Billy Graham, dean of U.S. evangelists, holds last 'crusade'

By Tony Czuczka Jun 24, 2005, 8:48 GMT

Washington - The Reverend Billy Graham, America's most famous Christian evangelist, is expected to draw tens of thousands of followers to a New York park starting Friday for what he says are his last three rallies in the United States.

Graham, 86 and in frail health, says he's returning to preach one last time to the city where he held a summer-long series of prayer events in 1957 that helped spark the modern U.S. evangelical movement. Now, he is openly contemplating death.

"I look forward to seeing God face-to-face," he told reporters this week.

Graham, who suffers from prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease and uses a walker, has rarely appeared in public in recent years. His son, evangelist Franklin Graham, will be at his side in case the elder preacher falters.

Organizers say they have room for at least 70,000 people at each of the three "Greater New York Crusade" revival meetings at Flushing Meadows Park, ending Sunday. Graham originally hoped to use Madison Square Garden, where he gave his first sermons in New York, but the hall was deemed too small.

Graham's message of personal redemption through Jesus Christ and his warnings against communism, liberalism and moral decline have reached many millions worldwide through television appearances and rallies.

He chose New York as his final U.S. venue because of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which brought down the twin towers of the city's World Trade Center.

New York is usually considered harsh terrain for evangelical Christians, but an influx of followers from Asia and Africa is changing that.

Pastors in the city have been urging him to come, telling him their churches are growing, Graham recently told The New York Times.

"They just felt after 9/11 there was a search on the part of many people for the purpose and meaning in their lives," he was quoted as saying.

Graham said Tuesday he may still preach in November in London, but that the upcoming New York rallies will be his last in the U.S.

Each sermon by Graham will be only 35 minutes. But he says he'll stay true to his message, described on his website as helping "people find a personal relationship with God" through knowing Christ.

Graham's rise to religious prominence also made him an adviser on matters spiritual and political to a string of U.S. presidents, starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower in the late 1950s.

By the 1980s, voters of the conservative "religious right" had become a powerful force in U.S. politics. In January, Graham gave the sermon at a prayer service during President George W. Bush's second inauguration.

But his political ties have also come back to haunt the Southern Baptist. In 2002, tapes surfaced on which Graham was heard making disparaging remarks about Jews during a White House visit to the late president Richard Nixon in 1972.

Responding to Nixon's comments in their conversation, Graham talked about Jews allegedly having a "stranglehold" on U.S. media. Graham apologized after a number of religious groups protested his remarks.