Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Machine gun
ended in 1933, his father forced him to drink beer until he was sick to persuade him of the perils of alcohol and he was teetotal all his life. A year later, aged 16, Graham committed to Christ after hearing Mordecai Ham, a travelling evangelist. It’s said that on returning home he threw himself into his mother’s arms saying: “I’m saved.”
In 1938 he was ordained a minister. His plan to serve as an army chaplain in the Second World War ended when he got mumps.
Instead, he studied at the Florida Bible Institute, and became a fulltime evangelist with Youth for Christ.
He then took evangelism from the canvas tents in small-town USA to stadiums across the world.
In 1957, he invited Martin Luther King to join him in New York, where more than two million people heard him preach over 16 weeks. Graham, who refused to preach to segregated audiences, later branded the civil rights leader unpatriotic for opposing the Vietnam war.
But when King was assassinated in 1968, he declared him “a social leader and a prophet”. Graham was an advisor to every president from Harry Truman to Donald
AFTER HEARING GRAHAM
Trump and read from scripture at Richard Nixon’s funeral in 1994.
He also offered prayers at a service in the National Cathedral for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and travelled to New Orleans in 2006 to preach to survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
Graham’s image was tainted in 2002 with the release of tapes Nixon had secretly recorded 30 years earlier. The two were heard agreeing liberal Jews controlled the media and were responsible for pornography. Graham issued a written apology and met Jewish leaders.
But despite that, he will be remembered for his core message everyone could find salvation through God. He once said: “I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.”