‘America’s pastor’ Reverend Bill Graham receives rare honour as he lays in honour at US Capitol building
REVEREND Billy Graham has become just the fourth private person to lay in honour at the US Capitol ahead of his funeral on Friday.
HE FELT stung by the politics that helped define his life — and resolved to keep a distance. But in death, the Reverend Billy Graham is getting a rare tribute from the nation’s top political leaders under Capitol Rotunda.
US President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all paid tribute to “America’s pastor,” who died a week earlier at age 99.
Some 30 family members accompanied Graham’s casket to Washington, where he befriended presidents of both parties and counselled others over seven decades.
Rev. Graham is lying in honour beneath the iconic dome before a funeral Friday near his home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“If there is any American whose life and life’s work deserves to be honoured by laying in honour in the US Capitol, it’s Billy Graham,” Mr Ryan said.
Mr Trump said his father was an admirer of Graham’s and that the “legendary” American figure deserved to be recognised in the place “where the memory of the American people is enshrined.”
Today, in the center of this great Chamber lies Billy Graham – an Ambassador for Christ who reminded the world of the power of prayer and the gift of God’s grace. pic.twitter.com/5aMh8nFPJW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2018
Starting at a small Bible School in Florida, Billy Graham soon led a nationwide revival. From a large tent in Los Angeles, to one hundred thousand people in a single day at Yankee Stadium, to more than two million people at Madison Square Garden over sixteen weeks in 1957... pic.twitter.com/z1vvAemlBP
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2018
Though he met every president since Harry Truman and counselled most, Rev. Graham grew wary of politics after Watergate.
He was closest to Richard Nixon but later said he felt used by him.
Nonetheless, Graham ministered to other presidents until his health began to fail about 10 years ago.
Former US President Bill Clinton recalled seeing one of Rev. Graham’s crusades as a child, a profound experience that became more amazing over his life.
Rev. Graham counselled him as Arkansas governor, and later as president in the White House itself.
“In that little room, he was the same person I saw when I was 11 on that football field,” Mr Clinton said.
Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, also visited Rev. Graham’s home on Tuesday.
In Washington, Mr Ryan said there had been no doubt that Rev. Graham would receive the honour of a public viewing in the Rotunda.
He told reporters that almost immediately upon hearing of Rev. Graham’s death he, Mr Trump, Senator McConnell and Republican Patrick McHenry, who represents the Graham family’s district, agreed it would happen.
Rev. Graham shares the honour with 11 presidents and other distinguished Americans, starting with Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1852 and, most recently, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in 2012, according to the House and the Architect of the Capitol.
Rev. Graham is only the fourth private person to lie in honour since 1998.
The others are two US Capitol Police officers who died in the line of duty in 1998 and civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.
Mr Trump met Rev. Graham at the pastor’s 95th birthday party in 2013, but is closer to Franklin Graham Jr.
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