Old School Religion

The new kids on the block aren’t headliners at a Billy Graham crusade. The Rev. Billy Graham is 84. Cliff Burrows, music and program director, is a relatively chipper 80. And the featured singer, baritone George Beverly Shea, is 94.

The gray-haired trio has been together for more than 50 years, having appeared before an estimated live audience of 210 million in more than 185 countries and territories.

“I’m not sure I want to keep dragging this face in front of the camera,” said Shea, famous for singing “How Great Thou Art” at the crusades, including 99 times in a row at an event in 1957. “But Billy seems to want me around.”

Though the gang has slowed down considerably -- Graham needs help walking to the podium and Shea sings just a single song now -- their popularity or their impact in the Christian world hasn’t diminished after five decades.

Over the first three nights of the Mission San Diego with Billy Graham this weekend, more than 150,000 people came to Qualcomm Stadium to hear one of the 20th century’s most famous preachers. Friday night’s events were broadcast to U.S. military bases and ships at sea on the Armed Services Network. The final session in San Diego starts tonight at 6.

There’s a deep sense of nostalgia at Graham missions these days. Because of his age, the advances of Parkinson’s disease and other maladies, each crusade Graham headlines could be his last. So far, though, he has managed to continue on, and plans to be in Oklahoma City for another four-day mission next month.

In San Diego, Graham appeared strong behind the wooden lecturn. His straightforward, 30-minute messages included many references to current events -- from the recent war with Iraq to the SARS epidemic -- and he also reeled off a number of jokes, including many ad-libs.

After lauding President Bush for his recent jet landing on the Abraham Lincoln, Graham related his own landing on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. He said the landing was so rough that he thought the plane had crashed and that he might be dead.

“But when I looked up and saw all those sailors, I knew I wasn’t in heaven,” he said, earning a big laugh from the military-laden San Diego crowd.

Like many others in San Diego, Eloise Cooksey Ross, an 83-year-old from Carlsbad, wanted to see Graham one more time. This was his fourth crusade in San Diego, but the first since 1976.

Ross, dressed elegantly in floral print pants and matching jacket, sat in a wheelchair on the stadium’s outfield grass, explaining why this night was so special to her. She attended a Sunday school in Florida as a teenager, and one day her teacher brought in a seminary student to practice preaching before an audience.

“It was Mr. Graham,” Ross said, her eyes lighting up. “I’ve followed him since. I have everything he’s written. And almost everything I have learned about the Bible, I verified it by what Mr. Graham says.”

Jeanne Johnson, 50, drove 350 miles from Bullhead, Ariz., to see Graham. She brought her mother, 81, and her mother’s sister, 79, both of whom sang in the choir of previous San Diego crusades.

“My mother has Alzheimer’s, but she still remembers singing with him,” Johnson said, her eyes tearing.

When the songs began, the two elderly sisters, sitting side by side in wheelchairs, struggled to find each other’s hands. Finally, they clasped them together.

But it’s not as though a Graham crusade -- or mission, as it’s now officially called -- is an anachronism. Many in the crowds of about 50,000 each night are young families and teens. The ministry also makes use of the latest technology, broadcasting videos of Graham on big screens throughout the stadium and transmitting translations of his message live into different languages each night, including Arabic, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

The Graham missions also feature contemporary Christian artists, including Michael W. Smith, Popular Dove, Nicole C. Mullen, Crystal Lewis and dc Talk, whose music is delivered at ear-ringing decibels. They also bring in newsworthy speakers. Tonight, Evelyn Husband, widow of space shuttle Columbia commander Rick D. Husband, will give her testimony on how she relied on faith after his death this year.

The heart of a Graham crusade never changes. It comes at the end of Graham’s message, when he invites people in the crowd to become Christians.

“There may never be a meeting quite like this again in San Diego,” Graham said Friday, encouraging new believers to come forward.

Nicole Teincuff, a 14-year-old from San Diego, started her Friday night in the upper deck of Qualcomm. She said her parents aren’t religious, and a friend brought her to the crusade.

At the end of the night, she found herself on the outfield grass with thousands of others who wanted to accept Jesus Christ as their savior, the goal of a crusade. She bowed her head as Graham -- someone Nicole hadn’t heard about until Friday -- prayed for her and the thousands around her.

“He’s definitely not over the hill,” Nicole said, clutching a bag filled with literature and a tape given to her by the ministry. “There’s just something about him.”