When the National Archives released audiotapes in 2002 that revealed evangelist Billy Graham making anti-Semitic remarks during a conversation with President Nixon, the incident was a rare tarnish on the otherwise rosy history between the prominent evangelical leader and the Jewish community.

As Jewish and other non-Christian religious leaders remember Graham, who died on Wednesday (Feb. 21) at age 99, the Nixon tape is on a very short list of blemishes on the relationship between the evangelist and his non-Christian colleagues.

Jewish leaders describe Graham as someone who set Jewish-evangelical relations on the right course.

“What I believe Billy Graham did was he put a positive face on evangelicalism and on evangelicals,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the Chicago- and Jerusalem-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

“He did so without ever compromising his integrity as an evangelical Christian who believed that what all people need is to be saved,” said Eckstein, who corresponded during his 30-year career with Graham but never met him face-to-face. “When it came to the Jewish people, he exhibited incredible sensitivity,” he said.

Through the years, Graham received numerous awards from Jewish organizations for his work on interfaith relations and on behalf of Soviet Jewry and the state of Israel.

In the…

In 1953, Robert Jeffress’ mother, Judy, got saved at a Billy Graham crusade at Dallas’ Cotton Bowl.

After the crusade, Graham — the world-famous evangelist who died Wednesday (Feb. 21) at age 99 — gave a guest sermon at First Baptist Dallas.

“The day he preached, he also joined the church,” said Robert Jeffress, who grew up in the historic Dallas congregation — which will celebrate its 150th anniversary this year — and has served as its senior pastor since 2007.

Graham formally placed membership at First Baptist Dallas — where the late Rev. W.A. Criswell was the longtime pastor — even though he didn’t live in Texas. He never would. But Graham maintained that membership for more than 54 years.

On the day of Graham’s passing, Jeffress remembered his mother’s reasons for choosing First Baptist.

“My mom looked at my dad and said, ‘If it’s good enough for Billy Graham, it’s good enough for me,’” Jeffress told Religion News Service in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.

“And that’s the day she joined the church,” added Jeffress, who is one of President Trump’s evangelical advisers and part of a delegation of Christian leaders visiting Israel this week.

“A year later, I was born and grew up at First Baptist Dallas. So, in many ways, I’m a Christian — and I’m the pastor of my church — because of…

In Kathie Lee Gifford’s interview yesterday on Megyn Kelly TODAY, the actress, singer, and talk-show host shared memories of her beloved friend. Amid personal anecdotes and expressing gratitude for his ministry and how it impacted her family’s faith, Gifford also shared from the heart about her faith in Jesus. Looking directly at the audience at times, she said that we have hope, as Christians, when we die. She also said that our world really needs peace right now, no doubt a nod to recent tragedies. Not holding back, she continued: “If you had the cure for cancer, would you keep it quiet? I know the cure for malignancy of the soul, and He has a name, it’s Jesus.”

In the wake of Billy Graham’s death, Gifford has been given a platform to share the Gospel message to countless viewers. Not only did she share on this show, but on her own show, TODAY with Kathie Lee and Hoda. Since this significant interview, The TODAY Show has continued to report on Rev. Graham’s passing, featuring other interview segments, including one this morning with Rev. Graham’s son, Franklin Graham.

Commenting on Rev. Graham’s roles as both father and preacher, Franklin Graham said they were one in the same: “He spent his life telling people about Heaven, how to get to Heaven. He wrote books on Heaven. Now he’s in Heaven.” He continued, “And he would want me to tell…

In the wake of the death of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, controversial faith-healing televangelist Benny Hinn, who has often been criticized for his endorsement of the prosperity gospel, said in a stunning confession Wednesday that sometimes he has taken the erroneous gospel too far.

“We get attacked for preaching prosperity, well it’s in the Bible, but I think some have gone to the extreme with it sadly, and it’s not God’s word what is taught and I think I’m as guilty as others. Sometimes you go a little farther than you really need to go and then God brings you back to normality and reality,” Hinn, 65, said as he reflected on Graham’s death with a ministry colleague in a Facebook Live broadcast.

He admitted that as he has grown older and come to understand the Bible more, he now realizes that some of the things he learned from preachers when he was growing up aren’t biblical and the popular interpretation of the prosperity gospel — the teaching that believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the “sowing of seeds” through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings — is one of those things.

“The more you know the Bible…