Charlotte, N.C. – Three former U.S. presidents gathered Thursday to praise evangelist Billy Graham and dedicate in his honor a new library, a $27 million complex that traces the preacher’s rise from farm boy to America’s pastor.
On a stage in view of a 40-foot glass cross that is the museum’s front door, the preacher, 88, said he was embarrassed by the attention and that there was “too much Billy Graham” in the exhibits.
“This building behind me is just a building,” he said, his once-powerful voice quieted by age. “It’s an instrument, a tool for the Gospel. The primary thing is the Gospel of Christ.”
Graham suffers from fluid on the brain, prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease and is largely confined to his mountainside home.
A crowd of about 1,500 gathered for the event in 90-degree heat.
Former President George H.W. Bush sobbed as he spoke of how much the minister meant to him, calling Graham “a spiritual gift to all of us.” Bush noted that the preacher had comforted four generations of the president’s family.
Former Presidents Carter and Clinton recalled how Graham’s insistence that his crusades be racially integrated helped bring blacks and whites together in the South. But Clinton said Graham is just as impressive for his kindness.
“When he prays with you in the Oval Office or upstairs in the White House, you feel he’s praying for you, not the president,” Clinton said.
The event grew so emotional that Graham quipped, “I feel like I’ve been attending my own funeral.”
Graham is the most widely heard minister in the world, preaching in person to more than 210 million people in a career spanning six decades.
