CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Standing at the simple wooden pulpit that the Rev. Billy Graham once used to preach his global crusades, his five children and evangelists from around the world gave tribute Friday to a man who for half a century was the world’s best-known living apostle of evangelical Christianity.
Graham, who died last week at 99, was eulogized in front of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte under an enormous white tent reminiscent of the “canvas cathedral” where Graham conducted his breakout crusade in Los Angeles in 1949.
President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and their wives attended the funeral, but were given no speaking role. The funeral gave the platform instead to the disciples who carry on Billy Graham’s ministry — including evangelists from India, Lebanon and South Korea — and his children, who offered testimony that was sometimes very personal.
Ruth Graham, one of his daughters, spoke of how she returned home to her father fearing harsh judgment after her second marriage ended.
“He wrapped his arms around me and said welcome home,” she recalled through tears. “There was no shame. There was no blame. Just unconditional love. My father was not God. But he showed me what God was like that day.”
The details of the funeral had been meticulously planned by Graham himself 10 years ago, befitting a man known to choreograph his mass crusades to the last altar call. The coffin was built of pine plywood by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. The pulpit was the same one Graham used in his crusades in the 1990s.
The expectation was that the funeral would draw all or most of the living presidents who were healthy enough to attend. Three spoke at the opening of the Billy Graham Library in 2007 and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came to Charlotte this week to pay their respects to the Graham family.
But in the end, the only president who attended the funeral was Trump. In remarks Wednesday when Graham’s coffin was laid in honor at the Capitol Rotunda, the president did what so many have done in the days since Graham died: he shared his own Billy Graham story, about seeing him in 1957.
“My father said to me, ‘Come on son,'” the president said, "'Let’s go see Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium.’ And it was something very special.”
Graham died at his mountain home in Montreat, North Carolina, on Feb. 21. His body was carried in a motorcade down the mountain and 130 miles east to Charlotte, as thousands waved farewell from overpasses along the interstate.
The funeral Friday, under a 28,000-square-foot tent that shuddered in a stiff wind, drew other political dignitaries besides the president and vice president, including Ben Carson, the housing secretary, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and his predecessor, Pat McCrory.
Some attendees remarked that it was an unprecedented gathering of evangelical luminaries. They included megachurch leaders Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and A.R. Bernard, best-selling author and speaker Beth Moore, radio and television host David Jeremiah, and the Rev. Jim Bakker, who has returned to television ministry after a corruption scandal that sent him to prison.
The evangelical movement is now far more divided than it was under Graham, mostly because of politics. One wing makes no apology for having linked the evangelical church so closely with the Republican Party and Trump. Another wing sees it as undermining the Gospel message.
The Rev. Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, said before the service started: "My hope is that this funeral will remind us to put the evangelism back in evangelical.”
Franklin Graham, Graham’s eldest son and designated heir of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, did not veer into politics, though he has served as a frequent champion of Trump in the media. But he did include the kind of explicit, exclusivist claim of Christian faith that he has consistently used in his public appearances, including presidential inaugurations, when he insisted on giving his prayer “in the name of Jesus.”
“The world with all its political correctness would want you to believe that there are many roads to God. It’s just not true," Graham said. “My father would want me to share this with you today.”
He delivered a sermon that included the kind of direct appeals to Christian conversion that were his father’s trademark:
“Are you saved? Are you forgiven? Are you trusting in your Lord as your savior? If you’re not sure, there is no better time than at Billy Graham’s funeral.”
In his later years, Billy Graham forged relationships with leaders of other Christian denominations, and his funeral reflected those efforts, with Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox leaders among those in attendance.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, said he had been planning to lead an ecumenical prayer service to honor Graham on Friday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, but changed his plans when he received an invitation to the funeral in Charlotte.
“It means a lot to me personally because Billy Graham had a big impact on me growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” the cardinal said, adding that hearing Graham’s preaching on TV affected his decision to join the priesthood.
For about half a century, as tastes changed and celebrities peaked and faded away, Graham remained a household name with consistently high public approval ratings. As late as 2007 — two years after his last crusade in New York City — three-quarters of the Americans surveyed who knew of Graham had a favorable impression of him, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.
On Wednesday and Thursday, when Graham’s body lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, thousands lined up outside waiting to say goodbye. He was only the fourth American who was not an elected official or a military member to be given the honor.
Some objected to giving Graham such a distinction, citing the country’s guiding principle of separation of church and state, as well as Graham’s record of remarks that were offensive to Jews and to gay people — remarks he later said he regretted.
Ned Graham, the youngest of the five Graham children, said his father was “faithful, available and teachable.”
“I want all of you to be that way," he said.
Graham was buried in the prayer garden at his library next to his wife, Ruth Bell Graham, who died in 2007. They had met as students at Wheaton College and were married for 64 years. His wife’s grave marker is inscribed, at her instruction, with words she once saw on a road sign: “End of Construction. Thank you for your patience.”
The inscription on Graham’s grave describes him as “Preacher of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.