It was William Randolph Hearst who made Billy Graham what he was because of his anti-communist preaching. Without Hearst he would have remained just another protestant preacher traveling the country with a tent, announcing the end of the world and the need to be born again.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

You're sure about that?

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Pretty sure. Hearst commanded his publications to puff Graham. Without that national attention there's no reason to think his career would not have continued along the same lines as a zillion other tent preachers in the 50's.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Not only did Hearst puff Graham, he also financed the first three years of his crusades, beginning in 1949.

Also: Who would have thought that Bernard Baruch, a man who helped communism to Russia, and who was bringing in a one world government, would be interested in Billy Graham, and thought Graham's message was needed by America?

www.despatch.cth.com.au /misc/graham

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CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

link doesn't work

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

doing Yahoo search> 'hearst publications bill graham connection'.


There is quite a bit of info there, some delves into Grahams Masonic connections.

__________________
CHILCUTT~
The secret to a long life. Is knowing when it is time to leave.

I googled and saw a bunch of conspiracy websites claiming that Masonic and Illuminati connection. None looked credible. I haven't found any credible source stating that Hearst actually funded his campaigns. It wouldn't surprise me, just no evidence that I've seen that it actually did beyond promoting him in his newspapers and magazines.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I don't doubt the assistance from Hearst's order to Puff" Graham at his '94 LA rally. Its the allegation that w/o that help he would have been nothing. Is that what they mean by deconstructing history--if you don't like it, you re-write it to suit yourself?

However, the point is moot. Hearst did "puff" him. Graham became the most widely known, and listened to preacher, maybe in history.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Man, your reading skills need to improve. I never wrote that Graham would have been nothing. I wrote that there's no reason to think he would have been any different than the many other tent preachers traveling the country at the time.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Which is, essentially, nothing--compared to what he actually became. There are still revival preachers making a living on the tent meeting circuit, but I can't name a single one.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Well, it's not nothing, it's what he was before Hearst got involved. Since others were in the same profession and didn't get Hearst's help and continued doing the same thing, I don't see any reason to think that Graham would have turned out any differently apart from the national media attention. Do you?

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I think that Hearst helped. Graham worked hard at what he did. His failure in Baltimore in 1949 nearly mad him quitting.
The evangelistic crusades were a product of their time. They needed the mass media to get out the word, but had to be pre TV. I think as much as anything, Graham was the right man at the right time. I don't see anyone able to make that vehicle work in today's culture--at least in the USA. It might work in China, for the right person, provided the government didn't kill it.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Being in the right place at the right time has always helped.
Billy Graham still had to take advantage of the opportunity offered him.
Yet as I get older it seems there's an inevitability in so many things that happen.
Or perhaps as we age and our conscience has so many things weighing on it.
It assuages our guilt to think that way.

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1989 W124 260E

To my knowledge, the other tent preachers were also hard working men of God, committed to their calling. The main difference between them and Graham that I can detect is that they didn't have a nationally prominent media mogul promoting them.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Uh, Billy Graham is supporting some anti-gay marriage bill in one of the Carolinas.

Of course, his time with Nixon is rich as well, what with speaking about the "satanism of the Jews", and blessing old Tricky Dick's bombing of either North Vietnam or Cambodia? (I forget)

While one must always give credit to a good con man, Graham's hypocrisy is pretty egregious.

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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."