Ted Budd: “It is not every day that I get to speak on behalf of someone who has changed the lives of millions of people across the…”

“It is not every day that I get to speak on behalf of someone who has changed the lives of millions of people across the globe, but today, I do. Billy Graham, who passed away last week, was known as America's pastor, and rightly so. When I was spending time this week in the district, someone who is a baseball fan came up to me and said: Do you know who's got the most saves in Yankee Stadium? I said: ``Sorry, I don't know my baseball history that well.'' He said: It was Billy Graham, in 1957. I had to laugh to think that it was truly God who did the saving. But let's think for a minute about Billy Graham. He was born in 1918 on a dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina, just south of my district. His crusades in the 1950s attracted thousands of people and shaped the beliefs of a generation by introducing many to the evangelical faith. In July of 1957, Graham invited Martin Luther, King., Jr., to preach in front of his audience at Madison Square Garden on the issue of racial justice. This was just months after the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Graham was a White pastor from North Carolina, and King was an African American pastor from Alabama. But both of them knew that the Lord doesn't see skin color and that the love of Christ could heal any racial division. Mr. Speaker, in today's polarized political culture, we could learn a thing or two from their friendship. Throughout his life, he met with 12 Presidents, dating back to Harry Truman.…”