MONTREAT, NC. (WordNews.org) Feb. 21, 2018 – America’s Pastor, Billy Graham, passed away this morning at the age of 99.
Extensive coverage was swift, extensive and largely positive in the mainstream media.
The Drudge Report made it the lead story, with the headline, “Billy Graham Dead, Spread Gospel Around the world.” In fact, Graham’s death allowed one more crusade, of sorts, as most broadcasts used similar clips of Graham saying Jesus was the only way to heaven and the Bible was the only true word of God.
The Associated Press called Graham “the magnetic, movie-star-handsome preacher who became a singular force postcard American religious life, a confidant of presidents and the mostly widely heard Christian evangelist in history.”
“‘The Bible says,’ was his catchphrase. His unquestioning believe in Scripture turned the Gospel into a ‘rapier’ in his hands, he said.'” Yes, the AP uppercased the B in Bible, S in Scripture and G in Gospel.
The New York Times wrote: “Mr. Graham spread his influence across the country and around the world through a combination of religious conviction, commanding stage presence and shrewd use of radio, television and advanced communication technologies.”
The Times also noted that Graham was a key figure in “encouraging evangelical Protestants to regain the social influence they had once wielded, reversing a retreat from public life that had begun when their efforts to challenge evolution theory were defeated in the Scopes trial in 1925.”
According to CNN, Graham “persuaded more than 3 million people to commit their lives to Christianity” and noted that his preaching was heard in 185 of the world’s 195 countries, citing the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
His official obituary can be read here.
Graham drew some 215 million people to his more than 400 crusades, according to his obituary.
“I have one message: that Jesus Christ came, he died on a cross, he rose again, and he asked us to repent of our sins and receive him by faith as Lord and Savior, and if we do, we have forgiveness of all of our sins,” said Graham at his final Crusade in June 2005 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York.
“He was probably the dominant religious leader of his era; no more than one or two popes, perhaps one or two other people, could come close to what he achieved,” said William Martin, a former historian at Rice University and the author of “A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story.”
“The Rev. Billy Graham became known as ‘America’s pastor’ by refusing to pick a political side while reaching out to other religious leaders and invoking ‘the Lord’ rather than Jesus,” NBC reported. (Editor’s note: It is hard to find any message Billy Graham gave that doesn’t mention over and over the name of Jesus).
The story continued: “But his son, the Rev. Franklin Graham, isn’t practicing what his father preached.”
NBC continued by labeling other conservative evangelicals, such as James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the late Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority and founder of Liberty University, and Pat Robertson, founder of CBN and host on The 700 Club, as “combative.”
The New Yorker pontificated, “How Billy Graham’s Movement Lost Its Way,” a story that in now way shows it has.
The Huffington Post blared, “Billy Graham, ‘America’s Pastor’ and Noted Evangelist, Dead at 99.” In the is noted:
“Graham viewed the Bible as the infallible word of God. He believed that Jesus led a sinless life and that all men were lost and would face God’s judgment. Such a strict interpretation of scripture also led him to condemn homosexual relationships.”
HuffPost continued: “More recently, detractors blasted Graham’s continued belief that homosexual behavior was a ‘sinister form of perversion,’ and his intolerance against the very presence of gay and lesbian couples within Christianity.”
The article, citing the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website, noted: “From Genesis on, the Bible praises the marriage of a man and a woman, but it speaks only negatively of homosexual behavior whenever it is mentioned.”
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