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CNN Presents
CNN PRESENTS: Billy Graham, America's Pastor
Aired July 02, 2006 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in the CNN Center in Atlanta. In a minute, CNN PRESENTS: Billy Graham, America's Pastor."
But first, "Now in the News": For the second day in a row, weather forces NASA officials to postpone launching the Discovery Space Shuttle. Here's what one NASA official said just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM, NASA SPOKESMAN: We have announced a scrub for today. That puts us into a 48-hour scrub posture for a third launch attempt on Tuesday, July 4th, at 2:38 Eastern Time.
Again, the reason for this scrub is we were dealing with weather all morning long. As the weather patterns over the central part -- of central Florida, have been producing a number of rain showers, as well as thunderstorms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Again, the next scheduled launch is for Tuesday, July 4th. Be sure to join us. We'll have live coverage when it happens.
For a closer look at today's weather concerns at the Kennedy Space Center, let's check in with Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, I have to tell you, Fredricka, it is disappointing. But it's not a surprise. This is what you see in central Florida this time of the year. It's part of the climate. Weather is what you get. Climate is what you expect. And this is really what you expect in central Florida this time of year.
Keep in mind that Rwanda in Central Africa, is the lightning capital of the world. The second place would be central Florida. So again, as I mentioned, not a surprise.
Here's what the situation is, at hand. Right there, that little, tiny spot, happens to be the landing spot, or the launching pad, if you will. Now, towards the west, along I-4, I-95, and on the beeline, which is the road that connects the two, you have some showers you have some storms.
Meanwhile, back towards the Atlantic, we are seeing even more of those begin to develop, which is part of the usual pattern that you will see. I know they've rescheduled the launch for Tuesday. I think roughly the same time in the afternoon, which, again, looks like there will be the potential of more storms, more of the same type of pattern, the onshore flow, the daytime heating. And the result will be the development of the cloud cover, the convection process.
Again, the towering storms, again the anvil (ph) clouds that we're talking about. The cumulus clouds which hampers the visibility. And of course, with that, the lightening that they try to avoid when they have these launches.
It looks like the setup is going to be very similar, as we get into Tuesday. But remember, a 40 percent possibility, means there's a 60 percent chance that things will be OK. And these storms have been sporadic. They are not up and down the coast. They are widespread. There are some places, of course, along the Florida coastline that are clear for the time being.
In fact, as we take a look at the satellite imagery, this is, again, visible satellite, as we go into motion. You will notice the sun comes up, the clouds get illuminated and you see the development right up and down the coastline. It will take you from just about St. Augustine, just southward to about north of Miami, you will notice there are some clear spots, just near Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach. But, unfortunately, it was the central coast, in Brevard County, where they really needed the break. And today, they just didn't get it.
Now, that may change as we get into Tuesday. What they need is a good area, about a good 20 miles right around the launching pad that would be clear of those anvil (ph) clouds, clear of the cumulus, and clear of the lightning. If those all come together, we may be thumbs up for Tuesday.
Let's keep our fingers crossed. That's all we really can do. It is frustrating, isn't it?
WHITFIELD: It is. And, you know, it's heartbreaking, too. They're filled with a lot of anxiety, the crew members of NASA. But got to make sure it is all safe, so.
WOLF: Safety is the plan.
WHITFIELD: Patience is a virtue.
WOLF: No question.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Reynolds.
U.S. officials say the latest audio message claiming to be from Osama bin Laden is the real thing. It appeared on an Islamic Web site yesterday; the second such message in as many days. The CIA says the voice on the Web site is indeed that of the Al Qaeda leader.
And there's a new most-wanted list in Iraq. The Iraqi government issued it today, updating a U.S. list from 2003. The new list includes one of Saddam Hussein's daughters. It also includes the former Iraqi dictator's first wife. Now both live outside Iraq, they believe. More attacks in Iraq today, including a car bomb that wounded at least 13 people in central Baghdad. At least seven people were hurt in other violence.
Israel, allowed trucks with humanitarian aid to go the in to Gaza, amid tensions of the capture of an Israeli soldier. Meanwhile, an Israeli helicopter fired on a building that houses the offices of the Palestinian prime minister. The office was empty, but Palestinian officials called the attack, quote, "a reflection of barbaric politics".
Mexico is holding its presidential election today. The candidates include an ally of current Mexican President Vicente Fox, and a former Mexico City mayor. Ten million Mexicans living in the U.S. are eligible to vote, but only 41,000 have requested ballots.
More headlines in 30 minutes, now, CNN PRESENTS: BILLY GRAHAM, AMERICA'S PASTOR.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Greats stories make great television.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down on the ground!
ANNOUNCER: CNN PRESENTS, winner of the 2005 Peabody Award, and the IDA's Best Documentary Series.
BILLY GRAHAM, EVANGELIST: We find ourselves in a world dilemma.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For nearly seven decades he has spread the good word.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the primary evangelist of our time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the age of 16 he gave up dreams of baseball to follow the path of god.
GRAHAM: I knelt down there alone. And I said, Lord, I'll do what you want me to do and go where you want me to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A path that would lead him far from his North Carolina home to become a global voice for Christianity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was a bridge builder out at the broader arenas and greater interest in the nation and the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has counseled generations of presidents and world leaders.
JIMMY CARTER, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would put Billy Graham at the forefront in being able to present in very clear, concise and persuasive terms the basic message of Christ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But his experience in the halls of power has been touched by controversy. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was being used and he came to understand that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From North Carolina farm boy to legendary evangelist, the spiritual journey of Billy Graham.
GRAHAM: Forever, oh Lord, thy Word that is in heaven.
Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN PRESENTS: Look up evangelist in the dictionary, you'll find the word comes from a Greek phrase, meaning messenger of good news.
GRAHAM: God loves you. He receives you. He will put your name in the book of light.
PHILLIPS: For nearly seven decades, Billy Graham has traveled the world spreading the good news to the masses.
GRAHAM: This crowd has been brought together, I believe, by the spirit of god using all of us working together.
PHILLIPS: He's written 25 books, counseled world leaders and spread his passion, in person, to more than 200 million people.
Even at 87, Billy Graham continues to be a spiritual inspiration to his loyal and growing flock. Long before he became a spiritual beacon, little Billy Frank Graham was, well, spirited.
WILLIAM MARTIN, BIOGRAPHER: I'm sure if he had been brought up today he'd been diagnosed as hyperactive. They said he was always just running and zooming.
PHILLIPS: The future evangelist grew up on his parents' dairy farm in North Carolina, with three younger siblings and plenty of chores. Billy was a busy teenager. It was one of his father's dairy workers who convinced the 16-year-old to go to a revival put on by Mordecai Hamm, an old-school, fire and brimstone evangelist.
CLIFF BARROWS, CRUSADE PROGRAM DIRECTOR: He got tired of Mordecai Hamm pointing his finger and he thought he was pointing at him all the time, so he joined the choir to get away from him.
But one night when he gave the invitation, Billy went forward and publicly made his commitment to Jesus Christ.
PHILLIPS: At 18, Billy put aside his dreams of becoming a baseball player and headed off to Bob Jones College. A fundamentalist school, then located in Cleveland, Tennessee. But with the college's ridged rules, including no dating, Billy lasted barely a semester. He transferred to the Florida Bible Institute.
GRAHAM: One night in the full moon in the palm trees around where our school was, I knelt down there, alone, and I said, Lord, I will do what you want me to do and go where you want me to go. PHILLIPS: After graduating in 1940, he was ordained a Baptist minister. His next move, Wheaton College, just outside of Chicago to pursue a bachelor's degree.
GEORGE BEVERLY SHEA, CRUSADE SOLOIST: While he was a student at Wheaton, he spoke at various churches, and it was quite evident that he was going to be quite a preacher.
PHILLIPS: In 1943, Billy took a job as a pastor at the Western Springs Baptist Church near Chicago. He also became part of a Christian radio show called "Songs in the Night."
SHEA: It was on 10:15, 11:00, Sunday nights, I did solos, and he spoke so wonderfully.
GRAHAM: I don't care who you are. Your intellect alone will never get you into heaven.
PHILLIPS: Billy was an evangelist at heart. He yearned to travel, to spread the gospel to large crowds. After a year and half with the church, Billy moved on to a new job with Youth for Christ.
MARTIN: The great advantage he got from youth for Christ was that it introduced him to church leaders all over America.
GRAHAM: We find that people are more concerned with things than they are with the things of God.
PHILLIPS: By 1948, Graham stepped down as head of Youth for Christ. Billy had a calling and a growing following. There was no room for compromise.
GRAHAM: They're more concerned with pleasure, more concerned with money, more concerned with the things of life than they are the things of Almighty God.
PHILLIPS: Billy's message was simple and conservative.
GRAHAM: I believe that faith in God is a tremendous thing.
PHILLIPS: He preached temperance; he railed against excess, materialism and Communism. In the dark early days of the Cold War, he spoke of salvation.
TIM MORGAN, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, "CHRISTIANITY TODAY": He had a way, I think, of telling people the bad news, but giving them good news that trumped the bad news.
PHILLIPS: In 1949 a group of Los Angeles Christians invited the fiery preacher to hold a revival in a giant tent.
BARROWS: Canvas cathedral, we called it that. It was a tent erected at Washington and Hill. A tent that seated about 6,000, 7,000, I believe.
PHILLIPS: For two solid months, worshippers lined up to hear the sermons and songs.
CHARLES COLSON, EVANGELIST: It was a phenomenon fueled by his preaching, fueled by the Holy Spirit, fueled by the need of the moment.
PHILLIPS: There was also another reason for the strong turnout -- courtesy of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
MARTIN: One Saturday evening, the tent was crawling with reporters and photographers. Billy didn't know what was going on. A reporter -- he said, What's, what's happening here? And a reporter showed him a piece of paper, like something had been torn off of a teletype machine, or something, and it just had two words -- "Puff Graham."
PHILLIPS: With the phrase "Puff Graham," Hearst instructed his reporters to sing Graham's praises. The resulting media coverage thrust the evangelist into a whole different orbit.
MARTIN: He preached a strong moral message. All of those things might have been appealing to William Randolph Hearst.
PHILLIPS: When we come back, Billy Graham becomes a household name while his own household deals with an absent father.
RUTH GRAHAM, DAUGHTER: He has said that he's frustrated that he wasn't home for us when we were little.
PHILLIPS: And the woman behind the evangelist.
ANN GRAHAM LOTZ, DAUGHTER: You wouldn't have Billy Graham without Ruth Graham.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
R. GRAHAM: Dear God, I prayed, all unafraid, as we are inclined to do, I do not need a handsome man, but let him be like you.
PHILLIPS: The desires of a teenage girl growing up in rural China. Ruth Graham's daughter, her namesake, reads a poem her mother wrote.
R. GRAHAM: And let his face of character and ruggedness of soul, and let his whole life show, dear God, a singleness of goal.
PHILLIPS: Little did 13-year-old Ruth know a few years later she would meet that man of her girlhood dreams. A young man she would help become the most famous evangelist of the 20th century.
R. GRAHAM: She has been his closest advisor and confidante.
LOTZ, DAUGHTER: And she's an incredible woman. You wouldn't have Billy Graham without Ruth Graham, and I know that. He knows that, too.
PHILLIPS: The daughter of medical missionaries, Ruth McCue (ph) Bell was born in china in 1920. R. GRAHAM: And it was a very happy childhood, although outside the walls were bandits and war lords and overhead were Japanese bombers flying.
PHILLIPS: China and Japan were at war. Ruth dreamed of becoming a missionary in Tibet, but her parents said she was going to college. So, dressed in hand-me-downs and size 7 saddle shoes, Ruth headed to Wheaton College in Illinois. That's where she met and later married Billy Graham.
MARTIN: Their courtship was humorous, in a way. He would ask her for a date, then not be in contact with her for six weeks. Ask her again and wonder was he asking her -- was he pressing her too much. And then finally, she dated some other people and he said you're going to date only me or everybody but me. So she said, OK, we'll do that.
PHILLIPS: Trading Tibet for the mountains of North Carolina, Ruth was not your typical preacher's wife. She had no problems speaking her mind, even in front of the president of the United States.
R. GRAHAM: Mr. Johnson was asking him for advice, some sort of political advice. My mother kicked him under the table. And my daddy, being my father, said why did you kick me under the table? And Mr. Johnson looked at Daddy and said, Billy, she's right. You stick to preaching and I'll stick to politicking.
PHILLIPS: Billy not only felt her influence, but so did her five rambunctious children, Gigi, Ann, Ruth, nicknamed Bunny, Franklin and Ned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was lots of love, and we had lots of fun. There was lots of fighting because all -- there are five children -- all of us very strong-willed. Franklin was sort of the catalyst. Franklin and my older sister, Gigi were probably the catalyst for a lot of the fighting.
PHILLIPS: Ruth did whatever it took to keep her kids in line.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SON: I was misbehaving. I was picking on my sisters, and I was in the back seat of the car. She had warned me once to quit picking on my sisters, and I continued.
And then she pulled the car over and grabbed me by my neck, and jerked me out of the car, and opened up the trunk and put me in the trunk and closed the trunk. And away we went to town. So, my mother always -- she was a disciplinarian. If she told us to do something, we had better do it.
PHILLIPS: While Ruth was home raising the children, Billy was on the road, often months at a time. And his success meant sacrifice.
R. GRAHAM: He really tried to stay in touch with us and be the kind of father that he wanted to be. He has said that he's frustrated that he wasn't home for us when we were little. MARTIN: Ruth, she got lonely, of course. And different points she would sleep with a sport coat of his just to have the sense that he was near. But she has said, I would rather have Billy Graham 50 percent of the time than any other man 100 percent of the time.
GRAHAM: Now listen carefully --
PHILLIPS: While Billy lived out his faith for his children largely from afar --
GRAHAM: Many people are following Christ today.
PHILLIPS: Ruth lived out her faith in front of her kids every day.
LOTZ: It wasn't just something acted out on a platform or pulpit. And I would catch my mother on her knees in prayer.
R. GRAHAM: I have wonderful letters from my father. And we heard of lives being changed.
GRAHAM: If you are willing to make the kind of a commitment I talked about tonight, you're willing to come openly in front of everybody.
R. GRAHAM: Wonderful stories of what was going on. So he kept us in the loop, as it were.
PHILLIPS: Did you ever realize your dad was famous?
R. GRAHAM: I did not. It wasn't until I was older that I realized my father was famous. My parents made very sure we stayed grounded.
PHILLIPS: A discipline that came from Ruth and Billy's commitment, not just to their kids, but to each other.
R. GRAHAM: There is a light in my mother's eyes when she looks at him. And there's a light in his eyes, when he looks at her.
PHILLIPS: Your mom and dad still madly in love?
R. GRAHAM: Very much so. Very much so. It's so cute when you're with them now. He will sort of toddle over to her and lean into her to kiss her. Of course, you're afraid he's going to fall, but she's watching her movie in the -- she's sitting in a chair.
He will lay across her bed and hold her hand while watching the movie. They look at each other with such love and tenderness. It's very sweet. And he says that this is the best time of their lives.
GRAHAM: I love her more now and we have more romance now than we did when we were young.
PHILLIPS: A romance Ruth Graham put in a poem, and a prayer, more than 70 years ago. R. GRAHAM: And when he comes, as he will come, with quiet eyes aglow, I'll understand that he's the man I prayed for long ago. And her prayer was answered. You know, my father is strong and straight and focused. And the Lord answered that 13-year-old's prayer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRAHAM: This is the book of the ages. Forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Forever!
PHILLIPS: By 1950, Billy Graham was a rising star across the American landscape; a powerful and passionate voice preaching the gospel with a home-spun feel.
GRAHAM: Christians above all others should be concerned with social problems and social injustices.
PHILLIPS: As a spiritual leader, Graham believed he had God's blessing. As a preacher with a social agenda, he courted political figures, including the president of the United States. In 1950, Billy Graham and three of his aides put on their Sunday best and met with President Truman at the White House. The conversation was brief. The president good humored.
MARTIN: They started to leave and Billy said, could we have a word of prayer? And the president went, I guess it can't hurt.
PHILLIPS: Afterwards, reporters mobbed the four visitors, unaccustomed to White House protocol, Billy described every detail of the meeting. He even mentioned that they prayed with the president.
BARROWS: And the reporters said, well, would you pray again right here for us? And it's something that we wouldn't do that now. We didn't do it for advertising purposes, but we knelt there and prayed on the White House lawn.
MARTIN: That picture was in the newspapers the next day, and it angered the president.
When Billy Graham came back to hold a crusade in Washington, President Truman said, I don't want to talk with him. He's just interested in publicity.
PHILLIPS: For Billy Graham that incident was a life lesson in the nuances of power. He became more politically savvy. In 1952, he urged General Eisenhower to run for president. When the general took office, Billy made himself available as an unofficial adviser.
MARK NOLL, PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY, WHEATON COLLEGE: He became rapidly a friendly voice, a friendly contact, and at least on a few occasions with Dwight Eisenhower a friendly adviser on matters of state as well as matters of religion.
PHILLIPS: By 1954, Graham began to spread his message overseas. His first stop, Great Britain.
GRAHAM: We have not come here to the city of London to save England --
NOLL: From that time, Graham begins to moderate his political opinions. He begins to be more cautious about what he says politically and about social events. He begins to sharpen the focus upon his Christian message, even as he takes it further and further abroad in the world.
ANNOUNCER: New York, spring of '57.
PHILLIPS: In the States, Billy spent a summer preaching in New York. The meetings drew massive crowds and biting criticism from his own fold, as being too liberal.
NOLL: There were conservative Protestants who wrote him off as a theological modernist. Graham has never been a theological modernist, but he has been willing to cooperate with a broad range of churches.
PHILLIPS: Graham also drew criticism when he began reaching out to the African-American community. At a Mississippi crusade in 1952, Graham broke down a racial barrier, literally.
BARROWS: Billy, himself, went and took the rope down and said we don't have segregated meetings, whatever their reason for segregating them. They can sit anywhere they want to. And he took a stand for his belief that every man is equal before Christ.
HOWARD O. JONES, EVANGELIST: In his heart he knew it wasn't right.
PHILLIPS: Howard O. Jones, the first black preacher in Billy Graham's ministry, remembers the struggles when the evangelist brought his message to churches in Harlem.
JONES: They said, Billy, for God's sake, don't go to Harlem. Those savages will kill you. When the news broke that he had added a black man on his team, he got a lot of nasty letters. They said you don't need that "N" preacher on your team. And if you keep Howard Jones on there, we're not going to support you anymore.
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: Oh, God, we ask you --
PHILLIPS: Graham would push the cause of civil rights further, inviting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to deliver a prayer at his Madison Square Garden crusade.
KING: Work with renewed vigor for the brotherhood that transcends race or color.
JONES: A lot of whites stopped coming to the Garden, in protest. But all the people that left, God was good, he brought others in. The Garden was still full every night.
GRAHAM: The Old Testament looks forward to him. The New Testament looks back to him, but the center of the scriptures is Christ. PHILLIPS: By the early 1960s, Billy Graham was a man in full, a servant of god. A man of the people and de facto chaplain for Washington's elite. At his first meeting with Lyndon Johnson, the two country boys bonded.
MARTIN: Supposed to be a 15-minute meeting and it turned into five hours. They traded stories. And went swimming, naked, and Billy said, they didn't have swimsuits. You just -- you just went as you were.
PHILLIPS: It would become a lasting friendship. But as he gained prominence, he also gained critics. As a spiritual leader, with the ear of President Johnson, Graham's sharpest critics pointed to the Vietnam war.
MARTIN: He had opportunity, many people thought, to raise a prophetic voice against the war. Instead, he tended not to, and so some preachers criticized him and compared him to the biblical court priests, who told the king whatever he wanted to hear.
PHILLIPS: After President Johnson left office, Graham continued to frequent the White House, visiting the man he called his old Quaker friend. Graham became close friends with Richard Nixon, actively supporting his earlier presidential race against John Kennedy. But where the evangelist saw friendship, President Nixon saw political cache.
MARTIN: The White House notes I have seen, memoranda, where it's clear they were using him in any way they could to bring support, to bring his people. Must get Billy Graham and his people involved in this.
PHILLIPS: When our story of Billy Graham continues, the seductive halls of power and a controversial Oval Office conversation.
COLSON: President of the United States sitting behind that desk, a certain awe goes with it, even Billy Graham is influenced by that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRAHAM: The Old Testament looks forward to him, the New Testament looks back to him, but the center of the scriptures is Christ.
PHILLIPS: Billy Graham's singular message and unfaltering faith in God has made him a trusted resource for Americans of all backgrounds. But nothing cemented his status as the nation's premiere preacher like his ties to the White House and its chief residents.
JIMMY CARTER, FMR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think all of us felt in the time of greatest challenge and responsibility of our public lives, that would be the presidency, that we need some Christian or religious counseling from a completely trustworthy and objective and fair source, to guide us through those difficult times.
PHILLIPS: What started out as a historic and unprecedented single visit with President Truman became a regular occurrence with Richard Nixon. The powerful pair spent many hours together publicly and privately, talking about religion, politics, and the pressing social issues of the day. But that cozy connection caused criticism when an old tape surfaced 30 years later.
In 2002, the National Archives released a taped oval office conversation laced with anti-Semitic slurs. When President Nixon ranted about what he saw as Jewish media control, Reverend Graham joined in.
GRAHAM: This stranglehold has got to be broken or this country is going to go down the drain.
RICHARD NIXON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do you believe that?
GRAHAM: Yes, sir.
NIXON: I can't ever say it, but I believe it.
GRAHAM: No. But if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something."
PHILLIPS: Graham's comments sparked outrage. Jewish leaders expressed horror that a role model with high access would tolerate, let alone actually make, such statements.
COLSON: I've been in those -- Nixon was a very dominant personality. He could do that. And of course, he's president of the United States sitting behind that desk. And a certain awe goes with it, and even Billy Graham is influenced by that.
PHILLIPS: In a written apology, Graham said the recording did not reflect his true views. He also apologized in person to Jewish leaders meeting in Cincinnati. Abraham Foxman, president of the Anti- Defamation League, issued a statement accepting Graham's policy.
NIXON: I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
PHILLIPS: In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the evangelist was forced to confront the notion that the man he considered a friend had not always been honest with him. And that he had been made a political pawn.
MARTIN: He said, I knew what I had said to the president, and I knew what he said to me. But when I saw all those memoranda circulating in the background, I felt like a sheep led to the slaughter.
PHILLIPS: Relations with future administrations would be different -- less political, more pastoral. The preacher to presidents set up a cautious space between his ministry and the Oval Office.
MARTIN: In an interesting turn, when Gerald Ford, who succeeded Nixon, of course, asked -- Billy Graham was holding a crusade in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford's home state in 1976. And he had made a contact to see if maybe he could say something at the crusade or make an appearance.
And Billy wrote to him -- how different this is from his writing to Truman, begging him to come -- he said I don't think it would look good for either one of us for me to make a special thing, but we have a VIP section. And I would be happy to recognize you, just as I will recognize Governor Carter when he comes to visit.
PHILLIPS: Appearing at the White House less frequently did nothing to diminish Reverend Graham's stature. Billy Graham hop- scotched the globe with his messages of salvation, freedom and peace, but close friendships with two particular families brought him back to the U.S., and back to the White House, despite being burned in the past.
MARTIN: With Reagan, they had been friends since the '50s. He'd known Reagan for a long time and visited the White House a great deal during the Reagan administration, but it was always -- almost always -- kept private. He said we never discussed politics. He also said he wasn't really interested in politics, he wanted to talk about the old days in Hollywood.
PHILLIPS: Graham had also known then-Vice President George Bush, since his 1957 New York crusade and even vacationed with the Bush family in Kennebunkport.
GEORGE H. BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just two hours ago, allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait.
MARTIN: Before launching the first Gulf War, President Bush at the time invited Billy Graham to the White House and then asked him to lead a prayer service the next day with the Army brass, and others in the Pentagon, in the White House.
PHILLIPS: Once again, critics questioned whether a U.S. president was using Reverend Graham to endorse a war. But others said it was natural for President Bush to call on his old friend at that crucial time.
COLSON: If there is ever a time that you want reassurance that you're doing God's will or the reassurance that God is sovereign and watching out for you, that you have God's blessings, it's when you're in that crunch.
PHILLIPS: Graham says, that unlike many of today's religious leaders who speak out on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage, he's content to stay above the political fray.
CARTER: Billy Graham always believed in the basic separation of church and state. Or keeping a sharp dividing line between religion and politics. And that didn't mean any prohibition against religious leader like Billy Graham being a friend and a counselor to a president.
GRAHAM: I'm trying to stay out of politics and I've been queried quite a bit lately why I don't take stands on certain issues. I just feel that my issue is the Gospel of Christ, that God loves you, and that God is willing to forgive you. Put your trust in Him, and I think that's my message.
PHILLIPS: When our story of Billy Graham continues, lives changed because of Billy Graham.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: He was a mobster in training since he was a toddler.
RON JACOBS, I used to shake down the kids for their milk money and was coming in with $10, $12, $15 a day.
PHILLIPS: She had a mental breakdown at 11 years old.
JOANNE WELLS, : I was so bound up, and I was just really filled with hatred.
PHILLIPS: Seventy-year-old Ron Jacobs and 41-year-old Joanne wells grew up in different times, and in different places. But one man's message connects them. They didn't know it then, but Billy Graham would change their lives forever.
1950s New York, the crime bosses ran the streets and recruited their young, including Ron Jacobs.
JACOBS: I was addicted to power. The guys who really were my role models were the top mobsters. I wanted to be like them.
PHILLIPS: At the invitation of some girls from his neighborhood, Ron attended Billy Graham's 1957 crusade at Madison Square Garden. Billy Graham was preaching on the story of Lazarus, the man the Bible says Jesus raised from the dead.
JACOBS: I think it was that craving for power, paradoxically enough, that attracted me when I heard Billy Graham preach about Jesus. See, I knew a lot of people that could kill you. But I never heard of any that could make a dead person raise from the grave.
PHILLIPS: However, the power of the mob proved too enticing, so, Ron continued a life filled with crime, cash, nightclubs, and women. One night, he met Essy Coleman, a dancer in the nightclub he owned. They fell in love and married.
ESSY JACOBS: I didn't know exactly he was a mobster. But I knew that he was something else.
PHILLIPS: For years they lived life on the edge. Ron robbed casinos and committed other crimes he says he can't even talk about. But this mobster, who had a passion for booze and bookmaking, still had a hidden passion for Billy Graham.
JACOBS: In my bar, I had a little TV in the back. And I'd sit there and guys would say what are you doing? Listening to a lot of religious stuff?
PHILLIPS: In the meantime, Essy became a Christian and Ron's gangster life was about to catch up with him.
JACOBS: I became a target for a mob dispute and had 28 bones broken in both my hands, which are, oh, bent out of shape even today.
JACOBS: Bandaged and broken, Ron's life would take a turn.
GRAHAM: We have not come to put on a show --
PHILLIPS: After hearing a sermon on the same story he heard at the Billy Graham crusade 21 years earlier.
GRAHAM: Jesus said if someone was raised from the dead and come back to speak to you, you still wouldn't believe.
JACOBS: That Sunday, I snuck out of the hospital to make a $5,000 bet on a ball game. And I realized I lost my car keys and couldn't come home. So I figured my wife would be at Cavalry Baptist Church, and I went there. My pastor, and he was preaching on Lazarus being risen from the grave. They gave an alter call and I came forward all encased in bandages. He didn't know whether it was a bad joke or an unusual conversion.
E. JACOBS: I was just so elated. I said, thank God, thank God, thank God.
PHILLIPS: In 1978, when Ron became a Christian, Joanne Wells' life was spiraling out of control.
WELLS: Just hated life. Just wondered why in the world am I still here.
PHILLIPS: Joanne's childhood was tumultuous. She says she was abused by her father, and teased by other children. In 1972, when Joanne was eight, her mother took her to a Billy Graham crusade in Cleveland.
WELLS: I remember laying on my mother's lap, in the afternoon. And I can remember him talking about Jesus and about the Father, and I remember just such a peace.
PHILLIPS: That peace wouldn't last. When she was in junior high, Joanne was committed to a mental hospital, then sent to a group home. Eventually, she became a model. Drinking, drugging, and dabbling in the occult.
WELLS: You think you have control, and that was very alluring to me.
PHILLIPS: Joanne desperately wanted out.
WELLS: I just wanted peace.
PHILLIPS: The message she heard at that Billy Graham crusade was starting to hit home.
WELLS: I was out on a drinking binge. And I went to this nightclub. And I fell face-first on concrete. I thought I was in hell. Three weeks later or so, I just had this overwhelming sense, God have mercy. Forgive me. You know, I want to come home.
SINGING: Oh, Lord my God
PHILLIPS: Today, Joanne is a Christian writer, active in the prayer ministry of her church and counselor for Billy Graham's crusades.
And Ron?
JACOBS: According to Jesus, these are byproducts.
PHILLIPS: He's gone from being a mobster to a minister. What is it about Billy Graham that is so attractive?
JACOBS: I think it's the simplicity of his message. He makes the direct point that we're sinners, we're in need of a savior, and Jesus is that savior.
WELLS: He has stuck to what he has been called to do and he has done it faithfully.
GRAHAM: All your life you have been searching for peace.
PHILLIPS: Lives changed by a man and his message.
GRAHAM: The joy and the peace that you long for.
PHILLIPS: When our story continues, the legacy of Billy Graham.
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GRAHAM: I'm willing to change my way of life, but you will have to help me.
PHILLIPS: There is a passage in the Bible that reads, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
GRAHAM: I want him to Lord of my life.
PHILLIPS: For nearly seven decades, Billy Graham has done just that.
GRAHAM: In Jesus name.
AUDIENCE: In Jesus name.
GRAHAM: Amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
GRAHAM: My calling is to preach the love of God and the forgiveness of God and the fact that he does forgive us. That's what the Cross is all about, what the resurrection's all about. That's the Gospel. LOTZ: I think my father is a very ordinary man. But god leaned out of heaven for whatever reason and called him to preach the gospel. The remarkable thing about my father is that he obeyed when he was called, and for all of his life, he's kept his focus.
PHILLIPS: Numbers can hint at the legacy of Billy Graham. More than 400 crusades around the world, more than 210 million people who have heard him speak in person, countless others who have heard him on television and radio.
GRAHAM: This is your hour with God.
MARTIN: Most of the great evangelists in American history, their careers lasted a decade. Billy Graham's is in its sixth or seventh. He started in the '40s.
PHILLIPS: But numbers are impersonal. In times of triumph and tragedy, he's been a voice we wanted to hear.
GRAHAM: We've always needed God.
PHILLIPS: A steady beacon of hope, an influence on American culture for half a century.
CARTER: Other very famous preachers could get in the same platform and say the same words, and quote the same text from the bible, but if Billy Graham did it, there was something special about it.
PHILLIPS: His journey began on a North Carolina dairy farm and would see him become a spiritual counselor to presidents and to a nation.
BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Unlike a lot of people, Billy Graham's really lived his faith for a long, long time now. Whether you agree or disagree with everything, he is a man who lives his faith. And that's, to me, the source of his enormous power. I just adore him.
PHILLIPS: He's been called America's preacher, but Graham's influence is international, as well. He led controversial crusades behind the Iron Curtain. In China and North Korea, brushing aside criticism he was being used as a propaganda tool.
GRAHAM: God loves you.
PHILLIPS: There were visits to Europe, Africa, and Asia. In all, Graham has preached in 185 countries.
GRAHAM: He was not a European.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Translating.
GRAHAM: He belongs to the whole world.
NOLL: Internationally, he has been a proclaimer of the simple Christian Gospel probably in more places to more people than any other Protestant leader in the history of humanity.
MARTIN: Hundreds of thousands of evangelists have been trained to go out and be little Billy Grahams that will probably be his greatest unmeasurable, but also immeasurable legacy.
PHILLIPS: For a growing evangelical movement he has been a focal point.
NOLL: For the conservative Protestant world, from which he came, he was a bridge builder out into broader arenas, and to greater interest in the nation and the world.
PHILLIPS: But in a world where the divides between religion seem to be widening, Graham has also been a uniter. He preached the Gospel of inclusion, reaching out to other religious leaders and faiths.
BROS. JEFFERY GROS, ASSOC. DIR., U.S. CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS: There's been a long history in the U.S. of tensions between evangelicals and Catholics. And Billy Graham has been a great bridge in overcoming some of those.
RABBI YECHIEL ECKSTEIN, INT'L. FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS & JEWS: What I believe he did was, really, as a pioneer, open up dialogue with the Jewish community, build respect for the Jewish community.
GRAHAM: This may be the largest audience in the history of Russia.
MARTIN: His tendency never has been to draw circles and shut people out but to bring in as many as he could.
PHILLIPS: Graham has had a pulpit that reaches millions of people. He has used it to preach, not get involved in politics.
GRAHAM: I just feel that my issue is the Gospel of Christ. That God loves you. And that God is willing to forgive you, if you put your trust in Him. And I think that's my message.
PHILLIPS: While his reach has been global, his influence has been fundamentally personal. A walk in public would turn into an opportunity for people to tell him stories of how his crusades touched their lives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One by one they shook his hand and said Mr. Graham, it was New York, 1957. It was Baltimore, such and such a time. It was Chicago. And they were just one after another telling him when they had received Christ, by just giving the city and the date.
PHILLIPS: At age 87, Graham is no longer the same fiery preacher once nicknamed God's machine gun. Illness has slowed him. And he says his 2005 crusade in New York was, indeed, his last. While he cherishes these days with his wife, Ruth, heaven is something he looks forward to.
GRAHAM: It's a paradise that we're going to go into, because to be in the presence of God itself will be a paradise. I have total, total certainty of that from Scripture.
PHILLIPS: Scripture that has guided Billy Graham throughout his life, a life dedicated to God and preaching the Gospel.
SINGING: Carry me home, swing low, sweet chariot coming for to carry me home.
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