The Rev Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, has died at the age of 99.
Mr Graham, who had been suffering from cancer, pneumonia and a number of other illnesses, was a counsellor to American presidents and travelled the globe to become perhaps the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history – with a number of successful appearances in the UK.
Spokesman Mark DeMoss said Mr Graham died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday morning.
US president Donald Trump tweeted: “The GREAT Billy Graham is dead. There was nobody like him! He will be missed by Christians and all religions. A very special man.”
He reached more than 200 million people through his appearances and millions more through his pioneering use of television and radio.
Unlike many traditional evangelists, he abandoned narrow fundamentalism to engage broader society.
More than anyone else, Mr Graham built evangelicalism into a force that rivalled liberal Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in the US.
His leadership summits and crusades in more than 185 countries and territories forged powerful global links among conservative Christians, and threw a lifeline to believers in the communist-controlled Eastern bloc.
Dubbed “America’s pastor”, he was a confidant to US presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George W Bush.
In 1983, Ronald Reagan gave Mr Graham the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s…
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