Charlotte, North Carolina: Standing at the simple wooden pulpit that the Rev. Billy Graham once used to reach out to his global audiences, his five children and evangelists from around the world gave tribute on Friday to a man who for half a century was the world’s best-known living apostle of evangelical Christianity.
Graham, who died last week at 99, was eulogised in front of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte under an enormous white tent reminiscent of the “canvas cathedral” where he conducted his breakout evangelical event in Los Angeles in 1949.
US President Donald Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and their wives attended the funeral, but were given no speaking role. The funeral gave the platform instead to the disciples who carry on Billy Graham’s ministry — including evangelists from India, Lebanon and South Korea — and his children, who offered testimony that was sometimes very personal.
Ruth Graham, one of his daughters, spoke of how she returned home to her father fearing harsh judgement after her second marriage ended.
“He wrapped his arms around me and said welcome home,” she recalled through tears. “There was no shame. There was no blame. Just unconditional love.”
The details of the funeral had been meticulously planned by Graham himself ten years ago, befitting a man known to choreograph his mass ministries to the last altar call. The coffin was built of pine plywood by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. The pulpit was one Graham used during his ministries in the 1990s.
The expectation was that the funeral would draw all or most of the living American presidents who were healthy enough to attend. Three spoke at the opening of the Billy Graham Library in 2007 and former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came to Charlotte this week to pay their respects to the Graham family.
But in the end, the only president who attended the funeral was Trump. In remarks on Wednesday, when Graham’s coffin was laid in honour at the Capitol Rotunda, the president did what so many have done in the days since Graham died: he shared his own Billy Graham story, about seeing him in 1957.
“My father said to me, ‘Come on son,’” Trump said, “‘Let’s go see Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium.’ And it was something very special.”
Graham died at his mountain home in Montreat, North Carolina, on February 21. His body was carried in a motorcade down the mountain and 130 miles east to Charlotte, as thousands waved farewell from overpasses along the interstate.
The funeral on Friday, under a 28,000-square-foot tent that shuddered in a stiff wind, drew other political dignitaries besides the president and vice-president, including Ben Carson, the housing secretary, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina and his predecessor, Pat McCrory.
Some attendees remarked that it was an unprecedented gathering of evangelical luminaries. They included mega church leaders Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and A.R. Bernard, best-selling author and speaker Beth Moore, radio and television host David Jeremiah, and the Rev. Jim Bakker, who has returned to television ministry after a corruption scandal that sent him to prison.
Franklin Graham, Graham’s eldest son and designated heir of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, did not veer into politics, though he has served as a frequent champion of Trump in the media.
Graham was buried in the prayer garden at his library next to his wife, Ruth Bell Graham, who died in 2007. They had met as students at Wheaton College and were married for 64 years. His wife’s grave marker is inscribed, at her instruction, with words she once saw on a road sign: ‘End of construction. Thank you for your patience.’
The inscription on Graham’s grave describes him as ‘Preacher of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.’
