Billy Graham is, arguably, the most successful Christian evangelist in the world. Born William Franklin Graham, Jr., on Monday, November 7th, 1918, (just four before Veteran's Day, Friday, November 11th, 1918) on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, Graham has been an unofficial pontifex maximus to the American Republic since the Truman Administration. Graham served as a spiritual adviser to several American presidents, though he is most widely associated with Richard Nixon. He has given a prayer at every Presidential inauguration since 1948, with the exception of 2000, when he was too sick to attend, and was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal by his fellow Southern Baptist, Bill Clinton, in 1996.
As a radio and TV evangelist, Graham has touched the lives of an estimated two billion people. He personally has overseen the spiritual rebirth of over 2.5 million people, who have accepted Jesus as their personal savior at his revival meetings. The Gallup Poll listed him as number seven on its list of the most admired people of the 20th century.
Graham is a moderate and temperate preacher with a high level of tolerance. His split with Bob Jones, Sr. circa 1950 is the watershed moment of the divergence of evangelicals, like Graham, from fundamentalists, like Jones.
