Word: grahame
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Billy Graham has taken evangelism to the tailor. He wears a jaunty sky-blue gabardine, cut full to flatter his spare figure (6 ft. 2 in., 180 Ibs.). Accessories: a blue and white tie and square-folded white handkerchief, thick-soled, reddish-brown shoes, a cowboy belt with a silver buckle and silver tip. ("You know," muses Billy, "when I was a kid, I used to think that preachers all wore black suits and long faces.") In his campaign posters, Billy's face is sleekly handsome; the reality seems gaunter and more impressive-deep-set, remote blue eyes, sharp...
...Graham is an ordained Southern Baptist, but he preaches a fundamentalist common-denominational brand of Christianity. As a teenager, Billy sold more Fuller brushes than any other salesman in his North Carolina area because he was convinced that there are no finer brushes than Fuller brushes, and his conviction was contagious. The grown-up Billy believes in a heaven & hell as tangible as a Fuller brush. Graham likes to talk about his evangelism in Fuller brush terms: "How much of my product can I get them to take...
...WHEN Graham preaches about pride or venality, he struts; when he speaks of the unregenerate's awful doom, he covers his eyes with both hands; and when he warns that "it can happen to you," his forefinger slashes at every sinner's heart. To keep himself mobile, Billy clips a lipstick-shaped microphone to his necktie; an assistant holds the coiled slack of the wire, and pays it out to him as he moves about. On the pulpit, Billy rests two black leather books. One is a notebook containing a typed outline of tonight's sermon...
Trained workers step forward, lead each newcomer off to talk over his problems, give him some Bible verses to memorize, get him to sign a card accepting Jesus as his savior. Critics say that evangelism's converts are only "Christians for a night." But within 24 hours, the "Graham team" has dispatched a letter to the nearest preacher of each convert's denominational choice with instructions to follow...
Today Evangelist Graham produces his own TV and radio shows (cost: $20,000 a week), is president and featured player of his own motion-picture company (it has made two movies-with-a-message), and leads month-long crusades in cities from coast to coast. (Last June 1, in Houston's Rice Stadium, Billy drew his alltime record crowd: 60,000.) For his considerable labors, Billy draws an annual salary of $15,000, plus professional expenses, as president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The association's funds come from the collection plates passed at Graham crusades...