Counsel to Leaders (page 2 of 2)

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Billy Graham offers insight into achieving real happiness.
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Billy Graham offers advice to President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House.
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With Gerald Ford in the 1970s
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Jimmy Carter was please to count Billy Graham among his advisors and friends.
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With the Reagans, 1981
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Billy Graham and Dwight Eisenhower
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Billy Graham offers advice to President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House.
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I don't believe it's my role as an evangelist to get involved in partisan politics or political issues

Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford, and Bill Clinton

President Jimmy Carter
The Reverend Billy Graham speaks with authority and compassion to both the powerful and the weak, and he ministers with equal care to all people, regardless of their color or country. I'm pleased to count him among my advisors and friends.

President Gerald R. Ford
Twenty-five years after my inaugural, I went back [home] to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in August 1999 for a commemoration. Honored as I was, I wanted the evening to be about much more than my White House years. I hoped to emphasize qualities of national character -- including our faith in God -- which enabled us to surmount the Watergate crisis.

Billy's presence in Grand Rapids that night transformed a historical anniversary into a joyous spiritual event. For him, the trip represented a very personal sacrifice. Billy's health was not what it had been. I learned later that his beloved Ruth was in the hospital, facing the prospect of surgery. How like Billy, I thought. He's one of the most selfless men I've ever known.

President Bill Clinton
I have vivid memories of attending one of Billy Graham's crusades in Arkansas when I was very young. It was held during the height of racial tensions in Little Rock. My Sunday school teacher took me and a few other kids. I had seen Billy on television and looked up to him, but I was really inspired that he refused to preach to a segregated audience in Little Rock. When Billy issued the invitation, hundreds of blacks and whites came down on the football field to affirm their faith together. It made such an impression on me that I decided to send Billy a little bit of money from my small allowance every week.

Thirty years later, Billy was back in Little Rock for another crusade. My pastor, W. O. Vaught, was dying. Billy knew Dr. Vaught well and wanted to see him. A friend and I took him to Dr. Vaught's home and watched in amazement as two great men of God talked about their lives and their faith in life eternal. Billy was so kind and gentle. His last words to Dr. Vaught were, "It won't be that long for me either. I'll see you again soon, just outside the Eastern Gate."



From Reader's Digest - January 2007
 
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