[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1358 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1358

 Honoring the life of the Reverend Billy Graham on the occasion of his 
  90th birthday and recognizing his decades of public service and his 
   commitment to furthering the faith of Christians around the world.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 21, 2008

  Mr. Shuler (for himself, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. 
David Davis of Tennessee, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Hayes, Mr. Boyd 
of Florida, Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Mr. Ellsworth, Mr. Calvert, 
    Mr. Ross, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Tanner, Mr. Wamp, Ms. Giffords, Mr. 
 McIntyre, Ms. Fallin, Mr. Childers, Mr. Jones of North Carolina, Mr. 
Wolf, Mr. Boren, Mr. Space, Mr. Cardoza, and Mr. Cramer) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight 
                         and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Honoring the life of the Reverend Billy Graham on the occasion of his 
  90th birthday and recognizing his decades of public service and his 
   commitment to furthering the faith of Christians around the world.

Whereas Billy Graham was born on November 7, 1918, and raised on a dairy farm in 
        Charlotte, North Carolina, where he learned the values of hard work and 
        family;
Whereas Billy Graham committed himself to Jesus Christ at the age of 16 and was 
        ordained in 1939 into the Southern Baptist Convention;
Whereas Billy Graham graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1949 and 
        studied Scriptures at Florida Bible Institute (presently Trinity 
        College);
Whereas Billy Graham spent the years during and immediately after World War II 
        ministering to youth and members of the Armed Forces in Europe and the 
        United States;
Whereas during the Cold War, and amidst the spread of Communism, Billy Graham 
        risked a great deal to journey to the Soviet bloc to oppose state-
        sponsored atheism;
Whereas Billy Graham utilized the power of his ministry to speak out against 
        apartheid in South Africa;
Whereas Billy Graham has provided religious advice and counsel to Presidents 
        Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. 
        Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, 
        George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush, numerous 
        Members of Congress, and other dignitaries, including Sir Winston 
        Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin, Mikhail 
        Gorbachev, Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Francois Mitterand, Helmut Kohl, 
        King Hussein, Indira Gandhi, and Haile Selassie;
Whereas Billy Graham has been named as an honorary knight by the Order of the 
        British Empire, and has been the recipient of, among others, the Ronald 
        Reagan Presidential Foundation Freedom Award, the Congressional Gold 
        Medal, the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion, and the 
        Big Brother Award;
Whereas, since 1948, Billy Graham has been listed in Gallup's poll of the ``Ten 
        Most Admired Men in the World'' 51 times (44 times consecutively);
Whereas Billy Graham has authored 27 books, including many best-sellers, such as 
        his memoirs, ``Just as I Am'', as well as ``Approaching Hoofbeats: The 
        Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'', ``How to be Born Again'', ``Angels: 
        God's Secret Agents'', and ``the Jesus Generation'';
Whereas the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) was formed in 1950, and 
        ministers to the public through a weekly radio program that has 
        broadcast worldwide for over 50 years, television broadcasts on over 150 
        channels across the United States and in Canada, internationally and 
        nationally syndicated newspaper columns, a magazine published by the 
        BGEA with a circulation of over 600,000, and more than 125 evangelistic 
        films;
Whereas, since 1973, the BGEA World Emergency Relief Fund has given more than 
        $10 million for domestic and international disaster relief;
Whereas Billy Graham has personally reached more people through his evangelism 
        than any other preacher in history (almost 215 million individuals in 
        over 185 countries, and many more through radio and television); and
Whereas Billy Graham embodies the message conveyed in scripture in Mark 16:15, 
        ``Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature'': 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the life of the 
Reverend Billy Graham on the occasion of his 90th birthday and 
recognizes his decades of public service and his commitment to 
furthering the faith of Christians around the world.
                                 <all>