Consider it Billy Graham's last crusade, one that will draw the faithful long after America's most famous religious figure is gone.

On a wooded site in his hometown--just off Billy Graham Parkway, no less--the Billy Graham Library will be dedicated May 31 at a private ceremony expected to feature former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former President Jimmy Carter also is likely to attend.

The ex-presidents are likely to be upstaged, though, by the guest of honor. The 88-year-old evangelist is scheduled to come down from his mountain home in Montreat, N.C., for a rare public appearance to address the crowd of 1,500 invited guests and assorted national media.

If his fragile health allows him to make the trip--he can barely hear or walk and his vision is poor--Graham's message will echo the one his ministry hopes visitors take from the library: The glory should go to God rather than the lanky farm boy who preached the gospel to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

And yet, once visitors get a look at the old photos and crusade footage that fill the 40,000-square-foot library, it might be a tough sermon to sell. Even for Billy Graham.

"He doesn't want attention to go to him," said Graham's younger sister, Jean Ford, of Charlotte. "And yet it just does."

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Filed under: * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

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