that reverend graham was a mentor to you. you ve known him for years. tell us about him, the man and the influence on you personally. as you said, billy graham is the most influential christian of the 20th century. nobody comes close to speaking in history to 200 million people face-to-face and only pope john paul ii and mother teresa would be as widely known around the world as billy was. growing up in a baptist home, billy graham was our pope and i read my first billy graham but i think when i was in the sixth grade. at 17 i heard him for the first time and was thrilled at the oakland crusade. and at 20 i met him person-to-person at the l.a. crusade and began a 20 year excuse me, a 40 year relationship where he mentored me over the last 40 years. laura: did to get you through the good times and the bad? did you seek counsel from him
world, it s a broken world, it s always been broken, but lately we really seem more than i remember to be at each other s throats. it s hard to have several conversations with people about politics. people take things out of context. people who are friends are not talking because of politics. what would reverend graham stated that? he stayed away from politics. he was friends with everybody. but what would he say about the tone and the rancor today especially? one of the hallmarks of billy was not just the humility that they mentioned, but it was his integrity also. he was spotless after 60 years. third would be he was a uniter. he was a builder, a bridge builder. people forget that in the 50s and the 60s, billy graham insisted that all of his campaigns and crusades in the south be integrated.
world, it s a broken world, it s always been broken, but lately we really seem more than i remember to be at each other s throats. it s hard to have several conversations with people about politics. people take things out of context. people who are friends are not talking because of politics. what would reverend graham stated that? he stayed away from politics. he was friends with everybody. but what would he say about the tone and the rancor today especially? one of the hallmarks of billy was not just the humility that they mentioned, but it was his integrity also. he was spotless after 60 years. third would be he was a uniter. he was a builder, a bridge builder. people forget that in the 50s and the 60s, billy graham insisted that all of his campaigns and crusades in the south be integrated. for many of those southern
mentor to you. you ve known him for years. tell us about him, the man and the influence on you personally. as you said, billy graham is the most influential christian of the 20th century. nobody comes close to speaking in history to 200 million people face-to-face and only pope john paul ii and mother teresa would be as widely known around the world as billy was. growing up in a baptist home, billy graham was our pope and i read my first billy graham but i think when i was in the sixth grade. at 17 i heard him for the first time and was thrilled at the oakland crusade. and at 20 i met him person-to-person at the l.a. crusade and began a 20 year excuse me, a 40 year relationship where he mentored me over the last 40 years. laura: did to get you through the good times and the bad? did you seek counsel from him
the presidents of the independenindependence of billy. faith leaders, in my opinion, should not be endorsing candidates or parties because you don t know where they would go. at the same time they need input. i think the religious aspect in the faith aspect is a part of our country that needs to be brought into the equation. that s a great point. when you go out and talk to people in america, one of the things you hear them talk about why they love this administration is because they don t feel like they re getting pushback when it comes to their religion. there is a religion war in our country with christmas not being allowed to do your displays and things like that, but when it comes from the administration, i think that hurt people to the core. the trump administration doesn t feel like they re under that kind of attack. i put a picture up on facebook and twitter right by the west wing and i was so impressed by people s responses. they were saying thank god, we