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Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in the 17th century and became an organized movement with the emergence around 1730 of the Methodists in England and the Pietists among Lutherans in Germany and Scandinavia. The movement became even more important—drawing far more members than in Europe—in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century. It continues to draw adherents globally in the 21st century, especially in the poor nations of the Third World.

It is a religious movement that de-emphasizes ritual and emphasizes the pietism of the individual, requiring him or her to meet certain active commitments, including:

• The need for personal conversion (or being "born again");
• A high regard for biblical authority;
• An emphasis on teachings that proclaim the saving death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ;^[1]
• Actively expressing and sharing the gospel.

David Bebbington has termed these four distinctive aspects conversionism, biblicism, crucicentrism, and activism noting, "Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism."^[2]

Usage[link]

The term evangelical has its etymological roots in the Greek word for "gospel" or "good news": ευαγγελιον (evangelion), from eu- "good" and angelion "message". In that sense, to be an evangelical would mean to be a believer of the Gospel, that is the message of Jesus Christ.

By the English Middle Ages the term had been expanded to include not only the message, but also the New Testament which contained the message, as well as more specifically the four books of the Bible in which the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are portrayed.^[3] The first published use of the term "evangelical" in English was in 1531 by William Tyndale, who wrote "He exhorteth them to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth."^[4] One year later, the earliest recorded use in reference to a theological distinction was by Sir Thomas More, who spoke of "Tyndale [and] his evangelical brother Barns".^[4]

By the time of the Protestant Reformation, Protestant theologians began to embrace the term evangelical as referring to "gospel truth". Martin Luther referred to the evangelische Kirche or evangelical church to distinguish Protestants from Catholics in the Roman Catholic Church.^[5][6] In Germany, Switzerland and Denmark, and especially among Lutherans, the term has continued to be used in a broad sense.^[7] This can be seen in the names of certain Lutheran denominations or national organizations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, and the Evangelical Church in Germany.

Current usage[link]

While the main usage is religious, the term is also used to characterize a movement that uses active missionary work to convert others to its political position. For example, the Times Literary Supplement refers to "the rise and fall of evangelical fervor within the Socialist movement".^[8]

The contemporary North American usage of the term is influenced by the evangelical/fundamentalist controversy of the early 20th century. Evangelicalism may sometimes be perceived as the middle ground between the theological liberalism of the mainline denominations and the cultural separatism of fundamentalism.^[9] Evangelicalism has therefore been described as "the third of the leading strands in American Protestantism, straddl[ing] the divide between fundamentalists and liberals".^[10] According to Christianity Today, "The emerging movement is a protest against much of evangelicalism as currently practiced. The emerging church movement is post-evangelical in the way that neo-evangelicalism (in the 1950s) was post-fundamentalist. It would not be unfair to call it^{[clarification needed]} postmodern evangelicalism."^[11]

While the North American perception is important to understand the usage of the term, it by no means dominates a wider global view, where the fundamentalist debate was not so influential.

In the first half of the 20th century, evangelicalism in America was largely synonymous with fundamentalism. George Marsden in Reforming Fundamentalism says, "There was not a practical distinction between fundamentalist and evangelical: the words were interchangeable" (p. 48). When the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) was formed in 1942, for example, participants included such fundamentalist leaders as Bob Jones, Sr., John R. Rice, Charles Woodbridge, Harry Ironside, and David Otis Fuller.

— D.W. Cloud^[12]

By the mid-1950s, largely due to the ecumenical evangelism of Billy Graham, the terms evangelicalism and fundamentalism began to refer to two different approaches. Fundamentalism aggressively attacked its liberal enemies; Evangelicalism downplayed liberalism and emphasized outreach and conversion of new members^[13]

While some conservative evangelicals^[which?] believe the label has broadened too much beyond its more limiting traditional distinctives, this trend is nonetheless strong enough to create significant ambiguity in the term.^[14] As a result, the dichotomy between "evangelical" and "mainline" denominations is increasingly complex, particularly with such innovations as the "emergent church" movement.

John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, used polling data to separate evangelicals into three camps which he labels as traditionalist, centrist and modernist.^[9]

• The traditionalists, characterized by high affinity for certain Protestant beliefs, (especially penal substitutionary atonement, justification by faith, the authority of scripture, priesthood of all believers, etc.) which, when fused with the highly political milieu of Western culture (esp. American), has resulted in the political disposition that has been labeled the Christian right, whose most visible spokesmen have been figures like Jerry Falwell and the television evangelist Pat Robertson.
• Centrist evangelicals are described as socially conservative, mostly avoiding politics, who still support much of traditional Christian theology.
• Modernist evangelicals are a small minority in the movement, have low levels of church attendance, and "have much more diversity in their beliefs".^[9]

History[link]

17th century[link]

The work of the Pietists Philipp Jakob Spener and August Hermann Francke is the theological and practical beginning of Evangelicalism. The Francke Foundations in Halle became the education place for many priests of the New World, above all for the United States. The personal experience of enlightenment is the central reason to find the way to good. The spreading of the faith is pursued by the individually piety.^[15]

18th century[link]

Evangelical movements first emerged between 1730 and 1790 and Pietism in Germany and the Netherlands, and Methodism in England and America. They featured revivals and an emphasis on personal salvation and piety, while downplaying rituals and traditions. In the American colonies the First Great Awakening of the 1740s greatly expanded the movement; it was based on revivals led by Congregationalist Jonathan Edwards and Methodist George Whitefield.^[3] In England John Wesley led the Methodist movement inside the Church of England.

19th century[link]

The start of the 19th century saw an increase in missionary work and many of the major missionary societies were founded around this time (see Timeline of Christian missions).

The Second Great Awakening (which actually began in 1790) was primarily an American revivalist movement and resulted in substantial growth of the Methodist and Baptist churches. Charles Grandison Finney was an important preacher of this period.

Evangelicals were also concerned with social reform during this period—in England the Clapham Sect included figures such as William Wilberforce who successfully campaigned for the abolition of slavery.

John Nelson Darby was a 19th century English minister considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism, an innovative Protestant movement significant in the development of modern evangelicalism.^[16] Cyrus Scofield further promoted the influence of this theology through his Scofield Reference Bible.

Other notable figures of the latter half of the 19th century include Charles Spurgeon and Dwight L. Moody.

In Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, Mr Brocklehurst illustrates the dangers and hypocrisies that Charlotte Brontë perceived in the nineteenth-century Evangelical movement.

20th century[link]

Evangelicalism in the early part of the 20th century was dominated by the fundamentalist movement, which rejected liberal theology and focused on separation from the world.

Following the Welsh Revival, the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 began the spread of Pentecostalism in North America.

In the post–World War II period, a split developed amongst evangelicals, as they disagreed among themselves about how a Christian ought to respond to an unbelieving world. The evangelicals urged that Christians must engage the culture directly and constructively,^[17] and they began to express reservations about being known to the world as fundamentalists. As Kenneth Kantzer put it at the time, the name fundamentalist had become "an embarrassment instead of a badge of honor".^[18]

The term neo-evangelicalism was coined by Harold Ockenga in 1947 to identify a distinct movement within self-identified fundamentalist Christianity at the time, especially in the English-speaking world. It described the mood of positivism and non-militancy that characterized that generation. The new generation of evangelicals set as their goals to abandon a militant Bible stance. Instead, they would pursue dialogue, intellectualism, non-judgmentalism, and appeasement. They further called for an increased application of the gospel to the sociological, political, and economic areas. Not all conservatives are pleased with the new direction. One author has termed it "the apostasy within evangelicalism".^[12]

The self-identified fundamentalists also cooperated in separating their opponents from the fundamentalist name, by increasingly seeking to distinguish themselves from the more open group, whom they often characterized derogatorily, by Ockenga's term, "neo-evangelical" or just evangelical.

The fundamentalists saw the evangelicals as often being too concerned about social acceptance and intellectual respectability, and being too accommodating to a perverse generation that needed correction. In addition, they saw the efforts of evangelist Billy Graham, who worked with non-evangelical denominations, such as the Roman Catholics (which they claimed to be heretical), as a mistake.^{[citation needed]}

The post-war period also saw growth of the ecumenical movement and the founding of the World Council of Churches, which was generally regarded with suspicion by the evangelical community.^{[citation needed]}

In England, John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones emerged as key leaders in evangelical Christianity.

The charismatic movement began in the 1960s and resulted in Pentecostal theology and practice being introduced into many mainline denominations. New charismatic groups such as the Association of Vineyard Churches and Newfrontiers trace their roots to this period (see also British New Church Movement).

The closing years of the 20th century saw controversial postmodern influences entering some parts of evangelicalism, particularly with the emerging church movement.

21st century[link]

This section requires expansion.

Meaning of Evangelicalism[link]

The Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals states:

There are three senses in which the term "evangelical" is used today at the beginning of the 21st-century. The first is to view "evangelical" as all Christians who affirm a few key doctrines and practical emphases. British historian David Bebbington approaches evangelicalism from this direction and notes four specific hallmarks of evangelical religion: conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; and crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

A second sense is to look at evangelicalism as an organic group of movements and religious tradition. Within this context "evangelical" denotes a style as much as a set of beliefs. As a result, groups as disparate as black Baptists and Dutch Reformed Churches, Mennonites and Pentecostals, Catholic charismatics and Southern Baptists all come under the evangelical umbrella, thus demonstrating just how diverse the movement really is.

A third sense of the term is as the self-ascribed label for a coalition that arose during the Second World War. This group came into being as a reaction against the perceived anti-intellectual, separatist, belligerent nature of the fundamentalist movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Importantly, its core personalities (like Harold John Ockenga and Billy Graham), institutions (for instance, Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College), and organizations (such as the National Association of Evangelicals and Youth for Christ) have played a pivotal role in giving the wider movement a sense of cohesion that extends beyond these "card-carrying" evangelicals.^[19]

Adherents[link]

This section requires expansion.

The movement is highly diverse and encompasses a vast number of people. Because the group is diverse, not all of them use the same terminology for beliefs. For instance, several recent studies and surveys by sociologists and political scientists that utilize more complex definitional parameters have estimated the number of evangelicals in the U.S. at about 25–30% of the population, or roughly between 70 and 80 million people.^[20]

From the late 20th century onwards, such conservative Protestant Christians, and their churches and social movements, have often been called evangelical to distinguish them from other Protestants.^{[citation needed][dubious – discuss]}

Since the Iraq War, evangelicalism has begun to make inroads in Iraq, capitalizing on a new openness to Western missionaries following the US-led invasion of the country, although the vast majority of converts are from other sects of Christianity present in Iraq.^[21][22]

Contemporary North American perspective[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

Evangelicals held the view that the modernist and liberal parties in the Protestant churches had surrendered their heritage as evangelicals by accommodating the views and values of "the world". At the same time, they criticized fundamentalists for their separatism and their rejection of the social gospel as it had been developed by Protestant activists of the previous century. They charged the modernists with having lost their identity as evangelicals and the fundamentalists with having lost the Christ-like heart of evangelicalism. They argued that the gospel needed to be reassessed to distinguish it from the innovations of the liberals as well as the fundamentalists.

Today, evangelicals are often concerned with their own failure to live up to Christian standards in contrast to the world. Christianity Today author Mark Galli says "It's now pretty much agreed that the evangelical church mirrors the dysfunctions of secular society, from premarital sex stats to divorce rates to buying habits. Much to our dismay, we are hardly a light to the world, nor an icon of the abundant, transformed life."^[23]

As part of this renewal of evangelicalism, the new evangelicals sought to engage the modern world and the liberal Christians in a positive way, remaining separate from worldliness but not from the world — a middle way between modernism and the separating variety of fundamentalism. They sought allies in denominational churches and liturgical traditions, disregarding views of eschatology and other "non-essentials", and joined also with Trinitarian varieties of Pentecostalism. They believed that in doing so, they were simply re-acquainting Protestantism with its own recent tradition. The movement's aim at the outset was to reclaim the evangelical heritage in their respective churches, not to begin something new; and for this reason, following their separation from fundamentalists, the same movement has been better known merely as "evangelicalism". By the end of the 20th century, this was the most influential development in American Protestant Christianity.^[24]

Global demographics[link]

On a worldwide scale evangelical churches (together with Pentecostals) claim to be the most rapidly growing Christian churches. The two often overlap, in a movement sometimes called transformationalism.^{[citation needed]} Churches in Africa exhibit rapid growth and great diversity in part because they are not dependent on European and North American evangelical sources. An example of this can be seen in the African Initiated Churches.

The World Evangelical Alliance is "a network of churches in 128 nations that have each formed an evangelical alliance and over 100 international organizations joining together to give a worldwide identity, voice and platform" to an estimated more than 600 million evangelical Christians.^[25] The Alliance was formed in 1951 by evangelicals from 21 countries. It has worked to support its members to work together globally.

In Britain, according to a 2005 study conducted by the Assemblies of God, evangelicals give 7.5% of their income to their churches and a further 3% to Christian charities.^[26]

Types of evangelicalism[link]

Conservative evangelicalism[link]

Chinese evangelical church in Madrid, Spain

Toward the end of the 20th century, some have tended to confuse evangelicalism and fundamentalism, but as noted above they are not the same. The labels represent very distinct differences of approach that both groups are diligent to maintain, although because of fundamentalism's dramatically smaller size it often gets classified simply as an ultra-conservative branch of evangelicalism.

Both groups seek to maintain an identity as theological conservatives; evangelicals, however, seek to distance themselves from stereotypical perceptions of the "fundamentalist" posture of antagonism toward the larger society and advocate involvement in the surrounding community rather than separation from it. However, despite the differences, some people, particularly those with a non-denominational background, may consider themselves both evangelical and fundamentalist because they believe in the engaging practices of evangelicalism and take a fundamental view of the Bible.

On the American political spectrum, evangelicals traditionally fall under socially conservative. Based on the view that marriage is only between one man and one woman, they oppose state recognition of same-sex marriage. Since the 1970s they have also opposed abortion. (See below for more details).

Open evangelicalism[link]

Open Evangelical refers to a particular Christian school of thought or Churchmanship, primarily in the United Kingdom (especially in the Church of England). Open evangelicals describe their position as combining a traditional evangelical emphasis on the nature of scriptural authority, the teaching of the ecumenical creeds and other traditional doctrinal teachings, with an approach towards culture and other theological points of view which tends to be more inclusive than that taken by other evangelicals. Some open evangelicals aim to take a middle position between conservative and charismatic evangelicals, while others would combine conservative theological emphases with more liberal social positions.^[27]

Post-evangelicalism[link]

British author Dave Tomlinson characterizes post-evangelicalism as a movement comprising various trends of dissatisfaction among evangelicals. The term is used by others with comparable intent, often to distinguish evangelicals in the so-called emerging church movement from post-evangelicals and anti-evangelicals. Tomlinson argues that "linguistically, the distinction [between evangelical and post-evangelical] is similar to the one that sociologists make between the modern and postmodern eras".^[28]

There persists considerable and inevitable confusion as to how best to classify the non-traditional/non-conservative forms of evangelicalism. Some call the emerging church movement a version or manifestation of post-evangelicalism, whereas others distinguish both under the broader umbrella of the "evangelical left" movement. As such developments are still relatively new, it remains to be seen how the categories and semantics will settle.

Evangelicalism in the United States[link]

Demographics[link]

An event at Gateway Church's 114 Southlake Campus

The 2004 survey of religion and politics in the United States identified the evangelical percentage of the population at 26.3 percent while Roman Catholics are 22 percent and mainline Protestants make up 16 percent.^[29] In the 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the figures for these same groups are 28.6 percent (evangelical), 24.5 percent (Roman Catholic), and 13.9 percent (mainline Protestant.) The latter figures are based on a 2001 study of the self-described religious identification of the adult population for 1990 and 2001 from the Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York.^[30] A 2008 study showed that in the year 2000 about 9 percent of Americans attended an evangelical service on any given Sunday.^[31] The Economist estimated in May 2012 that "over one-third of Americans, more than 100m, can be considered evangelical".^[32]

The National Association of Evangelicals is a U.S. agency which coordinates cooperative ministry for its member denominations.

Politics[link]

Christian right in politics[link]

Evangelical political influence in America was first evident in the 1830s with movements such as abolition of slavery and the prohibition movement, which closed saloons and taverns in state after state until it succeeded nationally in 1919.^[33] The Christian right is a coalition of numerous groups of traditionalist and observant church-goers of every kind: especially Catholics on issues such as birth control and abortion, Southern Baptists, Missouri Synod Lutherans,and others.^[34]

Evangelical political activists are not all on the right. There is a small group of liberal white evangelicals.^[35] Most blacks belong to Baptist, Methodist or other denominations that share evangelical beliefs; they are firmly in the Democratic coalition and (except for gay and abortion issues) are generally liberal in politics.^[36]

Abortion[link]

Since 1970 a central issue motivating conservative evangelicals' political activism is abortion. Theologically they argue abortion is the taking of an innocent life. Pro-choice advocates oppose the evangelicals on abortion and argue that any legal restrictions based on such a religious worldview amount to imposing religion. Abortion was not a crime under English and American common law at least until the "quickening" of the fetus. Physicians—not religious leaders—were responsible for enacting the 19th century laws against abortion in the name of protecting the mother. The 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court said women have a right to choose abortion; with some modifications, that remains the law. It proved decisive in bringing together Catholics (who had opposed abortion since the 1890s) and evangelicals in a political coalition in the 1970s, which became known as the Religious Right when it successfully mobilized its voters behind presidential candidate Ronald Reagan in 1980.^[37]

School prayer[link]

In the United States, Supreme Court decisions that outlawed organized prayer in school and restricted church-related schools also played a role in mobilizing the Religious Right.^[38] In addition, questions of sexual morality and homosexuality have been energizing factors—and above all, the fear that "elites" are pushing America into secularism.

Other issues[link]

According to recent reports in the New York Times, some evangelicals have sought to expand their movement's social agenda to include poverty, combating AIDS in the Third World, and protecting the environment.^[39] This is highly contentious within the evangelical community, since more conservative evangelicals believe that this trend is compromising important issues and prioritizing popularity and consensus too highly. Personifying this division were the evangelical leaders James Dobson and Rick Warren, the former who warned of the dangers of a Barack Obama victory in 2008 from his point of view,^[40] in contrast with the latter who declined to endorse either major candidate on the grounds that he wanted the church to be less politically divisive and that he agreed substantially with both men.^[41] Indeed many are not sure how to characterize Rick Warren on the evangelical spectrum; despite his avowed centrism he recently supported California's controversial Proposition 8 (2008), which is regarded by critics as a right-wing position.

Christian nation[link]

Some opponents have argued that the evangelicals actually want a Christian America—that is a nation in which Christianity is given a privileged position.^[42] Survey data shows that 60–75% of evangelicals reject proposals for a Christian America.^[43] Evangelical leaders retort they merely seek freedom from the imposition by national elites of an equally subjective secular worldview, and feel that it is their opponents who are violating their rights.^[44]

Christian left[link]

Typically, members of the evangelical left affirm the primary tenets of evangelical theology, such as the doctrines of Incarnation, atonement, and resurrection, and also see the Bible as a primary authority for the church. A major theological difference, however, which in turn leads to many of the social/political differences, is the issue of how strictly to interpret the Bible, as well as what particular values and principles predominantly constitute the "biblical worldview" believed to be binding upon all followers. Inevitably, battles over how to characterize each other and themselves ensue, with the evangelical left and right often hyperbolically regarding each other as "mainline/non-evangelical" and "fundamentalist" respectively.

Unlike conservative evangelicals, the evangelical left is generally opposed to capital punishment and supportive of gun control. In many cases, evangelical leftists are pacifistic. Some promote the legalization of same-sex marriage or protection of access to abortion for the society at large without necessarily endorsing the practice themselves. There is considerable dispute over how to even characterize the various segments of the evangelical theological and political spectra, and whether a singular discernible rift between "right" and "left" is oversimplified. However, to the extent that some simplifications are necessary to discuss any complex issue, it is recognized that modern trends like focusing on non-contentious issues (like poverty) and downplaying hot-button social issues (like abortion) tend to be key distinctives of the modern "evangelical left" or "emergent church" movement.

Evangelical environmentalism[link]

Evangelical environmentalism is an environmental movement in the United States in which some Evangelicals have emphasized biblical mandates concerning humanity's role as steward and subsequent responsibility for the caretaking of Creation. While the movement has focused on different environmental issues, it is best known for its focus of addressing climate action from a biblically grounded theological perspective. The Evangelical Climate Initiative argues that human-induced climate change will have severe consequences and impact the poor the hardest, and that God's mandate to Adam to care for the Garden of Eden also applies to Christians today, and that it is therefore a moral obligation to work to mitigate climate impacts and support communities in adapting to change.^[45]

See also[link]

Publications[link]

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Randall Herbert Balmer. Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. 1st ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press; 2002. ISBN 978-0-664-22409-7.
• Balmer, Randall. (2010) The Making of Evangelicalism: From Revivalism to Politics and Beyond. ISBN 978-1-60258-243-9.
• Balmer, Randall. (2000) Blessed Assurance: A History of Evangelicalism in America
• Beale, David O. (1986) In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University (Unusual Publications). ISBN 0-89084-350-3.
• Bebbington, D. W. (1989), Evangelicals in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s, London: Unwin .
• Carpenter, Joel A. (1980), "Fundamentalist Institutions and the Rise of Evangelical Protestantism, 1929–1942", Church History 49: 62–75 .
• Carpenter, Joel A. (1999). Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-512907-5.
• Dudley, Jonathan (2011) "Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics." New York: Crown.
• Freston, Paul (2004), Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-60429-X 
• Hindmarsh, Bruce, The Evangelical Conversion Narrative: Spiritual Autobiography in Early Modern England (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Marsden, George M. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (1991) excerpt and text search
• Marsden, George M. (1987), Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans .
• Noll, Mark (1992). A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada.. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 311–389. ISBN 0-8028-0651-1.
• Noll, Mark A., David W. Bebbington and George A. Rawlyk eds. Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles and Beyond, 1700–1990. (1994)
• Pierard, Richard V. (1979), "The Quest For the Historical Evangelicalism: A Bibliographical Excursus", Fides et Historia 11 (2): 60–72 .
• Price, Robert M. (1986), "Neo-Evangelicals and Scripture: A Forgotten Period of Ferment", Christian Scholars Review 15 (4): 315–330 .
• Rawlyk, George A., and Mark A. Noll, eds. Amazing Grace: Evangelicalism in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States (1993).
• Schafer, Axel R. Countercultural Conservatives: American Evangelicalism From the Postwar Revival to the New Christian Right (University of Wisconsin Press; 2011). 225 pages; covers evangelical politics from the 1940s to the 1990s that examines how a diverse, politically pluralistic movement became, largely, the Christian Right.
• Stackhouse, John G. Canadian Evangelicalism in the Twentieth Century (1993)
• Utzinger, J. Michael (2006) Yet Saints Their Watch Are Keeping: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and the Development of Evangelical Ecclesiology, 1887–1937, Macon: Mercer University Press, ISBN 0-86554-902-8
• Ward, W. R. Early Evangelicalism: A Global Intellectual History (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006).
• Kidd, Thomas S. "God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution" (Basic Books, 2010) ISBN 0-465-00235-8

External links[link]

Look up evangelist, evangelical, or evangelicalism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Institute for the Study of American Evangelicalism – Wheaton College
• The Coming Evangelical Collapse by Michael Spencer, The Christian Science Monitor, March 10, 2009
• Modern Evangelical African Theologians: A Primer
• American Evangelicalism and Islam: From the Antichrist to the Mahdi

Scot McKnight is an American New Testament scholar, historian of early Christianity, theologian, speaker, and author who has written widely on the historical Jesus, early Christianity, the emerging church and missional church movements, spiritual formation and Christian living. He is currently the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University. Prior to joining the NPU faculty in 1994, he was a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. In the Fall of 2012 McKnight will join the faculty at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.^[1] McKnight considers himself an Anabaptist and has also written frequently on issues in modern Anabaptism.^[2][3]

Childhood and education[link]

McKnight was born in Illinois and raised in Freeport, Illinois. He earned his B.A. degree from Grand Rapids Baptist College (now known as Cornerstone University), an M.A. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham in 1986.

Career[link]

McNight is a prolific author, with more than twenty books to his credit. One of McKnight's more popular books, The Jesus Creed, won the Christianity Today book award for 2004 in the area of Christian living and has spawned a number of popular small group studies and a DVD series.^[4]

McKnight's blog, Jesus Creed, which was formerly hosted by Beliefnet and is now hosted by Patheos, is currently one of the most popular Evangelical blogs online.^[5]

McKnight is a popular author and speaker on issues related to the emerging church, with his blog being named the most popular blog online related to the movement.^[6][7][8] He has generally been a proponent of the movement and supported many of the movement's aims. However, in recent years he has expressed some concern about the direction of the movement, particularly regarding the "emergent" stream within the emerging church and some of the work by his friend Brian McLaren.^[9] Yet McKnight does continue to support much of what the movement symbolizes, including much of McLaren's work.^[10]

He has also been identified with the New Perspective on Paul.^[11][12][13]

Personal Life[link]

He and his wife, Kristen, who is a psychologist, live in Libertyville, Illinois and have two children.^[14]

Publications[link]

• One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow (Zondervan, 2010)
• The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible (Zondervan, 2008)
• A Community Called Atonement (Abingdon, 2007)
• The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (Paraclete, 2006)
• Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today (Paraclete, 2006)
• The Story of the Christ, with Philip Law (Baker, 2005)
• Jesus And His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus, And Atonement Theory (Baylor, 2005)
• The Historical Jesus in Current Study, ed. with James Dunn (Eisenbraun’s, 2005)
• Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us (Paraclete, 2005)
• The Face of New Testament Studies, ed. with Grant Osborne (Baker, 2004)
• The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others (Paraclete, 2004)
• Turning to Jesus: The Sociology of Conversion in the Gospels (Westminster John Knox, 2002)
• The Synoptic Gospels: An Annotated Bibliography, with Matthew Williams (Baker, 2000)
• A New Vision for Israel: The Teachings of Jesus in National Context (Eerdmans, 1999)
• 1 Peter, NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan, 1996)
• Galatians, NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan, 1993)
• Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. with Joel Green & I. Howard Marshall, (IVP, 1992)
• A Light among the Gentiles (Fortress, 1992)
• Introducing New Testament Interpretation (Baker, 1989)
• Interpreting the Synoptic Gospels (Baker, 1988)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jesus Creed -- Scot McKnight's personal blog
• Indepth Interview with Scot McKnight -- "Beyond Evangelical"
• Scot McKnight biography from Theopedia
• North Park University
• A Review of McKnight's FASTING
• Review of McKnight's The Blue Parakeet
• Off The Map Episode 4 Scot McKnight Talk from Missional Matrix in 2007

Paul Washer
Nationality	American
Education	Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Occupation	Founder/Director, Missions Coordinator, Pastor
Religion	Christian (Calvinistic Baptist)
Spouse	Charo Washer

Paul David Washer (born 1961) is the Founder/Director & Missions Coordinator of HeartCry Missionary Society which supports indigenous missionary work.^[1] 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.

Biography[link]

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,^[2] where he lives with his wife and three children.

Washer's sermons often focus on the character of Christ and how a person is saved from hell. According to Washer, a person is saved through faith alone, but the evidence of a person's repentance is by walking with Jesus. 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 Thomas Watson, R.C. 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.^[3] He has frequently appeared on Christian radio to discuss how people are saved.^[4]

Books[link]

• Washer, Paul (2004). The One True God. HeartCry Missionary Society. ISBN 978-0-9770234-0-0. 
• Washer, Paul (2009). Truth About Man. Granted Ministries Press. ISBN 978-0-9817321-1-4. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• 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

Randall Herbert Balmer (born October 22, 1954) is an American author, professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, an advisory editor for Christianity Today and an Episcopal priest. He earned the Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985. He has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and at Rutgers, Princeton, Drew University, Emory University, Yale and Northwestern universities and at Union Theological Seminary, where he is also adjunct professor of church history. He has also taught in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.^[1]

Balmer was nominated for an Emmy for script-writing and hosting the three-part PBS documentary "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," based on his book with the same title.^[1] He also wrote and hosted two other PBS documentaries: "Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham" and "In the Beginning: The Creationist Controversy."

Balmer's criticisms of the Religious Right[link]

In various books and articles, Balmer has criticized the politicization of the American Christian evangelical movement. In an article titled "Jesus is not a Republican" in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Balmer writes:

Indeed, the most effective and vigorous religious movements in American history have identified with the downtrodden and have positioned themselves on the fringes of society rather than at the centers of power. The Methodists of the 19th century come to mind, as do the Mormons. In the 20th century, Pentecostalism, which initially appealed to the lower classes and made room for women and people of color, became perhaps the most significant religious movement of the century. The leaders of the religious right have led their sheep astray from the gospel of Jesus Christ to the false gospel of neoconservative ideology and into the maw of the Republican Party. And yet my regard for the flock and my respect for their integrity is undiminished. Ultimately it is they who must reclaim the gospel and rescue us from the distortions of the religious right. The Bible I read tells of freedom for captives and deliverance from oppression. It teaches that those who refuse to act with justice or who neglect the plight of those less fortunate have some explaining to do. But the Bible is also about good news. It promises redemption and forgiveness, a chance to start anew and, with divine help, to get it right. My evangelical theology assures me that no one, not even Karl Rove or James Dobson, lies beyond the reach of redemption, and that even a people led astray can find their way home.^[2]

Bibliography[link]

• Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-530046-7
• Blessed Assurance: A History of Evangelicalism in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8070-7711-9
• Protestantism in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-231-11130-4
• Balmer, Randall Herbert (2004), Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, 2nd Edition, Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, ISBN 1-932792-04-X, http://books.google.com/?id=Vjwly0QyeU4C, retrieved 2009-01-27 
• Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America. New York: Basic Books, 2006. ISBN 0-465-00519-5
• God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008. ISBN 0-06-073405-1

Documentaries & e-seminars[link]

• "Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham"
• "Crucible of Pluralism: Religion in Modern America"
• "Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory"

References[link]

Billy Graham
Billy Graham in 2008.
Born	William Franklin Graham, Jr. (1918-11-07) November 7, 1918 (age 93) Charlotte, North Carolina
Education	Diploma in Biblical Studies, Florida Bible Institute (Trinity Bible College), 1940 B.A. in Anthropology, Wheaton College, 1943
Occupation	Evangelist
Religion	Evangelical Christian
Spouse	Ruth Graham (m. 1943–2007; her death)
Children	Franklin, Nelson, Virginia, Anne Ruth
Signature
Ordained	Southern Baptist[1]
Offices held	President, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
Title	Doctor (Honorary)
Website
www.billygraham.org

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. (born November 7, 1918) is an American evangelical Christian evangelist, ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who rose to celebrity status with national media backing of William Randolph Hearst and Henry Luce in 1949. His sermons were broadcast on radio and television, with some still re-broadcast today.

Graham is notable for having been a spiritual adviser to several United States Presidents; he was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon.^[2] During the civil rights movement, he began to support integrated seating for his revivals and crusades; in 1957 he invited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to jointly preach at a huge revival in New York City, where they appeared together at Madison Square Garden, and bailed the minister out of jail in the 1960s when he was arrested in demonstrations.

Having built an evangelical empire and organized huge events worldwide, Graham has personally preached the Gospel to more people than any other person in history. His institutions include a variety of media and publishing outlets.^[3] 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. As of 2008, Graham's estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.^[3]

With his renown and international travel, Graham has repeatedly been on Gallup's list of most admired men and women. He has appeared on the list 55 times since 1955 (including 49 consecutive years), more than any other individual in the world.^[4]

Early life[link]

Named after his father and born November 7, 1918, he is the first son of Morrow Coffey (1892–1981) and William Franklin Graham, Sr. (1888–1962); he grew up on the family dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. Called Billy, he was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church by his parents and was of Scottish descent.^[5][6] In 1933, when Prohibition in the United States ended, Graham's father forced Billy and his sister Katherine to drink beer until they got sick, which created such an aversion that both avoided alcohol and drugs the rest of their lives.^[7]

After Graham was turned down for membership in a local youth group because he was "too worldly,"^[7] Albert McMakin, who worked on the Graham farm, persuaded the youth to go see Mordecai Ham, an evangelist.^[3] According to his autobiography, Graham was converted in 1934 at age 16 during a series of revival meetings in Charlotte led by the evangelist.^[8]

After graduating from Sharon High School in May 1936, Graham attended Bob Jones College, located in Cleveland, Tennessee. After one semester, he found it too legalistic in both coursework and rules.^[7] 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."^[7]

In 1937, Graham transferred to the Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida). (Today's Florida College is now located at that site in Temple Terrace, Florida.) In his autobiography, Graham wrote of receiving 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. Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park was established 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.^[9]

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. He settled it at Forest Home Christian camp (now called Forest Home Ministries) southeast of the Big Bear area in Southern California.^{[citation needed]} A memorial there marks the site of Graham's decision.

Family[link]

On August 13, 1943, Graham married Wheaton classmate Ruth Bell (1920–2007), whose parents were Presbyterian missionaries in China. Her father L. Nelson Bell was a general surgeon. Graham 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."^[10] 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.^[7] Ruth died on June 14, 2007, at the age of 87.

They had five children together: Virginia Leftwich (Gigi) Graham Tchividjian (born 1945; an inspirational speaker and author); Anne Graham Lotz (born 1948; runs AnGeL ministries); Ruth Graham (born 1950; founder and president of Ruth Graham & Friends, leads conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada); Franklin Graham (born 1952), who serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and as president and CEO of international relief organization, Samaritan's Purse^[11]; and Nelson Edman Graham (born 1958; a pastor who runs East Gates Ministries International,^[12] which distributes Christian literature in China). Graham has 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. His grandson Tullian Tchividjian is senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

To ensure no one mistook his actions, Graham had a policy to avoid being alone with any woman other than his wife Ruth. This has come to be known as the Billy Graham Rule.^[13]

Ministry[link]

Career[link]

While attending college, Graham 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. In 1947, at age 30, he was hired as president of Northwestern Bible College in St. Paul, Minnesota, the youngest person to serve as college president. Graham served as the president of Northwestern Bible College from 1948 to 1952.^[14]

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), co-founded by Torrey Johnson and the Canadian evangelist Charles Templeton. Graham traveled throughout both the United States and Europe as an YFCI evangelist. Unlike many evangelists, Graham had little formal theological training. Templeton applied to Princeton Theological Seminary for an advanced theological degree and urged Graham to do so as well, but the evangelist declined. He was already serving as the president of Northwestern Bible College.^[7][14]

Hearst bubble[link]

Graham scheduled a series of revival meetings in Los Angeles in 1949, for which he erected circus tents in a parking lot.^[3] He was given national coverage by the news mogul William Randolph Hearst. Scholars such as Ben Bagdikian believe that Hearst liked Graham's patriotism and appeals to youth; he thought the evangelist would help promote Hearst's conservative anti-communist views.^[15] The scholar Randall E. King notes that Hearst and Graham never met.^[16] Hearst sent a telegram to his newspaper editors: "Puff Graham" during the Los Angeles crusade and within five days, he gained national coverage.^[16][17] With such media attention, the crusade event ran for eight weeks—five weeks longer than planned. Graham became a national figure.^[18] Henry Luce also promoted Graham with coverage at this time, and by 1954 featured him on the cover of his magazine TIME.^[19]

Crusades[link]

Since his ministry began in 1947, Graham conducted more than 400 crusades in 185 countries and territories on six continents. The first Billy Graham Crusade, held Sept. 13-21, 1947, in the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Mich., was attended by 6,000 people. Graham was 29 years old. He called them crusades, after the medieval Christian forces who tried to conquer Jerusalem. He would rent a large venue, such as a stadium, park, or street. As the sessions got larger, he arranged a group of up to 5,000 people to sing in a choir. He would preach the gospel and invite people to come forward (a practice begun by Dwight L. Moody). Such people were called inquirers and were given the chance to speak one-on-one with a counselor, to clarify questions and pray together. The inquirers were often given a copy of the Gospel of John or a Bible study booklet. In Moscow in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in Graham's audience went forward at his call.^[7] During his crusades, he has frequently used the altar call song, "Just As I Am".^[20]

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 prearranged commitments.^[10] 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.

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association[link]

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 broadcast in almost every market in the US 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[link]

Graham with Martin Luther King

Graham had shown little concern for segregation until the civil rights movement began to receive national attention in the early 1950s. Many of his early crusades were segregated. In response to the civil rights movement, Graham began to adjust his approach but was inconsistent, refusing to speak in some segregated auditoriums, while speaking to segregated audiences at others. In 1953 he tore down the ropes that organizers had erected to separate the audience into racial sections; he recounted in his memoirs that he told two ushers to leave the barriers down "or you can go on and have the revival without me.".^[21] But, he later acceded to segregated seating at Dallas, Texas and Asheville, North Carolina. He sometimes preached that the Bible said nothing about segregation,^[22] but another time warned a white audience, "we have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride."^[23] After the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that public school segregation was unconstitutional, Graham insisted on integrated seating at his revivals. His inconsistent approach in the early years has led to differing assessments by historians of his career and complicated his legacy.^[24]

From the mid-1950s on, Graham became increasingly opposed to segregation and racism, while keeping his eye on public opinion. For instance, in 1957 he invited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to join him in the pulpit at his 16-week revival in New York City, where 2.3 million gathered at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and Times Square to hear them.^[3] Graham never appeared publicly again with King, but he posted bail for the minister to get him released from jail in 1963 during the civil rights protests in Birmingham.^[25]

Graham's faith prompted his maturing view of race and segregation; the minister told one member of the KKK that integration was necessary primarily for religious reasons: "there is no scriptural basis for segregation," Graham argued, "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."^[26]

Later years[link]

Graham with his son, Franklin, at Cleveland Stadium, June 1994

Graham's visibility and popularity extended into the secular world. He created his own pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair.^[27] He appeared as a guest on a 1969 Woody Allen television special, where he joined the comedian in a witty exchange on theological matters.^[28] 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.^[29] During the Apartheid era, Graham consistently refused to visit South Africa until its government allowed integrated seating for audiences. During his first crusade there in 1973, he openly denounced apartheid.^{[citation needed]}

Billy Graham at the Feyenoord-stadion in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (June 30, 1955)

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.^[10] 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.^[26]

On September 22, 1991 Graham held his largest event in North America on the Great Lawn of New York's Central Park. City officials estimated more than 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 was invited to lead a 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.^[26] 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.

Retirement[link]

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, Graham appeared at the groundbreaking for his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Then 86, Reverend Graham used a walker 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 his proposed burial place; he announced in June 2007 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.^[30] 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.^[30] At the time of Ruth Graham's death, it was announced that they would be buried at the library site.

Graham has been admitted to the hospital for treatment in 2007 and 2011.^[31][32]

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.^[33]

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.^[34]

Politics[link]

Politically, Graham is a registered member of the Democratic Party.^[35] He leaned Republican during the presidency of Richard Nixon.^[16] He did not completely ally himself with the religious right, saying that Jesus did not have a political party.^[7] He did not openly endorse political candidates, but he gave his support to some over the years.^[16]

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."^[26]

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.'".^[36]

Pastor to presidents[link]

President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan greet Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast of 1981

Graham has had a personal audience with many sitting US presidents from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton sought his counsel, as did the Bush family.^[18] After meeting with Truman in 1950, Graham told the press he had urged the president to counter communism in North Korea. Later he always treated his conversations with presidents as confidential.^[16] Truman disliked him and did not speak with him for years after that meeting.^[7] Graham was criticized by some for being too attracted to the seat of political power.

Merle Miller quotes Truman on Graham in his oral biography 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.^[37]

Graham became a regular visitor during the tenure of Dwight D. Eisenhower. He purportedly urged him to intervene with federal troops in the case of the Little Rock Nine to gain admission of black students to public schools.^[7] At that time he met and would become close friends with Vice President Richard Nixon.^[16] After a special law was passed in 1952, Graham conducted the first religious service on the steps of the Capitol building.^[7] Eisenhower asked for Graham while on his deathbed.^[38]

The preacher enjoyed a friendship with Nixon and supported him over Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.^[7] Graham was more sympathetic to Republican administrations.^[16][39] He spent the last night of Johnson's presidency in the White House, and he stayed for the first night of Nixon's.^[38]

After Nixon's victorious 1968 presidential campaign, Graham became an adviser, regularly visiting the White House and leading the president's private worship services.^[16] In a meeting they had with Golda Meir, Nixon offered Graham the ambassadorship to Israel, but he refused.^[7] In 1970 Nixon appeared at a Graham revival in East Tennessee, which they thought safe politically. It drew one of the largest crowds in Tennessee and protesters against the Vietnam War. Nixon was the first president to give a speech from an evangelist's platform.^[16] Their friendship became strained in 1973 when Graham rebuked Nixon for his post-Watergate behavior and the profanity heard on the Watergate tapes;^[40] they eventually reconciled after Nixon's resignation.^[16]

1966

Graham 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 services of former First Lady Pat Nixon in 1993^[7] and the Richard Nixon in 1994.

Billy Graham meeting with President Barack Obama in Montreat, 2010