US evangelist Billy Graham\u2014one of the most influential preachers of the 20th Century\u2014has died aged 99.<\/p>\n
Graham became one of the best-known promoters of Christianity, beginning his worldwide mission in large arenas in London in 1954.<\/p>\n
He died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, a spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said.<\/p>\n
In a 60-year career, he is estimated to have preached to hundreds of millions of people.<\/p>\n
Graham reached millions of them through television \u2013 the first to use the medium to convey the Christian message on that scale.<\/p>\n
Born in 1918 and raised on his family\u2019s dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina, Graham became a committed Christian at the age of 16 after hearing a travelling evangelist.<\/p>\n
He was ordained a minister in 1939, aged 21.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s public profile was raised in the US when he held a two-month ministry in a giant tent in Los Angeles in 1949.<\/p>\n
His global mission took him to all corners of the world, including Nigeria and communist North Korea.<\/p>\n
An early sermon outside the US took place before 12,000 worshippers in 1954 in Haringay Arena, London.<\/p>\n
At first ambivalent about the civil rights movement in the US, he became more sympathetic in the 1950s, preaching to racially integrated congregations.<\/p>\n
His fiery delivery became more measured with advancing years and controversy surrounding the techniques of mass evangelism.<\/p>\n
Graham avoided the scandals\u2014sexual and financial\u2014which dogged some contemporary televangelists through the decades.<\/p>\n
A social conservative, he opposed same-sex marriage and abortion.<\/p>\n
Graham preached his final revival meeting in New York in 2005 at the age of 86.<\/p>\n
As the end of his life approached, he said: \u201cI know that soon my life will be over. I thank God for it, and for all He has given me in this life. But I look forward to Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reacting in a tweet, President Donald Trump called him a special man.<\/p>\n
He wrote: \u201cThe GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted that he was an example to generations of modern Christians. \u2014 BBC<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US evangelist Billy Graham\u2014one of the most influential preachers of the 20th Century\u2014has died aged 99. Graham became one of the best-known promoters of Christianity, beginning his worldwide mission in large arenas in London in 1954. He died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, a spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61162,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61160\/revisions\/61162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}