TOP STORY: BILLY GRAHAM: Clinton, others praise Graham at Washington dinner

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS)-Celebrities ranging from radio commentator Paul Harvey to President Bill Clinton spoke at a dinner Thursday (May 2) of how Billy Graham had touched their lives, capping a momentous day honoring the evangelist and his wife. The evening event followed a ceremony in which Billy and Ruth Graham were […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)-Celebrities ranging from radio commentator Paul Harvey to President Bill Clinton spoke at a dinner Thursday (May 2) of how Billy Graham had touched their lives, capping a momentous day honoring the evangelist and his wife.

The evening event followed a ceremony in which Billy and Ruth Graham were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for exemplary contributions to society. Graham, who is 77 and has recently suffered a series of medical problems, said he hopes to continue to preach at crusades. He spoke lovingly of his wife of 53 years, who recently was hospitalized with spinal meningitis.


Clinton, praising both Grahams in remarks at the dinner, attended by about 650 well-wishers, said:”As president and in my personal role as a citizen and a Christian, I am profoundly grateful.” The president recalled how Graham preached a crusade in Little Rock, Ark., when Clinton was about 12 years old. Graham refused to speak to a segregated audience, Clinton recalled, noting that blacks and whites gathered together to hear the evangelist.”One young boy from a modest family for a long time thereafter took just a little money out of his allowance every month and sent it to Billy Graham’s crusade,”Clinton said, speaking of himself.

Harvey, who was the master of ceremonies at the dinner, said in a press conference prior to the event that he wondered if fame might ruin Graham in the early years of his ministry.”I feared that he might stumble,”said Harvey, recalling Graham as”the youngster in the bright socks.”Harvey said he was reassured about his friend’s future when he met Ruth Graham.”I knew he had a good anchor,”Harvey said.

The $500-a-plate dinner was a fundraiser for the Ruth and Billy Graham Children’s Health Center at Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C. Bronze reproductions of the Grahams’ Congressional Gold Medal will be sold to support the hospital.

Members of the audience, who ate under subdued lighting with saxophone music in the background, ranged from longtime friends of the Graham family to doctors and nurses from the hospital.

Graham, in a brief press conference before his appearance at the dinner, said he plans to continue holding crusades as long as his strength allows. The evangelist has crusades scheduled for Minneapolis in June and Charlotte, N.C., in September. Graham, who has Parkinson’s disease, has been recovering from a December fall in which he broke four ribs.

Graham said he was concerned about the strength of his wife, who he said insisted on making the trip to Washington. Ruth Graham, 75, appeared at the Congressional ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda earlier in the day, but was not feeling well enough to attend the dinner.

The evangelist poignantly recalled his journey-one hour each way-from his home to Memorial Mission Hospital where he visited his wife each day.”I would pray on my way in for her, and on my way out I would thank the Lord for what I thought was improvement,”he said.


Asked his general advice about issues that should be addressed by politicians during this election year, he said:”Love is the big thing. We’re to love.” Speaking to the dinner guests, Graham thanked Clinton for the”warm words of a brother.” Graham’s son and eventual successor, Franklin, addressed the audience for about 10 minutes and spent most of the time preaching the Gospel. Just like his father, Franklin urged anyone at the dinner who was not a Christian to say a prayer to become one.”You come to honor my mother and father … and I thank you,”Franklin Graham said.”But they would want me to honor our Father in heaven.” The dinner occurred several hours after an august ceremony at the U.S. Capitol where the Grahams were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal. The award, the highest Congress can bestow on a citizen, was first given to George Washington in 1776.

Clinton signed a bill in February authorizing the award, after the measure was passed by both houses of Congress. The president’s signature marked the 114th time Congress has enacted legislation to present the medal.”Ruth and Billy Graham have made outstanding and lasting contributions to morality, racial equality, family, philanthropy, and religion,”the resolution stated.

The Grahams have written 24 books, including six by Ruth Graham.

At the Capitol ceremony, Billy Graham, speaking from a podium, said,”If ever we needed God’s help, it is now. If ever we needed spiritual renewal, it is now. And it can begin today in each one of our lives, as we repent before God and yield ourselves to him and his word.” The afternoon ceremony was attended by more than 600 people-a veritable who’s who of the nation’s evangelical and political leaders.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised Graham for preaching to an estimated 1 million people in person and 2 billion on television during his half century in the ministry.”That is a lifetime of outreach unparalleled in human history,”said Gingrich.

Evangelical leaders such as Prison Fellowship founder Charles W. Colson and Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright as well as Vice President Al Gore sat under the Capitol dome. Lynda Johnson Robb and Patricia Nixon Cox, children of former Presidents Johnson and Nixon, also were present.

Billy Graham said more than once that he felt he and his wife did not deserve the award. But members of the crowd said they were thrilled Graham was being honored at the Capitol.”Dr. Graham is one of the great men of the 20th century and perhaps of all time,”Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ said after the ceremony.”There’s no one more deserving than him.”


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