A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts. Elements of preaching include exposition, exhortation and practical application.

Delivery

In Christianity, a sermon (also known as a homily within some churches) is often delivered in a place of worship, most of which have a pulpit or ambo, an elevated architectural feature. The word "sermon" comes from a Middle English word which was derived from an Old French term, which in turn came from the Latin word sermō; ("discourse") Although, links have been made between the Latin word serere, which means 'to join together', so this leaves the modern Latin definition open to interpretation . The word can mean "conversation", which could mean that early sermons were delivered in the form of question and answer, and that only later did it come to mean a monologue. In contrast to this, is the examples from the Bible, where sermons are speeches without interlocution: Moses' sermon in Deuteronomy 1-33 ; Jesus' sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 ; Peter's sermon after Pentecost in Acts 2:14-40 .

In modern language, the word "sermon" can also be used pejoratively in secular terms to describe a lengthy or tedious speech delivered with great passion, by any person, to an uninterested audience. A sermonette is a short sermon (usually associated with television broadcasting, as stations would present a sermonette before signing off for the night).

Sermons in the Christian tradition

In Christianity, the most famous sermon is the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus of Nazareth. This sermon was probably preached around 30 A.D. and is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew (5:1–7:29, including introductory and concluding material) as being delivered on a mount on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, near Capernaum. The Sermon on the Mount lays out many of the core principles of Christianity. Another rendition of much of the same material may be found in the "Sermon on the Plain" in the Gospel of Luke (6:17–49, including introductory material).

During the later history of Christianity, several figures became known for their sermons or a particularly significant sermon. Preachers of the early church include Peter (see especially Acts 2:14b–36), Stephen (see Acts 7:1b–53), Tertullian, John Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzus. Sermons in this era were used to spread Christianity across Europe and Asia Minor. During the Middle Ages, sermons inspired the beginnings of new religious orders (e.g., Saint Dominic and Francis of Assisi). Pope Urban II began the First Crusade in November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, France, when he exhorted French knights to retake the Holy Land in Palestine.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the art of preaching has developed through the theological field of homiletics.

Many sermons have been written down, collected and published. Such sermons include John Wesley's 53 Standard Sermons, John Chrysostom's Homily on the Resurrection (preached every Easter in Orthodox churches) and Gregory Nazianzus' homily "On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ" (preached every Christmas in Orthodox churches). Martin Luther began a tradition of publishing sermons (Hauspostille) on the Sunday lessons for the edification of readers. This tradition was continued by Chemnitz and Arndt and others into the following centuries — for example CH Spurgeon's stenographed sermons, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

Role in Protestantism

The Reformation led to Protestant sermons, many of which defended the schism with the Roman Catholic Church and explained beliefs about scripture, theology and devotion. The distinctive doctrines of Protestantism held that salvation was by faith alone, and convincing people to believe the Gospel and place trust in God for their salvation through Jesus Christ was the decisive step in salvation. In many Protestant churches, the sermon came to replace the Eucharist as the central act of Christian worship (although some Protestants such as Lutherans give equal time to a sermon and the Eucharist in their Divine Service). The goal of many Protestant's worship, as conditioned by these beliefs, was to rouse the congregation to a deeper faith, rather than have them just partake in rituals.

In the 18th and 19th centuries during the Great Awakening, major sermons were made at revivals, which were especially popular in the United States. These sermons were noted for their "fire-and-brimstone" message, typified by Jonathan Edwards's famous "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" speech. In these sermons the wrath of God was clearly one to be afraid of, although fear was not the message Edwards was trying to convey in his sermons, he was simply trying to tell the people that they could be forgiven for their sins.

Sermons in the Jewish Tradition

Rabbinic ordination often includes the phrase, Rabbi, Teacher, and Preacher in Israel, and there is a long history of using sermons in Judaism as part of education, ethics, a call to repentance, or as a message of hope, often during difficult times.

In 1939, Rabbi Philip R. Alstat, an early leader of Conservative Judaism, spoke and wrote about the lesson of hope that the festival of Passover could give to the Jewish people, despite the rising power of Naziism in Europe: he counseled hope, and even gratitude, as part of Jewish strength to withstand the pain of events in Europe:

Perhaps in our generation the counsel of our Talmudic sages may seem superfluous, for today the story of our enslavement in Egypt is kept alive not only by ritualistic symbolism, but even more so by tragic realism. We are the contemporaries and witnesses of its daily re-enactment. Are not our hapless brethren in the German Reich eating "the bread of affliction"? Are not their lives embittered by complete disenfranchisement and forced labor? Are they not lashed mercilessly by brutal taskmasters behind the walls of concentration camps? Are not many of their men-folk being murdered in cold blood? Is not the ruthlessness of the Egyptian Pharaoh surpassed by the sadism of the Nazi dictators?And yet, even in this hour of disaster and degradation, it is still helpful to "visualize oneself among those who had gone forth out of Egypt." It gives stability and equilibrium to the spirit. Only our estranged kinsmen, the assimilated, and the de-Judaized, go to pieces under the impact of the blow....But those who visualize themselves among the groups who have gone forth from the successive Egypts in our history never lose their sense of perspective, nor are they overwhelmed by confusion and despair.... It is this faith, born of racial experience and wisdom, which gives the oppressed the strength to outlive the oppressors and to endure until the day of ultimate triumph when we shall "be brought forth from bondage unto freedom, from sorrow unto joy, from mourning unto festivity, from darkness unto great light, and from servitude unto redemption.

In the same way, he preached a message of hope in 1938 when he said that, "Undaunted, we confidently expect that some day, somehow, the present low ebb of liberty and democracy will be followed by a rising tide whose onrush will irresistibly wash away the ramparts of tyranny." His sermons and articles targeted the Jewish community, the United States, the "family of nations," the "Jewish homeland in Palestine," and frequently described the importance of the "Jewish State" -- a nation yet not created, but which he supported with both his words and his actions. He shared his vision of that State by proclaiming that, "Whether the Jewish State be large or small, its importance in the family of nations will be determined, not by its limited area, but by its creative genius and cultural contributions to mankind. Like Judaea and Athens of old, it may be only a small vessel, but exceedingly rich in precious content."

Types

There are a number of different types of sermons, that differ both in their subject matter and by their intended audience, and accordingly not every preacher is equally well-versed in every type. The types of sermons are:

Topical sermons - concerned with a particular subject of current concern;

Liturgical sermons - sermons that explain the liturgy, why certain things are done during a service, such as why communion is offered and what it means.

Biographical sermons - tracing the story of a particular biblical character through a number of parts of the Bible.

Historical sermons - which seek to portray a biblical story within its historical perspective.

Evangelistic sermons - seeking to convert the congregation or bring them back to their previous faith through a recounting of the foundational story of the religion, in Christianity, the Good News.

Expository preaching - exegesis, that is sermons that expound and explain a text to the congregation.

Redemptive-Historical Preaching - sermons that takes into consideration the context of any given text within the broader history of salvation as recorded in the canon of the bible.

Narrative sermons - which tell a story, often a parable, or a series of stories, to make a moral point.

Illuminative sermons, also known as proems (petihta) - which connect an apparently unrelated biblical verse or religious question with the current calendrical event or festival.

It is worth noting that sermons can be both written and spoken out loud.

Delivery methods

Sermons also differ on the amount of time and effort used to prepare them.

Scripted preaching — preaching with a previous preparation, it can be with help of notes or a script, or rely on the memory of the preacher.

Extemporaneous preaching — preaching without overly detailed notes and sometimes without preparation. Usually a basic outline and scriptural references are listed as notes.

Impromptu preaching — preaching without previous preparation.

With the advent of reception theory, researchers also became aware that how sermons are listened to affects their meaning as much as how they are delivered. The expectations of the congregation, their prior experience of listening to oral texts, their level of scriptural education, and the relative social positions — often reflected in the physical arrangement — of sermon-goers vis-a-vis the preacher are part of the meaning of the sermon.

See also

Preacher

List of preachers

Expository preaching

Extemporaneous preaching

Popular Sermon of the Medieval Friar

Khutba, Muslim analog

Kerygma

Theology

Midrash

Christian Virtues

Redemptive-Historical Preaching

References

Bibliography

American Sermons: The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Warner, ed. (New York: The Library of America, 1999) ISBN 1-883011-65-5

Edwards, O. C., Jr. A History of Preaching. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2004. ISBN 0-687-03864-2

Sullivan, Ceri, 'The Art of Listening in the Seventeenth Century', Modern Philology 104.1 (2006), pp. 34–71

Georgiana Donavin, Cary J. Nederman, and Richard Utz, eds. Speculum Sermonis: Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Medieval Sermon. Turnhout: Brepols, 2007.

Willimon, William H. and Richard Lischer, eds. Concise Encyclopedia of Preaching. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995. ISBN 0-664-21942-X

Category:Speeches by type * Category:Homiletics Category:Christian genres Category:Christian terms

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Paul David Washer (born 1961) is the Founder/Director & Missions Coordinator of HeartCry Missionary Society which supports indigenous missionary work. He is also a Southern Baptist itinerant preacher. Washer's sermons tend to have an evangelistic focus on the gospel and the doctrine of the assurance of salvation, and he frequently speaks against practices such as the sinner's prayer, and a focus on numerical church growth.

Washer's sermons often focus on how a person is saved from hell. According to Washer, a person is saved through faith alone, but the evidence of a person's faith is his or her works. Washer claims that most people who profess a belief in Christianity aren't truly saved. Washer blames preachers, as he claims many preachers often say a person is saved without looking for evidence of repentance in that person's life.

Washer cites RC Sproul, John F. Macarthur, George Muller, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Leonard Ravenhill, John Wesley, A.W. Tozer and Martyn Lloyd-Jones among others, as influences. He has frequently appeared on Christian radio to discuss how people are saved.

Washer had a born again experience while studying to become an oil and gas lawyer at the University of Texas. Upon graduation, he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and achieved a Master of Divinity degree. He then moved to Peru to become a missionary for 10 years, after which he returned to the United States. Washer resides in Radford, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Books written

References

External links

HeartCry Missionary Organization Official site of Washer's organization.

Shocking Message Transcript: http://www.scribd.com/doc/789/The-Truth-About-Christianity

Regeneration vs. Idolatry of Decisional Evangelism: http://adidab.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/paul-washer-transcript-01-regeneration-v-the-idolatry-of-decisional-evangelism/

Ten indictments video & transcript: http://adidab.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/paul-washer-transcript-03-ten-indictments/

Truth About Man Workbook: http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/resources/online_books

Brief Washer Biography: http://www.hcmissions.org/about/staff/2

Paul Washer Bible Study Video Series Studies: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8872D3C0103E8568

Paul Washer Biography on Theopedia: http://www.theopedia.com/Paul_Washer

Paul Washer en Español: http://salvacioneterna.com/pwasher.html

Category:American clergy Category:American people of Croatian descent Category:Southern Baptists Category:Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary alumni Category:1961 births Category:Living people

el:Πωλ Γουόσερ es:Paul Washer no:Paul Washer pl:Paul Washer

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Rev. Billy Graham
birth name	William Franklin Graham Jr.
birth date	November 07, 1918
birth place
residence
nationality	American
occupation	Evangelist
religion	Evangelical Christian
denomination	Southern Baptist
spouse	(her death)
children	Franklin, Nelson, Virginia, Anne and Ruth
website	BillyGraham.org
signature	Billy Graham Signature.svg }}

church	Christianity (Baptist) Billy Graham was a immense inspirational individual. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless His soul in heaven.. From: SlyMaestroFoxx.
education	Diploma in Biblical Studies, Florida Bible Institute (Trinity Bible College), 1940 B.A. in Anthropology, Wheaton College, 1943
offices held	President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
title	}}

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for the 20th century. He is a Southern Baptist. He rose to celebrity status as his sermons were broadcast on radio and television.

Graham has preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other person in history. According to his staff, more than 3.2 million people have responded to the invitation at Billy Graham Crusades to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, many to the altar call song "Just As I Am". As of 2008, Graham's lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.

Early life

He was born November 7, 1918 to William Franklin Graham I (1888–1962) and Morrow Coffey (1892–1981), on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents. In 1933, when Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced Graham and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they vomited, which created an aversion, in both of them, to alcohol and drugs. According to the Billy Graham Center, Graham was converted in 1934 at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte which were led by evangelist Mordecai Ham. However, he was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly". He was persuaded to go see Ham at the urging of one of the employees, Albert McMakin, on the Graham farm. After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College (now Bob Jones University), then located in Cleveland, Tennessee, for one semester but found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules. At this time, he was influenced and inspired by Pastor Charley Young from Eastport Bible Church. He was almost expelled, but Bob Jones, Sr. warned him not to throw his life away: "At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks.... You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily." In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida) on the site of today's Florida College in Temple Terrace, Florida. In his autobiography he writes that he "received [his] calling on the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club," which is immediately in front of today's Sutton Hall at Florida College in Temple Terrace. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park is today located on the Hillsborough River directly east of the 18th green and across from where Graham often paddled a canoe to a small island in the river, where he would preach to the birds, alligators, and cypress stumps. Graham eventually graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois with a degree in anthropology, in 1943. It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. Henrietta Mears of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood (Hollywood, California) was instrumental in helping Graham wrestle with the issue, which was settled at Forest Home Christian camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California. A memorial there marks the site of Graham's decision.

Family

On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell (1920–2007), whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China, where her father, L. Nelson Bell, was a general surgeon. He met Ruth at Wheaton: "I saw her walking down the road towards me and I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked. She looked at me and our eyes met and I felt that she was definitely the woman I wanted to marry." Ruth thought that he "wanted to please God more than any man I'd ever met." They married two months after graduation and later lived in a log cabin designed by Ruth in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Montreat, North Carolina. Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87.

They had five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham Tchividjian (b. 1945); Anne Graham Lotz (b. 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (b. 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends); Franklin Graham (b. 1952; administers an international relief organization called Samaritan's Purse and will be his father's successor at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association); and Nelson "Ned" Graham (b.1958; a pastor who runs East Gates International, which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As a guard against even the appearance of wrongdoing Graham had a policy that he would never be alone with a woman, other than his wife Ruth. This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule.

Ministry

Beginning

Graham transferred in January 1937 from Bob Jones College to Florida Bible Institute, and then finally to Wheaton College in 1939. Graham attended Wheaton College from 1939 to 1943, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology. While attending college, he became pastor of the United Gospel Tabernacle and also had other preaching engagements.

Graham served briefly as pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, not far from Wheaton, in 1943-44. While there, his friend Torrey Johnson, pastor of the Midwest Bible Church in Chicago, told Graham that his radio program "Songs in the Night" was about to be canceled for lack of funding. Consulting with the members of his church in Western Springs, Graham decided to take over Johnson's program with financial support from his parishioners. Launching the new radio program on January 2, 1944, still called Songs in the Night, Graham recruited the baritone George Beverly Shea as his director of radio ministry. While the radio ministry continued for many years, Graham decided to move on in early 1945, and in 1947, at age 30, he became the youngest person to serve as a sitting college president during his tenure at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Graham served as the president of Northwestern College from 1948 to 1952.

Initially, Graham intended to become a chaplain in the armed forces, but shortly after applying for a commission contracted mumps. After a period of recuperation in Florida, Graham was hired as the first full time evangelist of the new Youth for Christ International (YFCI) which was co-founded by Torrey Johnson and evangelist Charles Templeton. He traveled throughout the United States and Europe as an evangelist for YFCI. Unlike many evangelists then and now, Graham had little formal theological training; when his friend Chuck Templeton urged him to join him in applying to Princeton Theological Seminary, Graham declined to do so.

Hearst intervention

Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot. The Los Angeles revival is considered to be the time when Graham became a national religious figure. Graham's rise to national prominence is partly because of the assistance he received from news mogul William Randolph Hearst, whose interest in Graham was that he respected Graham for being his own person and following what he believed, though the two never met. Most observers believe that Hearst appreciated Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth and thought that Graham would be helpful in promoting Hearst's conservative anti-communist views. Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors reading "Puff Graham" during Billy Graham's late 1949 Los Angeles crusade.

The increased media exposure from Hearst's newspaper chain and national magazines caused the crusade event to run for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Henry Luce put him on the cover of TIME in 1954. At the Los Angeles revival, a fellow evangelist accused Graham of setting religion back 100 years. Graham replied, "I did indeed want to set religion back, not just 100 years but 1,900 years, to the Book of Acts, when first century followers of Christ were accused of turning the Roman Empire upside down."

Crusades

Billy Graham has conducted many evangelistic crusades since 1948. He began this form of ministry in 1947 and continued until recently. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. He arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir and then preached the gospel and invited people to come forward (a practice begun by Dwight L. Moody). These people, called inquirers, were then given the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a counselor who clarified any questions the inquirer may have had and would pray with that person. The inquirers were often given resources, such as a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in his audience came forward upon his request.

Graham was offered a five-year, $5 million contract from NBC to appear on television opposite Arthur Godfrey, but he turned it down in favor of continuing his touring revivals because of his pre-arranged commitments. Graham had missions in London, which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York City mission in Madison Square Garden, in 1957, which ran nightly for 16 weeks. In 1959, he led his first crusade, which was in London.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

In 1950, Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with its headquarters in Minneapolis. The association later relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:

Hour of Decision, a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for more than 50 years

Mission television specials that have been regularly broadcast in prime time in almost every market in the U.S. and Canada

A syndicated newspaper column, My Answer, carried by newspapers across the United States and distributed by Tribune Media Services

Decision magazine, the official publication of the Association

Christianity Today was started in 1956 with Carl F. H. Henry as its first editor

Passageway.org, the website for a children's program created by BGEA

World Wide Pictures, which has produced and distributed more than 130 films

Civil Rights Movement and Anti-Segregation

Graham's stance on civil rights and segregation was inconsistent in his early years. Like many white public figures, he had shown no concern for segregation until the civil rights movement began to take off in the early 1950s, and many of his early crusades were segregated. In response to the civil rights movement, he "zig-zagged" for some years - refusing to speak to some segregated auditoriums, while speaking to others. His memoirs disclose that in 1953 he dramatically tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience. But he later retreated on the issue in Dallas, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to Brown v. Board of Education, Graham assured audiences that the Bible had nothing to say about segregation. Subsequently, he emerged as an opponent of segregation and racism, reminding audiences of Christanity's pact with the marginalised and oppressed. (Michael G Long, ed., The Legacy of Billy Graham: Critical Reflections on America's Greatest Evangelist, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 150–1) He also got in a fight with a southern KKK member about why integration of blacks into the Southern society was important. Graham said, "There is no scriptural basis for segregation… The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross." Graham paid bail money to secure the release of Martin Luther King, Jr. from jail during the 1960s civil rights movement; he invited King to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City in 1957. During that 16-week stint, Graham was heard by 2.3 million listeners, who gathered to hear him at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square. However, due to his anxieties about addressing the politics of racism and being seen to publicly cooperate with the civil rights leader, he never invited King to appear with him again. (Michael G Long, ed., The Legacy of Billy Graham: Critical Reflections on America's Greatest Evangelist, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2008, p. 150)

Later years

Graham's visibility and popularity extended into the secular world. He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair. He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters. During the Cold War, Graham became the first evangelist of note to speak behind the Iron Curtain, addressing large crowds in countries throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union, calling for peace. During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed attending audiences to sit desegregated. His first crusade there was in 1973, during which he openly denounced apartheid. In 1984, he led a series of summer meetings in the United Kingdom, called Mission England, using outdoor football grounds as venues.

Graham was interested in fostering evangelism around the world. In 1983, 1986 and 2000 he sponsored, organized and paid for massive training conferences for Christian evangelists from around the world; with the largest representations of nations ever held until that time. Over 157 nations were gathered in 2000 at the RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

At one revival in Seoul, South Korea, Graham attracted more than one million people to a single service. He appeared in China in 1988—for Ruth, this was a homecoming, since she had been born in China to missionary parents. He appeared in North Korea in 1992.

On September 22, 1991 Graham held the largest event he ever led in North America on The Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park. City officials estimated over 250,000 in attendance. In 1998, Graham spoke at TED (conference) to a crowd of scientists and philosophers.

On September 14, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Graham led a prayer and remembrance service at Washington National Cathedral, which was attended by President George W. Bush and past and present leaders. He also spoke at the memorial service following the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. On June 24–26, 2005, Billy Graham began what he has said would be his last North American crusade, three days at the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City. But on the weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Billy Graham held the "Festival of Hope" with his son, Franklin Graham. The festival was held in New Orleans, which was recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Graham said that his planned retirement was because of his failing health. He has suffered from Parkinson's disease for about 15 years, has had hydrocephalus, pneumonia, broken hips, and prostate cancer. In August 2005, a frail Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker to assist with mobility during the ceremony. On July 9, 2006, Graham spoke at the Metro Maryland Franklin Graham Festival, held in Baltimore, Maryland, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

There had been controversy over where the burial place would be until a press release on June 13, 2007, saying that he and his wife would be buried alongside each other at the Billy Graham Library in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Graham's younger son Ned had argued with older son Franklin about whether burial at a library would be appropriate. Ruth Graham had said that she wanted to be buried not in Charlotte but in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina, where she had lived for many years; Ned supported his mother's choice. Novelist Patricia Cornwell, a family friend, also opposed burial at the library, calling it a tourist attraction. Franklin wanted his parents to be buried at the library site. At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.

On August 18, 2007, Graham, 88, was in fair condition in Mission Health & Hospitals of Asheville after undergoing treatment for intestinal bleeding, but his condition was not life-threatening.

In April, 2010, Graham, at 91 and with substantial vision and hearing loss, made a rare public appearance at the re-dedication of the renovated Billy Graham Library. Graham's grandson, Will Graham told reporters that his grandfather has "got a lot more energy and he's talking about preaching one more time," stating that it would probably be a televised event rather than a stadium crusade.

Billy Graham has preached Christianity to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories through various meetings, including BMS World Mission and Global Mission. Graham has also reached hundreds of millions more through television, video, film, and webcasts.

On May 11, 2011, Billy Graham was admitted to Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for treatment of pneumonia.

Politics

Politically, Graham is a registered member of the Democratic Party. He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon. He did not completely ally himself with the religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party. He did not openly endorse political candidates, but he gave his support to some over the years.

He refused to join Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in 1979, saying: "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice. We as clergy know so very little to speak with authority on the Panama Canal or superiority of armaments. Evangelists cannot be closely identified with any particular party or person. We have to stand in the middle in order to preach to all people, right and left. I haven't been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will be in the future."

According to a 2006 Newsweek interview, "For Graham, politics is a secondary to the Gospel.... When Newsweek asked Graham whether ministers—whether they think of themselves as evangelists, pastors or a bit of both—should spend time engaged with politics, he replied: 'You know, I think in a way that has to be up to the individual as he feels led of the Lord. A lot of things that I commented on years ago would not have been of the Lord, I'm sure, but I think you have some—like communism, or segregation, on which I think you have a responsibility to speak out.'".

Pastor to presidents

Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US Presidents from Harry S Truman to Barack Obama. He visited in the Oval Office with Truman in 1950, urging him to counter communism in North Korea. However, Graham and his accompanying pastors were not aware of Washington protocol; they appeased the press corps waiting outside with details of the visit, with the three pastors even acquiescing to the calls of the press to kneel on the White House lawn, as if praying. Truman wrote about Graham in his autobiography Plain Speaking:

But now we've got just this one evangelist, this Billy Graham, and he's gone off the beam. He's...well, I hadn’t ought to say this, but he’s one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the Presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don’t go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper.

This led to Truman calling Graham a "counterfeit" publicity seeker, and Truman did not speak to Graham for years afterward. Graham has often told the story, usually as a warning that he would not reveal his conversations with world leaders.

Graham became a regular in the Oval Office during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom he urged to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine, and it was at that time, on a Washington golf course, that he met and became close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon. Graham was invited by Eisenhower to visit with him when the former president was on his deathbed. Graham also counseled Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and the Bush family.

The single notable exception among modern presidents is John F. Kennedy, with whom Graham played golf, but Kennedy was Roman Catholic; Graham enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and prominently supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. Nixon wrote to Graham after that election: "I have often told friends that when you went into the ministry, politics lost one of its potentially greatest practitioners." Graham spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.

After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham was an adviser, visiting the White House and leading some of the private church services that the President organized there. Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel in a meeting they had with Golda Meir, but Graham turned down Nixon's offer. Nixon appeared at one of Graham's revivals in East Tennessee in 1970; the event drew one of the largest crowds to ever gather in Tennessee. Nixon became the first President to give a speech from an evangelist's platform. However, their friendship became strained when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes; they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation. Graham announced at that time, "I'm out of politics."

After a special law was passed on his behalf, Graham was allowed to conduct the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building in 1952. When Graham was hospitalized briefly in 1976, three Presidents called in one day to wish him well: former President Nixon, current President Ford and President-elect Carter.

He was one of Reagan's personal guests at his inauguration and gave the benediction at George H. W. Bush's inauguration. He stayed at the White House the night before George H. W. Bush (who called Graham "America's pastor") launched the Persian Gulf War. Two days before the 2000 presidential election, Graham spoke at a prayer breakfast in Florida with George W. Bush in attendance. At a New York revival in 2005, Bill Clinton recalled how he had attended Graham's revival as a boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1959.

Graham has officiated at one presidential burial and one presidential funeral. He presided over the graveside services of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973 and took part in eulogizing the former president. Graham officiated at the funeral service of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993 and the funeral of Richard Nixon in 1994. He was unable to officiate at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, because of recent double hip replacement surgery, which former President George H. W. Bush acknowledged during his eulogy. Graham had been Reagan's first choice. Because of Graham's hospitalization, the Reverend John Danforth, a Missouri Republican Senator during Reagan's tenure, officiated at the funeral. Failing health prevented Graham from officiating at the state funeral of Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007, as well as the funeral of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in July 2007.

On April 25, 2010, President Barack Obama visited Rev. Graham at his home in Montreat, North Carolina where they “had a private prayer.”

As with other presidents in the past, Graham met with former President George W. Bush during December 2010, for a tour of his library.

Foreign policy views

Graham has been outspoken against communism and supportive of U.S. Cold War policy, including the Vietnam War. However, in a 1999 speech, Graham discussed his relationship with the late North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung, praising him as a "different kind of communist" and "one of the great fighters for freedom in his country against the Japanese." Graham went on to note that although he had never met Kim's son and current North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, he had "exchanged gifts with him." Graham has given a globe surmounted with doves to the North Korean Friendship Museum.

During a March 12, 1991, CBS broadcast of Billy Graham's Long Island, New York crusade, Graham said in reference to the Persian Gulf War, "As our President, President Bush, has said, it is not the people of Iraq we are at war with. It is some of the people in that regime. Pray for peace in the Middle East, a just peace." Graham had earlier said that "there come times when we have to fight for peace." He went on to say that out of the war in the Gulf may "come a new peace and, as suggested by the President, a new world order."

Controversy

Discussion of Jews with Nixon

In 2002, declassified "Richard Nixon tapes" confirmed remarks made by Graham to President Nixon three decades earlier. Captured on the tapes, Graham agreed with Nixon that Jews control the American media, calling it a "stranglehold" during a 1972 conversation with Nixon. His remarks were characterized as anti-Semitic by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League and evangelical author Richard Land. When the tapes became public, Graham apologized. According to Newsweek magazine, "[T]he shock of the revelation was magnified because of Graham's longtime support of Israel and his refusal to join in calls for conversion of the Jews."

In 2009, more tapes were released, in which Graham is heard in conversation with Nixon referring to Jews and "the synagogue of Satan." A spokesman for Graham said that Graham has never been an anti-Semite and that the comparison (in accord with the context of the quotation in the Book of Revelation) was directed specifically at those claiming to be Jews, but not observing Jewish law.

Awards and honors

Graham has frequently been honored by surveys, including "Greatest Living American" and has consistently ranked among the most admired persons in the United States and the world. Between 1950 and 1990, he appeared most frequently on Gallup's list of most admired people. The United States Postal Service has said that Graham is one of the few Americans, along with the current President, who can be delivered mail that simply reads his name and the country: "Billy Graham, America."

In 1967, he was the first Protestant to receive an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey College, a Roman Catholic school.

In 1971, Graham received an award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. After the Nixon tapes were released, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League called for Graham to return the award. He was honored by the American Jewish Committee with its National Interreligious Award for his efforts on behalf of Jewish-Christian relations; the committee called him one of the century's greatest Christian friends of Jews. In the same year, Graham's hometown of Charlotte held "Billy Graham Day" at which President Nixon made an appearance.

He has received the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Reagan, America's highest civilian honors.

In 1986, Graham was given North Carolina's highest honor, the North Carolina Award, for public service.

President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole awarded Graham the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 1996.

On May 30, 1999, Graham was invited to give the pre-race invocation at the Indianapolis 500.

In December 2001, he was presented with an honorary knighthood, Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), for his international contributions to civic and religious life over 60 years.

On May 31, 2007, the $27 million Billy Graham Library was officially dedicated in Charlotte. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton appeared to celebrate with Graham. A highway in Charlotte bears Graham's name, as does I-240 near Graham's home in Asheville.

For providing a platform during his events for many Christian musical artists, Graham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999 by the Gospel Music Association. Several songs by various artists have dedicated songs to or about Graham during his lifetime. Singer Michael W. Smith is active in Billy Graham Crusades as well as Samaritan's Purse.

In 2000, former First Lady Nancy Reagan presented the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award to Graham. Graham has been a friend of the Reagans for years.

Graham received the Big Brother of the Year Award for his work on behalf of children. He has been cited by the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for his contributions to race relations. He has received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion and the Sylvanus Thayer Award for his commitment to "Duty, Honor, Country". The "Billy Graham Children's Health Center" in Asheville is named after and funded by Graham.

A professorial chair is named after him at the Alabama Baptist-affiliated Samford University, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth. His alma mater Wheaton College has an archive of his papers at the Billy Graham Center. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. Graham has received 20 honorary degrees and refused at least that many more. In San Francisco, CA, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, has often erroneously been called the Billy Graham Civic Auditorium and falsely considered to be named in his honor, but is actually named after the rock & roll promoter Bill Graham.

The movie Billy: The Early Years premiered in theaters officially on October 10, 2008, less than one month before Graham's 90th birthday. Graham has yet to comment on the film, but his son, Franklin released a critical statement on August 18, 2008, noting that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie." Graham's eldest daughter Gigi, however, has praised the movie and has also been hired as a consultant to help promote the film.

Books authored

Graham has authored the following books:

Calling Youth to Christ (1947)

America's Hour of Decision (1951)

I Saw Your Sons at War (1953)

Peace with God (1953, 1984)

Freedom from the Seven Deadly Sins (1955)

The Secret of Happiness (1955, 1985)

Billy Graham Talks to Teenagers (1958)

My Answer (1960)

Billy Graham Answers Your Questions (1960)

World Aflame (1965)

The Challenge (1969)

The Jesus Generation (1971)

Angels: God's Secret Agents (1975, 1985)

How to Be Born Again (1977)

The Holy Spirit (1978)

Till Armageddon (1981)

Approaching Hoofbeats (1983)

A Biblical Standard for Evangelists (1984)

Unto the Hills (1986)

Facing Death and the Life After (1987)

Answers to Life's Problems (1988)

Hope for the Troubled Heart (1991)

Storm Warning (1992)

Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (1997, 2007)

Hope for Each Day (2002)

The Key to Personal Peace (2003)

Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade (2005)

The Journey: How to Live by Faith in an Uncertain World (2006)

Notes

External links

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Billy Graham Training Center

Billy Graham Multimedia Center (Including sermons)

Billy Graham's impact on Britain Christianity magazine

Streaming video clip from 1957 event in Times Square

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Newsroom

Listen to Billy Graham Sermons

TED Talks: Billy Graham on technology, faith and suffering at TED in 1998

Oral History Interview with Billy Graham, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Financial summary of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Category:1918 births Category:American autobiographers Category:American evangelicals Category:American evangelists Category:American humanitarians Category:American religious leaders Category:American television evangelists Category:Baptist writers Category:People with cancer Category:Christian writers Category:Writers from North Carolina Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Editors of Christian publications Category:Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Graham family Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Living people Category:People from Charlotte, North Carolina Category:People with Parkinson's disease Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Southern Baptist ministers Category:Templeton Prize laureates Category:Trinity College (Florida) alumni Category:Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni Category:American anti-communists Category:Christian revivalists

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Shane Claiborne (born July 11, 1975) is one of the founding members of The Simple Way in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This community was featured on the cover of Christianity Today as a pioneer in the New Monasticism movement. Claiborne is also a prominent activist for nonviolence and service to the poor.

Biography

Claiborne grew up in east Tennessee. A graduate of Eastern University, where he studied sociology and youth ministry, Claiborne did his final academic work for Eastern University at Wheaton College in Illinois. While at Wheaton, Claiborne did an internship at Willow Creek Community Church. He has done some graduate work at Princeton Theological Seminary, but took a leave of absence, and now is a part of The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia.

Claiborne's outlook on ministry to the poor is often compared to Mother Teresa, whom he worked alongside during a 10-week term in Calcutta. He spent 3 weeks in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams). He was witness to the military bombardment of Baghdad as well as the militarized areas between Baghdad and Amman. As a member of IPT, Claiborne took daily trips to sites where there had been bombings, visited hospitals and families, and attended worship services during the war. He also continues to serve as a board member for the nation-wide Christian Community Development Association which was founded by the authors and community developers, John Perkins and Wayne Gordon.

On Wednesday, June 20, 2007, a seven-alarm fire at the abandoned warehouse across the street destroyed The Simple Way Community Center where Claiborne lived. He lost all of his possessions in the fire. The Simple Way immediately set up funds to accept donations to help those who lost their homes in the fire.

In October of 2010, Shane proposed to longtime love Katie Jo Brotherton in Philadelphia's Love Park. They were joined in marriage on May 7th, 2011, at Saint Edward's Cathedral in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Claiborne is featured in the documentary The Ordinary Radicals, and co-directed the three volume Another World is Possible DVD series. Claiborne wrote the foreword to Ben Lowe's 2009 book Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation.

In 2011 he has appeared as both a guest and co-host of the TV show "Red Letter Christians" with Tony Campolo.

Authorship

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010) ISBN 0310326192

"What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?" (Esquire Magazine, November 18, 2009)

Follow Me To Freedom: Leading and Following as an Ordinary Radical, with John Perkins (Regal Books, 2009) ISBN 0830751203

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, with Chris Haw (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008) ISBN 0310278422

Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals, with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (InterVarsity, 2008) ISBN 0830836225

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006) ISBN 0310266300

Iraq Journal 2003 (Doulos Christou, 2006) ISBN 0974479675

See also

Christian radicalism

Simple living

References

External links

Claiborne's official page at the Simple Way

The Ordinary Radicals official website

The Another World is Possible DVD series

Shane Claiborne's sermon on radical discipleship

Category:American Christian pacifists Category:American Christians Category:Christian writers Category:Eastern University (United States) alumni Category:Pennsylvania political activists Category:People from Tennessee Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Living people Category:1975 births Category:Environmentalism and religion Category:Nonviolence advocates Category:Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni Category:Christian radicals

cs:Shane Claiborne de:Shane Claiborne ru:Клайборн, Шейн

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Robert Carter I
office	Colonial Governor of Virginia
term start	1726
term end	1727
predecessor	Hugh Drysdale
successor	Sir William Gooch
order2	25th
office2	Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses
term start2	1696
term end2	1697
predecessor2	Philip Ludwell
successor2	William Randolph
term start3	1699
term end3	1699
predecessor3	William Randolph
successor3	Peter Beverley
birth date	1662/63
birth place	Corotoman Plantation, Lancaster County, Virginia
death place	Lancaster County, Virginia

Robert "King" Carter (1662/63 – 4 August 1732), of Lancaster County, was a colonist in Virginia and became one of the wealthiest men in the colonies.

As President of the Governor's Council of the Virginia Colony, he was acting Governor of Virginia in 1726-1727 after the death in office of Governor Hugh Drysdale. He acquired the moniker "King" from his wealth, political power, and autocratic business methods.

Biography

Robert Carter was born at Corotoman Plantation in Lancaster County, Virginia, to John Carter (1620-1669) of London, England, and Sarah Ludlow (1635-1668) of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire. In 1688, he married Judith Armistead of Hesse in Gloucester County, an area which was included in the formation of Mathews County in 1691. After her death in 1699, he married Elizabeth Landon in 1701.

At the age of 28, Robert entered the General Assembly of Virginia as a Burgess from Lancaster County, serving five consecutive years. In 1726, as President of the Governor's Council, he served as acting Governor of Virginia after the death of Governor Hugh Drysdale.

As an agent of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron – known simply as Lord Fairfax – he served two terms as agent for the Fairfax Proprietary of the Northern Neck of Virginia. During his first term, 1702–1711, he began to acquire large tracts of land for himself in the Rappahannock River region of Virginia. Carter acquired some , a large part of which was the Nomini Hall Plantation which he purchased in 1709 from the heirs of Col. Nicholas Spencer, cousin of the Lords Culpeper, from whom the Fairfaxes had inherited their Virginia holdings.

When he became representative of Fairfax’s interests again in 1722, and served from 1722–32, he succeeded in securing for his children and grandchildren some in the Northern Neck, as well as additional acquisitions in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Carter died on 4 August 1732, in Lancaster County, Virginia and was buried there at Christ Church. He left behind 300,000 acres (1,200 km²) of land, 1,000 slaves and 10,000 British pounds in cash.

Legacy

When Lord Fairfax saw Carter's obituary in the London monthly The Gentleman's Magazine, he was astonished to read of the immense personal wealth acquired by his resident land agent. Rather than name another Virginian to the position, Fairfax made arrangements to have his cousin, Colonel William Fairfax, move to Virginia to act as land agent, with the paid position of customs inspector (tax collector) for the Potomac River district. Fairfax himself then visited his vast Northern Neck Proprietary from 1735-37, and he moved there permanently in 1747.

Descendants

Carter had five children with his first wife, Judith Armistead: Sarah Carter (born ~1690) Elizabeth Carter (~1692-1734) married Nathaniel Burwell. Judith Carter (born ~1694) died in infancy before her mother and buried near her at Christ Church Judith Carter (1695-1750) married Mann Page. John Carter (1696-1742)

Carter had ten children with his second wife, Betty Landon: Anne Carter (1702–1743) married Benjamin Harrison IV; (parents of Benjamin Harrison V and grandparents of President William Henry Harrison). Robert Carter II (1704–1734) married Priscilla Churchill. Sarah Carter (~1705–1705) Betty Carter (~1705–1706) Charles Carter (1707–1764) married Anne Byrd, daughter of Col. William Byrd II. Ludlow Carter (born ~1709) Landon Carter (1710–1778) married Maria Byrd, daughter of Col. William Byrd II. Mary Carter (1712-1736) married George Braxton; {parents of Carter Braxton}. Lucy Carter (1715-1763) George Carter (1718-1742)

Other descendants include:

Robert Carter III (1727-1804)

Talcott Eliason (1826-1896) J.E.B. Stuart's Field Surgeon during the Civil War;

See also

Robert Carter III

Carter's Grove Plantation

Corotoman Plantation

History of slavery in the United States

References

External links

Robert "King" Carter lineage

Ferdinand III of Castile">Catesby ap Roger Jones included is lineage of Robert "King" Carter from King Ferdinand III of Castile

Robert "King" Carter's son John Carter to Elizabeth Hill of Plantation "Shirley"

Anne Hill Carter Lee her parents were Anne Butler Moore married to Charles Carter of Shirley Plantation.

Diary, Correspondence, and Papers of Robert Carter

Category:Colonial governors of Virginia Category:Speakers of the Virginia House of Burgesses Category:1663 births Category:1732 deaths Category:Virginia colonial people Category:Carter family of Virginia Category:People from Lancaster County, Virginia Category:American people of English descent Category:American planters

de:Robert King Carter