Historical Character Profile - One Document Due asap

Billy Graham timeline

Weltee Wolo

Rasmussen College

Author Note

This paper is being submitted on December 13, 2017 Sherry Kamrowski’s

American Religious History G333/REL3131 course

Billy Graham timeline

Billy Graham has made an immense contribution to modern-day America. His life in the evangelical world did not prevent him from engaging in other issues affecting the society. He played an active role in politics and the civil right movements.

Ministry

Billy became a pastor while still in college and started forming revival meeting in 1949 in Los Angeles, which ran for eight weeks. In 1948, he held his first crusade at the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was attended by over 500 people. This crusade opened doors for mother crusades in the future as by his retirement; Billy had organized and preached in over 500-crusade meeting across all continents. In one of his crusades in Russia in 1992, over 155,000 people attended the altar call (Gibbs & Ostling, 1993). In his crusades, he often used the song As I Am.

Civic rights

Billy evangelist ministry came at a time when n rail segregation was rife. As a minister, he warned the whites against this segregation by informing that they would burn in hell for the pride they had shown. He expressed his standby action in 1953 in Chattanooga, in Tennessee, when he ordered for the removal of the ropes meant to segregate the people into races in one of his crusade. He emphasized that the organizers could go on ahead with the revival without him. Ln 1957, he selected an African American pastor to his crusade executive and later invited Martin Luther King Jr. at the pulpit of his crusade (Horstman, 2002).

Political

Billy Graham is a registered Democrat. In 1960, he organized failed attempt for the congregation to defeat the election of JEFF Kennedy citing he was a Catholic and would take instruction from the Pope (Pbs.org, 2010). During Nixon’s presidency, Billy showed an affinity for the Republican Party. He alters endorsed the election of Mitt Romney in 2012. He viewed politics as a second gospel (King, 1997).

References

Gibbs, N., & Ostling, R. N. (1993, November 15). God's Billy Pulpit. Retrieved from Time.com : http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979573,00.html

Horstman, B. M. (2002, June 27). BILLY GRAHAM: A MAN WITH A MISSION.(SPECIAL SECTION). Retrieved from The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH): https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87912863.html

King, R. E. (1997). When worlds collide: politics, religion, and media at the 1970 East Tennessee Billy Graham Crusade. (appearance by President Richard M. Nixon). Journal of Church and State. Retrieved from https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19592304.html

Pbs.org. (2010, November 11). God in America: "The Soul of a Nation". Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/transcripts/hour-five.html