110 HRES 1358 IH: Honoring the life of the Reverend Billy U.S. House of Representatives 2008-07-21 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

110th CONGRESS 2d Session

H. RES. 1358

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

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.