Free Republic

Evangelist Billy Graham lived 99 years, wrote 30 books, met with 12 sitting American presidents and preached the gospel to millions. But when he is buried this Friday, March 2, in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, he will be remembered not only as a world-changing hero of faith but as a humble preacher whose personal integrity set the gold standard for every minister in this country. Why was this man so respected? How was he able to keep his ministry free from scandal for more than 75 years? In 1948, when Graham was just 30 years old, he and...

As Billy Graham is laid to rest in North Carolina today, the 2,000 invited funeral attendees will listen to—or sing together—six songs. Graham, who planned his own funeral [see CT’s live report], was the one who chose them. In this, he seems to have taken the path of his longtime music director Cliff Barrows. “I want a lot of music,” Barrows instructed Billy Graham Evangelistic Association choir director Tom Bledsoe before he died in 2016. “And I want the people to sing.” Graham’s six picks: “Until Then” (Stuart Hamblen, 1958), performed by musical artist Linda McCrary-Fisher“All Hail the Power of...

Trump announcesRunning 2020! Welcome all you deplorables to this week's edition of the Dose! This is EVERYTHING TRUMP. Administration, family, frustrations, joys, winning! We welcome your research, your commentary, your personal OT sharing and your presence. Even if you do not share a lot, just check in and say hi. Lurkers are welcome. Cretin of the week (above) Sheriff Israel and other gun grabbersusing baseless emotion Rather than logical responseJust go away losers! Covfefe baby Covfefe!Thank you Hope Hicks for your loyal service to POTUS ! Services for Billy Graham at US Capital (2-28-18) FAKEY, FLAKEY NEWS and loser...

To the surprise of many, conservative columnist George Will penned an unflattering article about Rev. Billy Graham after he passed away last month. To the chagrin of others, the article, titled, “Billy Graham: Neither Prophet nor Theologian,” was carried by the historically conservative National Review. How might Rev. Graham have responded to an article like this?In 1957, as reported by Collin Hansen for Christianity Today, Graham’s gospel crusades in New York City were met with serious opposition.“Leading the charge against Graham,” Hansen writes, “was none other than Reinhold Niebuhr, the venerable professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In...

CHARLOTTE, NC (FOX Carolina) - A petition started on Change.org is calling for a national holiday for Reverend Billy Graham. The organizer is asking for 35,000 signatures on the petition which will then be sent to President Donald Trump, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, Senator Jerry Tillman, Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Richard Burr. By Sunday at 9 a.m. the petition had over 30,000 signatures. Here is the full text on the petition: "Lets get a National Holiday for Billy Graham!! Mr. Graham preached the Gospel to more people in live audiences than anyone else in history—nearly...

More slander aimed at Reverend Graham, that shows lefties for what they are. " In life and in death, Billy Graham has been depicted as a benign counselor to presidents. On Wednesday, he became the first religious leader to lie in state at the US Capitol." Now, we owe ourselves a reckoning with Graham, who spread his brand of evangelical Christianity around the world while having unfettered access to the Oval Office for decades. Graham first rose to prominence after World War II, pitching tent revivals and crusades all over the country. He was propped up by William Randolph Hearst,...

Controversial televangelist Jim Bakker has said that the late Rev. Billy Graham once visited him in prison in some of the lowest moments of his life, where he hugged him and told him that he loves him.Bakker, whose ministry came to a grinding halt in 1987 after he was accused of paying hush money to his secretary for alleged rape, and later served five years in prison for various fraud charges, traveled to Charlotte on Tuesday to pay his respects to Graham, who died at the age of 99 last week.The televangelist, who hosts "The Jim Bakker Show" in Missouri,...

For seven hours Wednesday, the remains of the Rev. Billy Graham lay in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Hundreds of people streamed past his coffin, many with tales of how the iconic pastor brought them closer to Jesus Christ. The coffin was to be escorted out of the Capitol Thursday morning for its journey to Charlotte, N.C. for a private funeral Friday. Wednesday began with a private, televised memorial at the Rotunda, the nation’s three most powerful politicians — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and President Trump — speaking of Graham’s great...

There are few names as associated with modern Christianity as Reverend Billy Graham. For decades, the pastor has served as an advisor to presidents regardless of party. He was a living embodiment of how people should act toward those who may disagree with them. As the day of the funeral fast approaches, past presidents and other dignitaries are paying their respects: former President George W. Bush did on Monday, and former President Bill Clinton did the same on Tuesday. President Donald Trump will be attending Graham's funeral on Friday. Yet former President Barack Obama will be skipping it, according to...

Yesterday was a powerful day for me. I had the privilege, along with other pastors and leaders from the NJ Shore region to be guests of Tom MacArthur at the lying in honor viewing of Billy Graham. Billy Graham's life and ministry a personal impact on me, as is true for probably millions around the globe.

Billy Graham as a guest on What's My Line?, October 9, 1960.

Hillary Clinton was not with her husband during his visit to honor Rev. Billy Graham...neither was Barack Hussein Obama & Michelle Obama either in Charleston & The Capital Rotunda in Washington, DC. POTUS, Trump and members of his family, along with tons of congress folks will be present at the farewell ceremonies this morning. I guess these folks are just simply simple low life trash or "Christian Haters" Go figure...America!!!

In 1946, Billy Graham had a friendly rival for the title of the most up and coming evangelist in the world. The friendly rival was, in fact, Billy Graham’s best friend Charles Templeton.Charles Templeton was from Canada and was co-founder of the organization Youth for Christ, which hired Billy Graham as its first full time evangelist.  Templeton and Graham led rallies together in America and in Europe.  Many thought that Templeton was the more talented preacher of the two.  However, what followed was a truly sad story.By the late 1940’s Templeton began to doubt the Genesis account of creation.  Further,...

In 1953, in Chattanooga, Tenn., the Rev. Billy Graham saw that his crusade audience was segregated in roped-off sections. He personally tore the barriers down. Over the next six decades, he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to more than 200 million people in 185 countries. Without giving an inch of theological ground, he adjusted his message to the moment, for example, dropping the name “crusade” for his rallies so as not to offend Muslims that he was trying to reach for Christ. Scrupulously nonpolitical, he did something in 2016 for which the Left will never forgive him. He came...

I was profoundly disappointed to learn that National Review had published George Will’s ugly attack on evangelist Billy Graham just days after America’s pastor died. “Billy Graham: Neither Prophet nor Theologian,” the conservative publication’s headline declared. I would expect to read such anti-Christian mockery in the pages of The New York Times and Washington Post, but not National Review. My, how times have changed. “Prophets take adversarial stances toward their times, as did the 20th century’s two greatest religious leaders, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope John Paul II. Graham did not. Partly for that reason, his country...

https://memorial.billygraham.org/live-stream/?_ga=2.123102219.1002417274.1519067539-692309511.1517858755

To see just how out of touch some in the liberal media are, look no further than Billy Graham. On Wednesday, world-famous Christian evangelist Billy Graham passed away at the age of 99. While Americans, former U.S. presidents and many in the media mourned his death, several journalists took to Twitter to celebrate Graham’s death by hoping he was enjoying hell. In response to Graham’s death, Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca bashed the preacher. “The big news today is that Billy Graham was still alive this whole time,” she mocked. “Anyway, have fun in hell, b****.” When she received a...

I wasn’t going to write anything about Billy Graham’s passing simply because I don’t have anything new or interesting to say about him. I never met him, although my grandmother went to hear him out of curiosity at the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam in 1955 with a fellow nurse. I attend a conservative Reformed church, and so our theology runs to the George Whitefield tradition as opposed to the more Wesleyan tradition of Billy Graham, who apparently preached directly to more than 210 million people—the largest number of anyone in human history. But the response to Graham’s death was interesting,...

He must have been the most wildly successful preacher in temporal history by the time he died in North Carolina, where he was born 99 years ago. He walked with presidents and kings, commoners and the uncommon, yet never lost the common touch. They all learned to call him Billy, and he wouldn't have had it any other way. He stood there like an emissary from another world far beyond this one, yet part of it. His thick hair and blue eyes made him all the more compelling a presence, yet he spoke with an authority not his but his...

Back in the early 1990s while working as an official in the Pentagon, I had the high honor to meet and chat with the Reverend Billy Graham. That one meeting lifted my faith like none before or since. To look into the eyes of Billy Graham was to see an incredibly humble servant of the Lord who only wanted his fellow human beings to know the love, faith, joy, peace, and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. I, for one, do happen to believe Billy Graham was touched by the hand of God. He truly only wanted happiness and everlasting life in...