Word: grahame
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Like a Cadillac. A couple of days before the opening meeting, Graham arrives with the rest of his team-a cluster of smoothly dressed young men with religious backgrounds and comely wives. In both matter and manner, Billy Graham has come a long way from the Los Angeles days when he billed himself as "America's Sensational Young Evangelist" in a "Mammoth Tent Crusade" with "Glorious Music, Dazzling Array of Gospel Talent, 22 Tremendous Nights." Today's ads consist mainly of the words "Hear Billy Graham," plus a picture. Says Jerry Beavan ("pronounced like heaven"), Graham...
...Graham's meetings, like his neckties, are less noisy than they used to be. Sounding brass and tinkling cymbal have been replaced by straight choir singing, with a simple organ and piano accompaniment. As the audience arrives (babies may be left in special nurseries known to the Graham staff as "bawl rooms"), Choir Leader Cliff Barrows is warming up the singers. Song books are passed around to the crowd; then Barrows invites the audience to sing, swinging a glittering trombone; Bass-Baritone Bev Shea goes into action with a few oldtime-religion songs, and the collection and an invocation...
Before he begins his sermon, he asks the audience to join him in a short prayer. Then he plunges right into his text. During the sermon, he picks up the Bible again and again, swinging it, slamming it. almost literally hurling it at the Devil. Graham has abandoned his early hyperbole in favor of a strictly scriptural message, brought down to earth in everyday language. He has also weeded out the kind of literalness that once led him to deliver drawing-board specifications for heaven, which, he assured his audience (apparently relying on Revelations 21:16), "is 1,600 miles...
Once inside the Inquiry Tent, the assembled converts hear a brief inspirational talk by Grady Wilson, Graham's boyhood friend and now billed as his "Associate Evangelist." Billy himself often drops in for a few words, and then each counselor really goes.to work. There are "B Rations" (Bible leaflets) at every seat, and most of the counselors have learned by heart the rations' Bible verses. But his final job is to fill out a card about his "baby Christian," stating his name, address, occupation, age, church membership or preference. On each card there are also four categories...
...convert's name on one of the cards sets off a chain reaction designed to lead the convert into permanent commitment in a local church (one reason why Graham, unlike many another evangelist, is popular with local churchmen). Next morning, a personal-looking letter from Billy Graham is mailed to the new convert. Later he is invited to another meeting and can order additional literature, known as an I.R. (for Instruction in Righteousness) Pack. Meanwhile, three duplicates of the "decision card'' are typed up, one for the current working file, one for the future follow-up file...