Graham, Billy (William Franklin Graham) (grā`əm), 1918–, American evangelist, b. Charlotte, N.C., grad. Wheaton College (B.A., 1943). Graham was ordained a minister in the Southern Baptist Church (1939), was the pastor of a Chicago church (his first and last pastorate), and in 1944 became an evangelist for the American Youth for Christ movement. In 1949 he received national attention for an extended evangelical campaign in Los Angeles. He subsequently made preaching tours (for which he popularized the term "crusade") in most major U.S. cities and in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, Australia, and Russia. His reputation made him a favored guest among politicians and presidents. Graham, who in his preaching has consistently stressed personal conversion and scriptural authority, is identified with the conservative Protestant movement known as neo-evangelicalism (see fundamentalism fundamentalism.

1 In Protestantism, religious movement that arose among conservative members of various Protestant denominations early in the 20th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ) and is to a large degree responsible for establishing it as part of the American mainstream. He is also the co-founder of the journal Christianity Today. The Billy Graham Evangelical Association, founded in the early 1950s, publishes Decision magazine and produces programs for radio, television, and screen. Graham retired as head of the association in 2000; Franklin Graham, his son, succeeded him as its leader. Billy Graham held his final crusade in 2004.

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Just as I Am (1997); biographies by W. C. McLaughlin (1960), M. Frady (1979), and W. Martin (1991).

Graham, Billy

in full William Franklin Graham, Jr.

(born Nov. 7, 1918, Charlotte, N.C., U.S.) U.S. Christian evangelist. The son of a dairy farmer, he underwent a conversion experience at age 16 during a revival. After attending Bob Jones College and the Florida Bible Institute, he was ordained a Southern Baptist clergyman in 1940. He later earned a degree in anthropology from Wheaton College. He won numerous converts with his tent revivals and radio broadcasts, and by 1950 he had become fundamentalism's leading spokesman. He led a series of widely televised international revival crusades through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Minneapolis, Minn., and he enjoyed close associations with a series of U.S. presidents. Graham and his wife, Ruth, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1996.

Graham, (William Franklin, Jr.) Billy (1918– ) Protestant evangelist; born near Charlotte, N.C. A farmer's son, he converted to fundamentalism at a revival meeting at age 16. He studied at Bob Jones University and the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College) and was ordained a Southern Baptist minister in 1940. He graduated from Wheaton College, Ill., with an anthropology degree in 1943 and was pastor of a Baptist church in Illinois before beginning his career as a traveling evangelist. In his first high-profile crusade, in Los Angeles in 1949, he preached to 350,000 people. A vigorous, magnetic preacher, he toured the world with his crusades; he claimed—through his preaching and subsidiary broadcasting, films, and books—to have converted millions of people to his version of Christianity. His Billy Graham Evangelistic Association raised millions of dollars, and was considered a model of financial accountability. He published several accounts of his religious views, including Peace with God (1952) and World Aflame (1965). From President Eisenhower on, it became almost obligatory for the U.S. president to be seen at least once in the company of Graham.