Bell. At that moment, I was in love,
and not only in love. Something told me inside she'll
be your wife.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Signy.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
He was so impressed by her, he rode home and says,
that is the girl I'm going to marry.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
I was frightened to death asked her for a date,
but I finally worked up enough courage to ask her
to go at Christmas time to the Messiah. And so
I took her to the Messiah and she was everything
that I had heard about her.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Here's Ruth.
Speaker 10 (13:47):
I remember when I was praying that night, and mind you,
I didn't even know the man. I'd just been with
him for that one date. But I just prayed and
I said, Lord, if you will let me share his life,
I will consider it the greatest honor possible. And fortunately
(14:08):
I didn't know what lay ahead. I wouldn't have had
the nerve to prayer, prayer.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Like that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Here's Franklin and Neddie.
Speaker 11 (14:14):
My mother loved my father, and my father loved and
adored her, and it was a partnership. They were called together.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
As a teen, mother was the tether to Dad's balloon.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
Can'd you imagine saying goodbye to my father knowing that
he's going to be going not just for a week,
but for two months, four months, six months. I don't
know how she did it.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
A lot of times I would go down this driveway
here with tears in my eyes. I didn't want to
go because I need to be several weeks or months
before i'd sea.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Here's daughter Gigi.
Speaker 18 (14:53):
There were times when she would go and take a
jacket out of his closet and sleep with it so
she could smell the smell.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
For a young woman, that's tough. Ruth's commitment enabled Billy
to remain faithful to God's call as opportunities to reach
people with the gospel grew beyond anything they could have
ever imagined, a journey that would last almost six decades.
Here's former news anchor Charles Gibson, Franklin Graham, and Billy's
(15:22):
music and program director Cliff Barrows.
Speaker 19 (15:27):
There has always been a hunger for faith in this
country and for answers. He really brought that basic yearning
and longing in people to the forefront.
Speaker 11 (15:41):
He had a burden and a call on his life
to take the Gospel message to as many people as
they possibly could. He appreciate to more people face to
face than any other person in history.
Speaker 13 (15:54):
You never hear Jesus saying, I think, well, perhaps this
is the way. He always said, this is the way,
the truth and the life.
Speaker 9 (16:05):
Bill said, I will go anywhere, at any time, at
any cost, to preach the Gospel. God took him at
his word, and Bill took God at his word.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Not only was Billy Graham willing to go anywhere, he
was also willing to use every effective communication tool available.
On June first, nineteen fifty seven, Americans witnessed the first
live telecast of a Billy Graham crusade. Here's Kathy Lee, Gifford,
Tom Brokaw and Brit Hume.
Speaker 13 (16:39):
No matter what.
Speaker 20 (16:40):
Your race, whatever color of the skin, God loves you.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
He knew how valuable media was.
Speaker 21 (16:46):
He knew how important it was to get his crusades
on television.
Speaker 22 (16:50):
Then millions and millions exponentially people would see it.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
Doc Graham had all the qualities handsome as movie star.
He spoken language everybody could under sand. Television was a
perfect medium for him.
Speaker 16 (17:03):
I'm asking you tonight to make a clean spark in.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
His eyes that was visible.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
I kind of couldn't take your eyes off.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And you're listening to the life story of Billy Graham,
and my goodness, what a story it is. Indeed a
burden and calling on his life. His son described taking
the Gospel to the world. He preached to more people
than anyone in world history. And that is indeed why
we're covering this story. There's never been one like him,
(17:31):
there may never be one like him. I'll go anywhere,
at any time, at any cost to spread the Gospel,
and my goodness, Billy Graham did just that. When we
come back, the great Billy Graham, his life story continues
here on our American Stories. And we continue with the
(18:09):
life story of Billy Graham here on our American Stories.
Let's pick up we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
No matter the audience or medium, Billy was always faithful
to the message. Here he is with Jack Parr, Johnny Carson,
Phil Donahue, and Larry King.
Speaker 8 (18:28):
Are you criticized for coming on the show. By the
more they're about to say.
Speaker 23 (18:32):
What do you do?
Speaker 17 (18:32):
There are a few people that criticizement, but I always
tell them that Christ went among Republicans and centers, and
I'm come with Jack Parr. The ten commandments can be
broken in your heart by thought and intent, and that's
the reason the Bible says that everybody is a center,
even ed is a center.
Speaker 11 (18:52):
Comes as quite a surprise.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Jesus said, if you look on a woman the lust
after in your heart, you've already committed.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Adult.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Have trouble with that one.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'll tell you why.
Speaker 17 (19:03):
The Bible says all have sinned, and that's the reason
we need the forgiveness of God. And that's why Christ
died on the cross.
Speaker 11 (19:11):
Okay, I don't want to belavey you with it. You
know you're really blushed.
Speaker 18 (19:14):
What Daddy would accept to go on these secular programs
because he felt like this was just one more way
that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be preached.
Speaker 24 (19:25):
And whether he was on Larry King Liveel Meet the Press,
or any show he did that was non religious in
any way, he never got off message. What is your purpose?
Speaker 5 (19:36):
He said, go into the whole world and proclaim this
message that God loves people, that he's interested in people,
he wants to help them in their present situation, and
he wants to save their souls. That's the reason it's
so important to know the word of God.
Speaker 19 (19:50):
You always knew with Graham that it was about the
message and not about the man many of.
Speaker 16 (19:57):
You tonight desperately need.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 16 (20:00):
Who is this unique person that comes across the pages
of history.
Speaker 13 (20:04):
The fine from Genesis for Revelation points to Christ.
Speaker 25 (20:07):
He was the son of God.
Speaker 16 (20:08):
He was the only one of the universe that could
bear all about.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Sins the human heart. It's the same the world over,
and the gospel is the same. It hasn't changed at all,
and people respond to it.
Speaker 13 (20:21):
I believe you are here by did buy an appointment.
I believe this is your knight with Almighty God.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Here's NFL coach Tony Dungee.
Speaker 25 (20:31):
I just loved that he didn't try to overwhelm you
with big words, that it was so.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Point blank he knew exactly what he meant.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I know that in the audience that almost everybody there
has experienced loneliness, They've experienced sin that they're sorry for
and They are people there that are afraid, and there
are people there that are hunger up for something to
believe in now.
Speaker 16 (21:00):
And from the Cross, God is saying to the whole world,
I love you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Billy Graham fought against racism his whole life, and especially
during its peak in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 13 (21:20):
Some people are predicting the possibility of a race war.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
It's not a.
Speaker 12 (21:26):
Problem in Alabama alone, It's.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
A world problem.
Speaker 13 (21:29):
Wherever you have through racism.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Is there an answer, Yes, there is an answer.
Speaker 13 (21:37):
The answer is in the Cross of Jesus Christ, and
there is a possibility of spiritual brotherhood in Christ alone.
Speaker 19 (21:49):
I have some very sad news for all of you.
Speaker 10 (21:54):
Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Graham, I believe you've just been informed of the tragic
death of doctor Martin Luther.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
And King Jr.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
Yeah, and I was just informed about five minutes ago,
and it comes as one of the greatest shocks of
my entire life.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
There is no excuse ever by hating.
Speaker 16 (22:17):
There is no excuse ever for bigotry and intolerance and prejudice.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
We are to love.
Speaker 16 (22:24):
I've got loved up.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Here's Bernice King.
Speaker 21 (22:28):
I think both doctor Graham and my father were trying
to make the world a better place.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Here's Reverend Howard Jones, BILLI.
Speaker 17 (22:38):
And Martin Wood, friends and a lot of whites damned
Billy for that.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
We demanded integration almost from the beginning of our meetings
in the South, and now today.
Speaker 8 (22:49):
It's almost impossible for the present.
Speaker 17 (22:51):
Generation to understand what things were in those days and
what it took to be that way. How many threatening
letters we got in, how many against my family as
a result of the stand that we took at that time.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Billy's public acts against racial segregation took place at his
crusades in the South during the early nineteen fifties.
Speaker 9 (23:13):
He walked into the crusade and they had ropes up.
Billy saw them.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Blacks were supposed to sit back of that and the
whites would sit in front.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I was appalled at it.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
And decided that I had to speak out on it
and had to do something about it. I said no
more of this, and I went to the head Hush
and asked him if he would remove the ropes, and
he said no, he wouldn't.
Speaker 9 (23:39):
Billy got up from the platform and he walked down,
passed the ushers, and took the ropes down himself.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
And I remember that the head hush resigned, and there
was quite a little fleck about that.
Speaker 21 (23:54):
His approach was more of trying to get people into
the relationship with Christ, that that would transformed their mindset
in the way in which they lived, so they will
see people differently and thus treat people differently.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
In New York, mister Billy Graham makes a dramatic denunciation.
Speaker 20 (24:19):
There's something wrong with human nature. What is it in
the nature of men that causes men to have intolerance?
And racial intolerance the problem of the world tonight.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Here's President Bill Clinton.
Speaker 26 (24:37):
Almost fifty years ago, my Sunday school teacher took me
to Little Rock to hear Billy Graham's crusade. The schools
were closed because of the Little Rock Central High School
immigration crisis. The White Citizens Council in Little Rock tried
to convince even to pressure Billy Graham and all of
his people to preach to.
Speaker 9 (24:58):
A segregated audience.
Speaker 26 (25:00):
He told them that they insisted on that he would
cancel the crusade and tell the whole world wine. And
when he issued the call at the end of this message,
thousands came down holding hands arm in arm crime. It
was the beginning of the end of the Old South
(25:20):
in my home state.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
But the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Speaker 16 (25:27):
By this shall old men know that you are My disciples,
then that you have love one to another, that is
a supernatural love given to you by God when you
received Christ. Christianity is not a white man's religion. And
don't let anybody ever tell you that it's quite a
black quite belongs to old people.
Speaker 20 (25:47):
He belongs to the whole world.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
His Gump's fuless for everyone. Billy's love for people, regardless
of race, nationality, or worldview was tested when he made
a trip inside the Iron Curtain in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 15 (26:08):
He was fearless, he was bold. He was always willing
to take a risk when it was for the right reason.
Speaker 12 (26:12):
Let us call the nations of the world to repentance.
Speaker 18 (26:16):
To be honest, I don't think the communist knew what
to do.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
With here's Billy's daughter, Ruth.
Speaker 10 (26:21):
He was criticized severely, even by evangelicals.
Speaker 18 (26:24):
But my father knew that God had called him to this.
Speaker 27 (26:27):
God had given him a burden for this, and he
was not going to be dissuaded.
Speaker 17 (26:31):
I looked on them as human beings in need of
the forgiveness of God and in need of a relationship
with Christ.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
And that's how I preached to them.
Speaker 17 (26:40):
That's how I spoke to them, and that's how I.
Speaker 11 (26:42):
Witnessed to them. You could see that there was a
revolution that was going to come because the people were
wanting to be free, free to worship God.
Speaker 15 (26:57):
The streets were just in line with people. We're standing
on everything, they could stand on, rooftops everywhere. And my
uncle simply held up the Bible, just held up the Bible.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And you're listening to the story of Billy Graham and
the love of God facing down totalitarians. And when we
come back, more of this remarkable story here on our
American Stories, and we continue with our American Stories. We
(27:39):
just heard the story of Billy Graham's role in the
Cold War and in the segregated South. Here's Greg Hengler
with the final chapter of his story.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Here's President George H. W. Bush.
Speaker 22 (27:54):
The moral awakening that Billy helped to ignite starting here
in America, ignited hope and kept its embers burning in
far away places behind an iron curtain. No question. Billy Graham,
with other messengers who carried forth the word, kept the
balance in the Cold War in Freedom's favor.
Speaker 23 (28:22):
Mister Gorbaschoff teared down this wall.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
I don't care what ideologies arise in the future.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
The ultimate winner is going to be the Kingdom of God.
And then there was September eleventh. Here's President George W.
Bush and Tom Broke Hall.
Speaker 23 (28:49):
I don't agree on a nation that it was in
shock over unbelievable attacks.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
We got unmoored as it were as a couver We
didn't know what to believe in anymore. I think people
were in search of something.
Speaker 23 (29:07):
I knew that we needed to help, you know, the
nation recover.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Here's Karl Rove and Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 27 (29:15):
The President wanted Reverend Graham to participate in the service
at the National Cathedral, and the big problem was that
there was no commercial air traffic. In fact, there were
no severe aircraft allowed to fly. We worked with the
Defense Department in the FAA to get special permission to fly.
(29:38):
On the morning of the service, there was literally one
severe aircraft above the nation.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Bringing Billy Gram to.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Worship September eleventh will go down in our history I
was a day to remember. No matter how hard we try,
words simply cannot express the horror, the shock, and the
revulsion we all feel over what took place in this
(30:09):
nation on Tuesday morning today.
Speaker 23 (30:12):
This is three days after a vicious attack. Just being
in his presence, you know, gave you a sense of calm,
and the nation needed calm.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
We come together today to affirm our conviction that God
cares for us. The Bible says that He's the God
of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles.
Speaker 22 (30:36):
They sat there watching on television with millions of other people.
Speaker 11 (30:39):
Tears are streaming down my face.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
We see all around us.
Speaker 11 (30:45):
He was a voice of reason.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
The Cross, He was the pastoral voice to the entire nation.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
The Cross tells us that God understands our suffering. So
he took upon himself in the person of Jesus Christ,
our sins and our suffering. And from the Cross, if
God declares, I love you. The story does not end
(31:14):
with the Cross for Christ. Let's call it evil and
death and hell. Yes, there's hope.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Over the years, beginning with President Harry Truman and extending
through the presidency of George W. Bush, Graham served as
their pastor, preacher, chaplain and counselor. Here's brit Hume, Larry King,
and Charles Gibson.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
I think presidents reached out to him because they wanted
what he had.
Speaker 11 (31:44):
Heard him one time criticized.
Speaker 24 (31:46):
I think his relationship was a comforter, a role of advisor.
Speaker 19 (31:52):
None of us were in on those one on one
sessions that he may have had with Bill Clinton when
he was in trouble, or with Lyndon John and when
he despaired over the war, or with George Bush when
he was about to send kids to war. While we
weren't in on those sessions, it's obvious that all of
those presidents said very openly, I can take such comfort
(32:14):
from talking to Billy Graham.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Here's President George H. W. Bush.
Speaker 22 (32:19):
Billy Graham, the man, the preacher, the humble farmer's son
who helped change the world is a spiritual gift to
all of us.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Here's the founder of Prison Fellowship, Chuck Colson.
Speaker 28 (32:37):
One of my favorite stories about Billy Graham is the
Memphis prison. They set up almost like a stadium inside
the big prison yard and brought in the people from
all the surrounding prisons. But when it was over. I
went up and said, Billy, whenever I preach in the prisons,
I always go into the segregation unit because those who
(32:58):
are in isolation can't come out. And all the aides
were trying to pull doctor Graham away from the crowds,
and he said, no, I want to follow Chuck. And
so we went into the segregation unit, walked through from
cell to sell and the only way we could talk
to them was through a little hole where you passed
food through in this cold, dank prison concrete floor. Billy
(33:23):
Graham sat there and spent about ten minutes leading that
man to Christ. He took wrong with that man on
death Row that day. Then he had taken almost to speak.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Here again is Cliff Barrows.
Speaker 9 (33:37):
He would be visiting the battlefields and oftentimes the hospitals,
and I remember one time there was a soldier they'd
brought in. He was in a striker frame. He'd been
severely injured on the battlefield, and the only way Bill
could see him was to get down on his back
and slide under that hospital bed and look at him.
(34:00):
And as the fellow looked and saw mister Graham on
his back and Billy looking at him, and saying, God
bless you, buddy. Let me pray for you, the tears
coming down, the soldier's eyes falling on Bill.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Here's Billy Graham at a press conference for his final crusade.
Speaker 29 (34:25):
Oh my, I've been as so many times lately. Do
I fear death?
Speaker 25 (34:40):
No, I'll look forward to death with great anticipation.
Speaker 29 (34:46):
I'm looking forward to seeing God face to face, and
that can happen in the day.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
On February twenty fifth, twenty eighteen, at ninety nine years
of ag each America and the world received the news.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
We have breaking news from North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The Reverend Billy Graham has died. The world is mourning
the laws. Here's Billy Graham's children speaking at his funeral service.
I believe, from Heaven's perspective that my father's death is
as significant as his life, and his life was very significant.
Speaker 11 (35:28):
My father was faithful, he was available, and he was teachable.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
May we all be that way.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
My father was not God, but he showed me what
God was like. He showed me unconditional love.
Speaker 11 (35:48):
He has often said that someday you'll read that Billy
Graham is dead. He said, don't you believe one.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Word of it?
Speaker 11 (35:55):
He said, I'll be more alive than I am now.
I'll have just changed addresses, that's all. And I can
only imagine what it was like for my father to
step into heaven and there was the Lord Jesus Christ
(36:15):
to say, well done, good and faithful servant. There was
the throne of God. Can you just imagine that my mother,
his mother, father, friends clapping, cheering, bill's ringing, trumpet's blowing.
(36:37):
Not because it was Billy Graham. It's just another child
of God had come home, another child of God.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
We will leave with these final words from Billy Graham.
Speaker 25 (36:50):
We're all under the sentence of death. We're all going
to die.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
We all need to be ready to meet God.
Speaker 25 (37:00):
Open your heart to Jesus. Have you repented of your sins?
I'm going to ask you to do that today. This
is the moment tonight. I want Jesus in my heart.
Speaker 16 (37:22):
You don't have law. You'll be an eternity, and the
decision you make tonight may decide where you'll be.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Do you know, Christ?
Speaker 11 (37:33):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I'm Greg Hengler and this is our American stories.
Speaker 13 (37:46):
I do not offer you a dead Christ. I offer
you a living seat.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
I offer you a living.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Christ, here is a lie.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
This MoMA alive.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And great job as always to Greg Hengler, and a
very special thanks once again to the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association for all that remarkable footage the life story of
Billy Graham. Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
Eleven presidents, the Pope, and dozens of world leaders have
shared their personal thoughts about matters of faith with him.
(00:33):
We would like to give a wholehearted thank you to
the folks at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for granting
us permission to use the footage you're about to hear
from their exceptional film, Billy Graham An Extraordinary Journey. Here's
Greg Hengler with the story of Billy Graham.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Billy Graham was born on a dairy farm in Charlotte,
North Carolina, a November seventh, nineteen eighteen. As a boy,
he spent his time following baseball, reading Tarzan, and perfecting
his techniques swinging from vines in the nearby woods. Here's
Billy's mother, Marl Graham, his sister Jeane, his brother Melvin,
(01:17):
and Billy himself.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Every afternoon as Billy came through the doll mother, those
were his first words, and I knew Billy was on
the premises. He read every cause and book, and then
he would go down in the woods and he would
try to act out. Didn't work too well.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
He and Melvin worked on the dairy farm.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Melvin love hardwork.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
BILLI fryank Gally didn't like to do physical work.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Never did.
Speaker 7 (01:50):
My brother was interested primarily in two things. That would
be baseball and girls. I'm not sure which order.
Speaker 8 (02:00):
So I was just a camp rate kid having a
big time doing everything else that every other high school
kid was doing.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
I didn't care anything about God or religion, a hell
or the devil, or anything else.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Billy was brought up in a devout Christian household, but
he had no interest in religious things. But when he
was fifteen, a friend informed him that some of the
high school students in Charlotte were going to pick it
the very popular traveling evangelist Mordecai Ham, declaring he has
no business telling us how to live our lives this
(02:33):
day and age. Billy went to see the standoff, but
when the students failed to show up, he decided to
go in and here for himself what this preacher had
to say. Here's Billy the voice of Mordecai Ham and
Billy's mother and brother.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
When Mordecai Ham came to Charlotte, I thought it was
some sort of big circle, saw a big emotionally bent
and I didn't have any thoughts about ever going. I've
never seen such a large crowd attending a religious meeting,
I think three or four thousand people, and it made
a great impression on me, and I decided I wanted
to go back the next night, and then the next
and then the next.
Speaker 9 (03:11):
You cannot be justified by your old Gilly the.
Speaker 10 (03:14):
Raised in your own works.
Speaker 8 (03:17):
It's what Christ has done for you and will.
Speaker 7 (03:20):
Do in you in all.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
By that time, I was coming under conviction that I
was a sinner, that I needed redemption myself, that I
needed Christ in my heart. I was a church member,
but I still knew that something was lacking. I knew
that I didn't have that personal relationship with Christ.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
One night, when the invitation was given, I just said, Lord,
I'm going. And it was on the last verse of
the last song that they sang in About four hundred
people went forward the night I did, and when I
stood there, I thought to myself, what a food I'm
making of myself in front of all my friends.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Here.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I went up to my room that night, didn't feel
any different. And I remember kneeling down as a full
moonlight night, and I never knelt before. I never prayed
like that before. And I said, Lord, I don't know
what's happened. I don't know what this means, but whatever
it means, I would appreciate your help.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
There was a definite turn in his life. We knew
then that the Lord had really gotten a whole lot
of it.
Speaker 7 (04:30):
His emphasis became more on what the preacher had been
preaching in wanting to know where he could go and
learn something about the Bible.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
In nineteen thirty seven, Billy enrolled in the Florida Bible Institute.
It was here where he experienced a calling he couldn't deny.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
I just felt God was speaking to me, and he
said I want to use you. And I put up
all the arguments I could that I was not Abel Paul,
didn't have the proper education. But God was calling me
and I knew that. So I got on my knees
right there and I said, Lord, I'll go where you
(05:11):
want me to go, and I'll be what you want
me to be. And I said, I'm yours. My first
sermon in a sort of big church was the first
Baptist church of Venice. I preached on a Sunday morning,
and the church was filled not to hear me. They
(05:32):
know me from Adam. I gave an invitation at the
end of my talk for people to come forward, and
I'd never done that before, and eleven people came. I'll
never forget that, and I was so moved in my
own heart that I said, Lord, maybe you have given
(05:55):
me a gift that I didn't know, that I can
give an invitation and people will come to cross. And
I began to give invitations after that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
In nineteen forty five, Billy joined the Youth for Christ
as a traveling evangelist, flying over one million miles during
the next four years. But he soon faced a dilemma
that threatened to derail his emerging ministry. Here's Billy's son,
Franklin Graham.
Speaker 11 (06:24):
There was this debate going on within his friends that
began to question scripture, and we're questioning why my father
believed in the Bible to be the wholly inspired word
of God.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
The arguments were that you couldn't really trust the scriptures
and that only the old fashioned fundamentalist could trust the scriptures.
And I began to think, well, perhaps they're right, Maybe
this Bible isn't as authoritative as I thought it was.
And I remember how disturbed I was for that, because
(06:59):
I'd all always believed in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Billy Graham was at a crossroads. The summer of nineteen
forty nine would bring him to a watershed moment.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And you've been listening to the life story of Billy Graham,
as important a person as there was in the twentieth century.
And I don't mean just a pastor. And when we
come back, we'll continue this remarkable story, Billy Graham's story
here on our American Stories. Here are to our American Stories.
(07:32):
We bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told that we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
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like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
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(07:53):
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com and we continue now
with the story of Billy Graham's life, and Greg Hangler
(08:14):
is always doing a great job on the piece. Let's
get back to Billy Graham.
Speaker 12 (08:20):
I remember, many years ago I went through a terrible
struggle intellectually about the Bible. And I was concerned and
worried and battling with myself. And I remember going out
in the moonlight, out in the forest, and I took
this Bible and I said, Lord, I don't understand all
about this Bible. There are many things I cannot explain.
(08:45):
I remember laying the Bible out on a stump and
I said, Lord, this is your faviol I'm going to
accept it by faith.
Speaker 11 (08:55):
I accepted the Lord.
Speaker 13 (08:56):
Jesus Christ by faith, and he saved.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Me and changed me and transform me.
Speaker 12 (09:01):
I'm accepting this as your word by faith.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
I remember I used to prepare my sermons by getting
a little outline and then tearing up a Bible and
pasting them under those different points. And I just kept
quoting the scriptures and saying the Bible says, and it
had its own built in power to go. And God
honored the Bible says.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I am the looved. I change up evidence of his
new confidence presented itself in Los Angeles. Here's Billy Graham's biographer,
William Martin and Nephew Mill.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
When we started in those meetings in the tent at
Washington and Hill Street, I had this tremendous experience in
which I had experienced the authority of the scriptures, and
I went there and quoted the scriptures.
Speaker 13 (09:47):
I believe this sincerely from the depth of my heart.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
The meetings began to gather a little momentum during those
first three weeks, and then.
Speaker 14 (09:56):
One night, in what is one of the pivotal events
in Graham's career, he showed up at the tent and
the place was overflowing with newspaper reports.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
I said, what has happened? Why are you all here?
And one of them said, You've just been kissed by
William Randolph Hurst.
Speaker 15 (10:12):
And he showed him a piece of paper that looked
like it had been torn off of a wire service
machine and there were two famous words on it.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Puff Graham, you.
Speaker 8 (10:23):
Know, I never met mister Hurst. I never had any
correspondence with him in.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
My whole life.
Speaker 8 (10:27):
Whatever the reason, it certainly started a chain of events
that I never dreamed.
Speaker 14 (10:32):
And then that followed by Associated Press United Press International
News Service soon after its stories in Time Life, Newsweek,
and Billy Graham became nationally known. After that, the tent
was expanded, people standing outside, and a revival went on
another four weeks, which placed something of a burden on
(10:52):
Billy Graham.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
One night, at the encouragement of his wife and her
Christian friends, Louise Zamporini reluctantly joined the crowd. He gained
fame as an Olympic track star in nineteen thirty six,
and then, while on a search and rescue mission during
World War II, mechanical difficulties forced Samporini's plane to crash
into the ocean. After drifting at sea for forty seven days,
(11:20):
he was taken to a Japanese prison camp, where he
was tortured. Though he returned home a hero, he was
filled with bitter rage towards his Japanese captor, known as
the Bird, and had turned to alcohol to drown his pain.
Here's Louise Zamporini.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
Billy Graham just having to quote the rich scriptures, and
he said the right change. That really stabbed me on
the heart, and I realized what I had to do.
Speaker 16 (11:48):
I'm the question in that day will be what did
you do with chasers?
Speaker 13 (11:51):
I have your trusted Christ's Jesus to say it.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
It all hit me at one time before I got
to the main aisle, and there I made my decision.
I knew when I was trying to ride, I knew
it was all over, and it was. I got back
here at Chapter Christ and my life was completely changed,
and it didn't changed ever since.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
After what became an eight week long revival, nothing would
ever be the same for Billy Graham and his wife,
Ruth Graham. Here's Billy's son ned.
Speaker 17 (12:23):
There had never been a Billy Graham without a Ruth Graham.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
In nineteen forty, at nearly twenty two years of age,
Billy was six feet and two inches tall, weighed about
one hundred and sixty pounds, and spoke with a strong
Southern drawl. It was at this time where Billy met
Ruth Bell while continuing his studies at Wheaton College near Chicago.
The daughter of medical missionaries in China, she was known
(12:49):
for her deep and disciplined Christian faith and mischievous fun.
Here's Billy and his mother.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
I was working on a furniture truck in the afternoons
for fifty cents an hour. This man that ran the
furniture truck began to tell me about this girl from China.
He said, she's the girl for you.
Speaker 17 (13:06):
Well, I had my eyes already on another girl, but
when I came out and saw her standing there, he said,
that is Ruth Bell. At that moment, I was in love,
and not only in love. Something told me inside she'll
be your wife.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Signy.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
He was so impressed by her, he rode home and says,
that is the girl I'm going to marry.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
I was frightened to death asked her for a date,
but I finally worked up enough courage to ask her
to go at Christmas time to the Messiah. And so
I took her to the Messiah and she was everything
that I had heard about her.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Here's Ruth.
Speaker 10 (13:47):
I remember when I was praying that night, and mind you,
I didn't even know the man. I'd just been with
him for that one date. But I just prayed and
I said, Lord, if you will let me share his life,
I will consider it the greatest honor possible. And fortunately
(14:08):
I didn't know what lay ahead. I wouldn't have had
the nerve to prayer, prayer.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Like that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Here's Franklin and Neddie.
Speaker 11 (14:14):
My mother loved my father, and my father loved and
adored her, and it was a partnership. They were called together.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
As a teen, mother was the tether to Dad's balloon.
Speaker 11 (14:29):
Can'd you imagine saying goodbye to my father knowing that
he's going to be going not just for a week,
but for two months, four months, six months. I don't
know how she did it.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
A lot of times I would go down this driveway
here with tears in my eyes. I didn't want to
go because I need to be several weeks or months
before i'd sea.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Here's daughter Gigi.
Speaker 18 (14:53):
There were times when she would go and take a
jacket out of his closet and sleep with it so
she could smell the smell.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
For a young woman, that's tough. Ruth's commitment enabled Billy
to remain faithful to God's call as opportunities to reach
people with the gospel grew beyond anything they could have
ever imagined, a journey that would last almost six decades.
Here's former news anchor Charles Gibson, Franklin Graham, and Billy's
(15:22):
music and program director Cliff Barrows.
Speaker 19 (15:27):
There has always been a hunger for faith in this
country and for answers. He really brought that basic yearning
and longing in people to the forefront.
Speaker 11 (15:41):
He had a burden and a call on his life
to take the Gospel message to as many people as
they possibly could. He appreciate to more people face to
face than any other person in history.
Speaker 13 (15:54):
You never hear Jesus saying, I think, well, perhaps this
is the way. He always said, this is the way,
the truth and the life.
Speaker 9 (16:05):
Bill said, I will go anywhere, at any time, at
any cost, to preach the Gospel. God took him at
his word, and Bill took God at his word.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Not only was Billy Graham willing to go anywhere, he
was also willing to use every effective communication tool available.
On June first, nineteen fifty seven, Americans witnessed the first
live telecast of a Billy Graham crusade. Here's Kathy Lee, Gifford,
Tom Brokaw and Brit Hume.
Speaker 13 (16:39):
No matter what.
Speaker 20 (16:40):
Your race, whatever color of the skin, God loves you.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
He knew how valuable media was.
Speaker 21 (16:46):
He knew how important it was to get his crusades
on television.
Speaker 22 (16:50):
Then millions and millions exponentially people would see it.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
Doc Graham had all the qualities handsome as movie star.
He spoken language everybody could under sand. Television was a
perfect medium for him.
Speaker 16 (17:03):
I'm asking you tonight to make a clean spark in.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
His eyes that was visible.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
I kind of couldn't take your eyes off.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
And you're listening to the life story of Billy Graham,
and my goodness, what a story it is. Indeed a
burden and calling on his life. His son described taking
the Gospel to the world. He preached to more people
than anyone in world history. And that is indeed why
we're covering this story. There's never been one like him,
(17:31):
there may never be one like him. I'll go anywhere,
at any time, at any cost to spread the Gospel,
and my goodness, Billy Graham did just that. When we
come back, the great Billy Graham, his life story continues
here on our American Stories. And we continue with the
(18:09):
life story of Billy Graham here on our American Stories.
Let's pick up we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
No matter the audience or medium, Billy was always faithful
to the message. Here he is with Jack Parr, Johnny Carson,
Phil Donahue, and Larry King.
Speaker 8 (18:28):
Are you criticized for coming on the show. By the
more they're about to say.
Speaker 23 (18:32):
What do you do?
Speaker 17 (18:32):
There are a few people that criticizement, but I always
tell them that Christ went among Republicans and centers, and
I'm come with Jack Parr. The ten commandments can be
broken in your heart by thought and intent, and that's
the reason the Bible says that everybody is a center,
even ed is a center.
Speaker 11 (18:52):
Comes as quite a surprise.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Jesus said, if you look on a woman the lust
after in your heart, you've already committed.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Adult.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Have trouble with that one.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I'll tell you why.
Speaker 17 (19:03):
The Bible says all have sinned, and that's the reason
we need the forgiveness of God. And that's why Christ
died on the cross.
Speaker 11 (19:11):
Okay, I don't want to belavey you with it. You
know you're really blushed.
Speaker 18 (19:14):
What Daddy would accept to go on these secular programs
because he felt like this was just one more way
that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be preached.
Speaker 24 (19:25):
And whether he was on Larry King Liveel Meet the Press,
or any show he did that was non religious in
any way, he never got off message. What is your purpose?
Speaker 5 (19:36):
He said, go into the whole world and proclaim this
message that God loves people, that he's interested in people,
he wants to help them in their present situation, and
he wants to save their souls. That's the reason it's
so important to know the word of God.
Speaker 19 (19:50):
You always knew with Graham that it was about the
message and not about the man many of.
Speaker 16 (19:57):
You tonight desperately need.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 16 (20:00):
Who is this unique person that comes across the pages
of history.
Speaker 13 (20:04):
The fine from Genesis for Revelation points to Christ.
Speaker 25 (20:07):
He was the son of God.
Speaker 16 (20:08):
He was the only one of the universe that could
bear all about.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Sins the human heart. It's the same the world over,
and the gospel is the same. It hasn't changed at all,
and people respond to it.
Speaker 13 (20:21):
I believe you are here by did buy an appointment.
I believe this is your knight with Almighty God.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Here's NFL coach Tony Dungee.
Speaker 25 (20:31):
I just loved that he didn't try to overwhelm you
with big words, that it was so.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Point blank he knew exactly what he meant.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
I know that in the audience that almost everybody there
has experienced loneliness, They've experienced sin that they're sorry for
and They are people there that are afraid, and there
are people there that are hunger up for something to
believe in now.
Speaker 16 (21:00):
And from the Cross, God is saying to the whole world,
I love you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Billy Graham fought against racism his whole life, and especially
during its peak in the nineteen sixties.
Speaker 13 (21:20):
Some people are predicting the possibility of a race war.
Speaker 9 (21:25):
It's not a.
Speaker 12 (21:26):
Problem in Alabama alone, It's.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
A world problem.
Speaker 13 (21:29):
Wherever you have through racism.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Is there an answer, Yes, there is an answer.
Speaker 13 (21:37):
The answer is in the Cross of Jesus Christ, and
there is a possibility of spiritual brotherhood in Christ alone.
Speaker 19 (21:49):
I have some very sad news for all of you.
Speaker 10 (21:54):
Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
Graham, I believe you've just been informed of the tragic
death of doctor Martin Luther.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
And King Jr.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
Yeah, and I was just informed about five minutes ago,
and it comes as one of the greatest shocks of
my entire life.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
There is no excuse ever by hating.
Speaker 16 (22:17):
There is no excuse ever for bigotry and intolerance and prejudice.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
We are to love.
Speaker 16 (22:24):
I've got loved up.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Here's Bernice King.
Speaker 21 (22:28):
I think both doctor Graham and my father were trying
to make the world a better place.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Here's Reverend Howard Jones, BILLI.
Speaker 17 (22:38):
And Martin Wood, friends and a lot of whites damned
Billy for that.
Speaker 5 (22:43):
We demanded integration almost from the beginning of our meetings
in the South, and now today.
Speaker 8 (22:49):
It's almost impossible for the present.
Speaker 17 (22:51):
Generation to understand what things were in those days and
what it took to be that way. How many threatening
letters we got in, how many against my family as
a result of the stand that we took at that time.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Billy's public acts against racial segregation took place at his
crusades in the South during the early nineteen fifties.
Speaker 9 (23:13):
He walked into the crusade and they had ropes up.
Billy saw them.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Blacks were supposed to sit back of that and the
whites would sit in front.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I was appalled at it.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
And decided that I had to speak out on it
and had to do something about it. I said no
more of this, and I went to the head Hush
and asked him if he would remove the ropes, and
he said no, he wouldn't.
Speaker 9 (23:39):
Billy got up from the platform and he walked down,
passed the ushers, and took the ropes down himself.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
And I remember that the head hush resigned, and there
was quite a little fleck about that.
Speaker 21 (23:54):
His approach was more of trying to get people into
the relationship with Christ, that that would transformed their mindset
in the way in which they lived, so they will
see people differently and thus treat people differently.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
In New York, mister Billy Graham makes a dramatic denunciation.
Speaker 20 (24:19):
There's something wrong with human nature. What is it in
the nature of men that causes men to have intolerance?
And racial intolerance the problem of the world tonight.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Here's President Bill Clinton.
Speaker 26 (24:37):
Almost fifty years ago, my Sunday school teacher took me
to Little Rock to hear Billy Graham's crusade. The schools
were closed because of the Little Rock Central High School
immigration crisis. The White Citizens Council in Little Rock tried
to convince even to pressure Billy Graham and all of
his people to preach to.
Speaker 9 (24:58):
A segregated audience.
Speaker 26 (25:00):
He told them that they insisted on that he would
cancel the crusade and tell the whole world wine. And
when he issued the call at the end of this message,
thousands came down holding hands arm in arm crime. It
was the beginning of the end of the Old South
(25:20):
in my home state.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
But the fruit of the Spirit is love.
Speaker 16 (25:27):
By this shall old men know that you are My disciples,
then that you have love one to another, that is
a supernatural love given to you by God when you
received Christ. Christianity is not a white man's religion. And
don't let anybody ever tell you that it's quite a
black quite belongs to old people.
Speaker 20 (25:47):
He belongs to the whole world.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
His Gump's fuless for everyone. Billy's love for people, regardless
of race, nationality, or worldview was tested when he made
a trip inside the Iron Curtain in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 15 (26:08):
He was fearless, he was bold. He was always willing
to take a risk when it was for the right reason.
Speaker 12 (26:12):
Let us call the nations of the world to repentance.
Speaker 18 (26:16):
To be honest, I don't think the communist knew what
to do.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
With here's Billy's daughter, Ruth.
Speaker 10 (26:21):
He was criticized severely, even by evangelicals.
Speaker 18 (26:24):
But my father knew that God had called him to this.
Speaker 27 (26:27):
God had given him a burden for this, and he
was not going to be dissuaded.
Speaker 17 (26:31):
I looked on them as human beings in need of
the forgiveness of God and in need of a relationship
with Christ.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
And that's how I preached to them.
Speaker 17 (26:40):
That's how I spoke to them, and that's how I.
Speaker 11 (26:42):
Witnessed to them. You could see that there was a
revolution that was going to come because the people were
wanting to be free, free to worship God.
Speaker 15 (26:57):
The streets were just in line with people. We're standing
on everything, they could stand on, rooftops everywhere. And my
uncle simply held up the Bible, just held up the Bible.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And you're listening to the story of Billy Graham and
the love of God facing down totalitarians. And when we
come back, more of this remarkable story here on our
American Stories, and we continue with our American Stories. We
(27:39):
just heard the story of Billy Graham's role in the
Cold War and in the segregated South. Here's Greg Hengler
with the final chapter of his story.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Here's President George H. W. Bush.
Speaker 22 (27:54):
The moral awakening that Billy helped to ignite starting here
in America, ignited hope and kept its embers burning in
far away places behind an iron curtain. No question. Billy Graham,
with other messengers who carried forth the word, kept the
balance in the Cold War in Freedom's favor.
Speaker 23 (28:22):
Mister Gorbaschoff teared down this wall.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
I don't care what ideologies arise in the future.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
The ultimate winner is going to be the Kingdom of God.
And then there was September eleventh. Here's President George W.
Bush and Tom Broke Hall.
Speaker 23 (28:49):
I don't agree on a nation that it was in
shock over unbelievable attacks.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
We got unmoored as it were as a couver We
didn't know what to believe in anymore. I think people
were in search of something.
Speaker 23 (29:07):
I knew that we needed to help, you know, the
nation recover.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Here's Karl Rove and Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 27 (29:15):
The President wanted Reverend Graham to participate in the service
at the National Cathedral, and the big problem was that
there was no commercial air traffic. In fact, there were
no severe aircraft allowed to fly. We worked with the
Defense Department in the FAA to get special permission to fly.
(29:38):
On the morning of the service, there was literally one
severe aircraft above the nation.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Bringing Billy Gram to.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Worship September eleventh will go down in our history I
was a day to remember. No matter how hard we try,
words simply cannot express the horror, the shock, and the
revulsion we all feel over what took place in this
(30:09):
nation on Tuesday morning today.
Speaker 23 (30:12):
This is three days after a vicious attack. Just being
in his presence, you know, gave you a sense of calm,
and the nation needed calm.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
We come together today to affirm our conviction that God
cares for us. The Bible says that He's the God
of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles.
Speaker 22 (30:36):
They sat there watching on television with millions of other people.
Speaker 11 (30:39):
Tears are streaming down my face.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
We see all around us.
Speaker 11 (30:45):
He was a voice of reason.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
The Cross, He was the pastoral voice to the entire nation.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
The Cross tells us that God understands our suffering. So
he took upon himself in the person of Jesus Christ,
our sins and our suffering. And from the Cross, if
God declares, I love you. The story does not end
(31:14):
with the Cross for Christ. Let's call it evil and
death and hell. Yes, there's hope.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Over the years, beginning with President Harry Truman and extending
through the presidency of George W. Bush, Graham served as
their pastor, preacher, chaplain and counselor. Here's brit Hume, Larry King,
and Charles Gibson.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
I think presidents reached out to him because they wanted
what he had.
Speaker 11 (31:44):
Heard him one time criticized.
Speaker 24 (31:46):
I think his relationship was a comforter, a role of advisor.
Speaker 19 (31:52):
None of us were in on those one on one
sessions that he may have had with Bill Clinton when
he was in trouble, or with Lyndon John and when
he despaired over the war, or with George Bush when
he was about to send kids to war. While we
weren't in on those sessions, it's obvious that all of
those presidents said very openly, I can take such comfort
(32:14):
from talking to Billy Graham.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Here's President George H. W. Bush.
Speaker 22 (32:19):
Billy Graham, the man, the preacher, the humble farmer's son
who helped change the world is a spiritual gift to
all of us.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Here's the founder of Prison Fellowship, Chuck Colson.
Speaker 28 (32:37):
One of my favorite stories about Billy Graham is the
Memphis prison. They set up almost like a stadium inside
the big prison yard and brought in the people from
all the surrounding prisons. But when it was over. I
went up and said, Billy, whenever I preach in the prisons,
I always go into the segregation unit because those who
(32:58):
are in isolation can't come out. And all the aides
were trying to pull doctor Graham away from the crowds,
and he said, no, I want to follow Chuck. And
so we went into the segregation unit, walked through from
cell to sell and the only way we could talk
to them was through a little hole where you passed
food through in this cold, dank prison concrete floor. Billy
(33:23):
Graham sat there and spent about ten minutes leading that
man to Christ. He took wrong with that man on
death Row that day. Then he had taken almost to speak.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Here again is Cliff Barrows.
Speaker 9 (33:37):
He would be visiting the battlefields and oftentimes the hospitals,
and I remember one time there was a soldier they'd
brought in. He was in a striker frame. He'd been
severely injured on the battlefield, and the only way Bill
could see him was to get down on his back
and slide under that hospital bed and look at him.
(34:00):
And as the fellow looked and saw mister Graham on
his back and Billy looking at him, and saying, God
bless you, buddy. Let me pray for you, the tears
coming down, the soldier's eyes falling on Bill.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Here's Billy Graham at a press conference for his final crusade.
Speaker 29 (34:25):
Oh my, I've been as so many times lately. Do
I fear death?
Speaker 25 (34:40):
No, I'll look forward to death with great anticipation.
Speaker 29 (34:46):
I'm looking forward to seeing God face to face, and
that can happen in the day.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
On February twenty fifth, twenty eighteen, at ninety nine years
of ag each America and the world received the news.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
We have breaking news from North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
The Reverend Billy Graham has died. The world is mourning
the laws. Here's Billy Graham's children speaking at his funeral service.
I believe, from Heaven's perspective that my father's death is
as significant as his life, and his life was very significant.
Speaker 11 (35:28):
My father was faithful, he was available, and he was teachable.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
May we all be that way.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
My father was not God, but he showed me what
God was like. He showed me unconditional love.
Speaker 11 (35:48):
He has often said that someday you'll read that Billy
Graham is dead. He said, don't you believe one.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Word of it?
Speaker 11 (35:55):
He said, I'll be more alive than I am now.
I'll have just changed addresses, that's all. And I can
only imagine what it was like for my father to
step into heaven and there was the Lord Jesus Christ
(36:15):
to say, well done, good and faithful servant. There was
the throne of God. Can you just imagine that my mother,
his mother, father, friends clapping, cheering, bill's ringing, trumpet's blowing.
(36:37):
Not because it was Billy Graham. It's just another child
of God had come home, another child of God.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
We will leave with these final words from Billy Graham.
Speaker 25 (36:50):
We're all under the sentence of death. We're all going
to die.
Speaker 5 (36:54):
We all need to be ready to meet God.
Speaker 25 (37:00):
Open your heart to Jesus. Have you repented of your sins?
I'm going to ask you to do that today. This
is the moment tonight. I want Jesus in my heart.
Speaker 16 (37:22):
You don't have law. You'll be an eternity, and the
decision you make tonight may decide where you'll be.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
Do you know, Christ?
Speaker 11 (37:33):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I'm Greg Hengler and this is our American stories.
Speaker 13 (37:46):
I do not offer you a dead Christ. I offer
you a living seat.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
I offer you a living.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Christ, here is a lie.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
This MoMA alive.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And great job as always to Greg Hengler, and a
very special thanks once again to the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association for all that remarkable footage the life story of
Billy Graham. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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