Two photos of evangelist Billy Graham ran prominently in the local paper after his successful 1950 Atlanta crusade. In one, Graham grinned broadly as he waved goodbye; in the other, crusade ushers hauled off four bulging money bags full of “love offerings.”
Deeply stung, Graham, who died on Wednesday (Feb. 21) at age 99, determined he would never again give people reason to suspect his motives. Steps he took before and after the publication of those photos help account for the longevity of Graham’s ministry. “America’s preacher” escaped the major money and sex scandals that plagued so many other traveling evangelists.
“He was a model of financial respectability,” said Graham’s biographer, William Martin, senior fellow for religion at Rice University’s Baker Institute. “There was never a desperation pitch.”
Although collections were still sought at each of his crusades, Graham agreed after the Atlanta crusade to take a fixed salary from the newly formed Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
In 1952 his salary was $15,000, according to Martin; by the late 1990s he earned nearly $200,000 a year from his organization, according to MinistryWatch, a North Carolina-based group that rates the financial health of Christian ministries. The same went for his crusade team. Never again would they pocket any money raised at his crusades — it all went to the local…
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