Billy Graham
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep clothing, but inwardly they are evening wolves” Matthew 7:15 Billy Graham a superstar preacher had an average early life and his childhood strongly influenced him to become an evangelist. He travels the globe and preached to millions of people throughout a live audience, television and radio broadcast more than anyone else in history. Bill Graham was born November 7, 1918 in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the first of four children raised on his family’s dairy farm. His parents were strict Calvinists, so he set to his spiritual path. Right after College, Bill married Ruth McCue Bell in 1943 and raised five children. All his children were raise in evangelist. Ruth was a stay home Mom, in which raised all the children while Graham travel the world preaching the good news. Graham is a lovable and respectable husband and father. His image throughout his family and friends has been with loyalty and devotion. At an early teenager life, Graham had a very strong and profound spiritual path. His childhood strongly influenced him to become an evangelist. He made a personal commitment to Christ when for the first time he encounter a traveling evangelist ministry visiting charlotte for a series of revival meeting, during the fall of 1934. He emerge as a rising young evangelist when began preaching throughout the U.S. and in Europe.
Graham was list by the Gallup organization as the “Ten Most Admired Men in the World”. Bill Graham has written 18 books, all of which have become top sellers. He is the founded CEO of the BGEA (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) and he travel preaching his crusades ministry around the globe. The BGE is a non-profit organization. Cash gifts continue to be the main source of funding in their ministry. Billy Graham crusades always spend great sums of money for billboards, bumper stickers, and commercials. The result seems Billy Graham’s name promoted millions of times more than Jesus Christ does. In research, there are very little accounts of charities work done by Graham. This million-account organization could have been use in helping victims of abuse, poverty and children education. Very little shown, as only there are some charities within his organization. Instead, money has gone for expensive gathering entertaining political members and world religion leaders. On top of this, the large sums that are spent on the on the Billy Graham Crusades is not to serve humanity, rather goes to special invite for international political and financial world leaders to his crusades. On social issues, Graham by nature has been extremely cautious, never straying too far from the conservative side of Middle American opinion. Yet over the course of his career, he took on issues such as race, social growth, world hunger and nuclear explosion, there-by pushing his followers toward the kind of general concern that has since become common in typical evangelicalism. Although, Graham presented a proposal to cure entertainment industry’s ailments in which to removed sex and crime in the movies (this is something we definite both agree upon,) until he accept and received his own star on the “Hollywood Sidewalk of Fame,” as recognition of his evangelist performance.(Graham 2007) I wonder what Jesus would have done.

In my worldview Billy is an atheist, in which he had an ideal belief in God or some type of spiritual being. His personality is magnetic and compelling almost hypnotic. As he preaches the word of God, but never by the Holy Spirit as is not preaching Gospel of the Bible but a modern theology. Most people saw in Billy Graham a man bringing them to their salvation, rather than seeing Jesus Christ as their savior. I do not consider him as a role model, because I consider him superficial in his belief and his teaching decisions for Christ.

References
Graham, Billy (William Franklin). (2007). In Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credoreference.com/entry/cham bbd/graham_billy_william_franklin
American Psychological Association. Billy Graham: The Sickness of Sodom. (1969) Time, 94,(2),73
Christian Leadership Alliance: The premier Lifelong Learning Resource for Christian Leaders (2009) Billy Graham’s Fiscal Leadership.