Billy Graham: Wife 'had a great reception in heaven'

Source: CNN, June 16, 2007.

MONTREAT, North Carolina (AP) -- Ruth Graham retained her beauty even in death and surely "had a great reception in heaven," an ailing Billy Graham told mourners who gathered Saturday to remember his beloved wife.

"I wish you could look in that casket because she's so beautiful," said Graham, clinging to his walker. "She was a wonderful woman."

Ruth Graham died Thursday at age 87 following a lengthy illness. Her husband's closest confidant, she was remembered as a spiritual stalwart and modest mentor who provided a solid foundation -- both biblically and geographically -- for her globe-trotting husband.

"The mama that we saw at home was the mama that the world saw," said their son, Franklin, who is now the head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He recalled his mother's headstrong and quirky nature, telling the crowd about the time she overcame a locked bedroom door by crawling on the roof, then throwing a cup of cold water through his window to wake him.

"I thank you mama for your example, for your love, for your wit, for your humor, for your craziness," he said. "I love you for all of it, and I'm going to miss you terribly."

After preaching to more than 210 million people around the world during a six-decade career, Billy Graham, 88, is largely confined to the couple's home in Montreat by several ailments, including prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease. He was not expected to speak Saturday but surprised the crowd with his words, perhaps spurred by the sight of his 19 grandchildren.

"God bless all these grandchildren. Some of them I haven't seen in a long time. Some of them I've never seen," he said, drawing laughter from the audience. "Lots of love to everyone, and thank you."

Graham changed her dream of being missionary.

Born in 1920 to medical missionaries in China, and after spending some of her high school years in what is now North Korea, Ruth Graham vowed to never marry and dreamed of working as a missionary in Tibet.

That changed after she met Billy Graham at Wheaton College in Illinois. They were married in 1943 at Montreat Presbyterian Church, where she attended services for the rest of her life.

As Billy Graham took his crusades and traveling ministry around the country and the world, Ruth Graham usually remained in the small North Carolina mountain town of Montreat, raising their five children while writing poetry, books and counseling college-age youth. (Watch how Ruth Graham lived out her faith )

Her sister, Rosa Montgomery, said Graham charged ahead with her spiritual mindset even as a young girl -- once praying that God soon make her a martyr. Though married to a famous Baptist preacher, Ruth remained a lifelong Presbyterian.

Ruth Graham was bedridden for months with degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck, and she fell into a coma Wednesday following a recent bout with pneumonia. A spokesman said she died peacefully with her husband and all five of her children at her bedside.

"Though our hearts are heavy with loss, we dare rejoice, for Ruth is home with you," said the Rev. Richard White, Graham's pastor at Montreat Presbyterian. "Her sorrows are ended."

Her simple coffin, adorned with flowers, was chosen after son Franklin noticed inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary building the caskets for themselves and others who could not afford to purchase regular coffins.

Burma Detains Opposition AIDS Activist

Written by: RFA.

BANGKOK—Burmese authorities in the former capital Rangoon have detained an opposition activist and outspoken critic of the junta’s AIDS policies, the woman’s family has told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Five male and two female police officers who identified themselves as belonging to the Ministry of Home Affairs took Phyu Phyu Thinn, 35, into custody at her home in Rangoon around 8:15 p.m. on May 21, after assuring her mother they would bring her home at midnight, her relatives said.

The family has received no information about her since, they told RFA’s Burmese service. The officers said she was “wanted by higher authorities,”

the family said. Phyu Phyu Thinn, who suffers from asthma, brought one change of clothing with her, they said.

Authorities may have pegged her as the architect of a plan to organize mass prayers for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was ultimately extended May 25, they said.

“They said they wanted to question Ma Phyu Phyu Thinn, seven of them, and they took her away,” her mother, Daw Khin Shwe, said.

Officials in Rangoon couldn’t be reached to comment.

Activist and AIDS carer

Phyu Phyu Thinn has volunteered with Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) in caring for HIV and AIDS patients since 2002 at her home in Rangoon ’s Dagon township, her family said.

She was previously detained for four months while traveling with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2000.

In January, Phyu Phyu Thinn publicly complained that Rangoon facilities treating HIV/AIDS patients had stopped providing antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for new patients because supplies were exhausted.

In an interview before her detention, Phyu Phyu Thinn suggested that mortality among AIDS patients in Burma could be far higher than the official tally—and climbing since NGO clinics had stopped giving out ARVs.

“Currently, we are sending many patients to hospitals and clinics. We are constantly in touch with the patients,” Phyu Phyu Thinn said May 15. “When patients learned that they weren’t getting more ARVs, many people became discouraged and died.”

Throughout Burma , she said, “we know that the death rate from this disease is high.”

“ARV medication is no longer distributed in NGO clinics. Because of that, we are seeing an increase in the number of deaths…People don’t know that there are medicines like these, and they don’t know how to treat [this disease] either,” she said. “We find in some places that they are treating it with Burmese herbal medicines. When it is treated this way, not only is it ineffective, they spend a lot of money, and it endangers their lives.”

“We can’t reduce the death rate with such little help. Many people still need ARV medicines that can control HIV. Until these medicines can be put directly into the hands of patients throughout the country, the death rate will be high.”

The ruling junta doesn’t keep a record of AIDS deaths, she said, suggesting mortality may be far higher than reported.

“For some, when they die at home, on the death certificates, they list all kinds of other diseases but do not mention that it is from HIV/AIDS. In some regions, there are many who didn’t go to the hospitals or clinics. They didn’t know they had HIV/AIDS and so they died from it. Actually, the authorities should be working on it systematically—what is the rate of those dying from HIV and the cause of death? They’re not doing these things…There are no instructions, and they don’t want people to know about it, so they are not paying attention to this matter. Whatever the cause of death is, they just leave it be.”

Prison steeled her, sisters say

Phyu Phyu Thinn’s younger sister, Ma Sabeh Oo, said her sister’s previous detention turned her into an activist. “In the year 2000, she traveled with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, there was some commotion, and she was arrested and put in prison.”

“In prison, she saw the opposition government. She realized that everyone had sacrificed for this work. She saw many people in prison like that. It outraged her, and she made a decision right there in prison that she would become involved in politics. She was imprisoned for more than four months. Then she was released. She began to do this work after her release.”

Phyu Phyu Thinn attended HIV and AIDS training sessions run by the NLD and by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and then she began working in rural areas.

“She took the patients to their clinics. She knows how to take care of them and encourage them, and that’s how it got started,” Ma Sabeh Oo said.

Her older sister, Ma San San Oo, said Phyu Phyu Thinn tried to demonstrate non-discrimination against HIV and AIDS patients.

“She lived by example and corrected our misconceptions. She worked well with all her mind and might. When she’s taking care of patients, she’s not like ordinary people. She doesn’t shrink from the patients. Some patients had sores. We told her, ‘You’re going to become infected,’ but she said, ‘No, we need to be close to the patients. Only then, will they understand us, and it’ll be easier to treat them.’”

“When these patients first came to our house and ate their meals with us, we felt uncomfortable. Later, we got used to it, and we forgot that they were patients. Before she left for work, there’d already be about 10 or 15 at our house. At first when eating, we’d like to clear away the things. Later, after seeing her, we mingled with them and ate and drank together,” Ma San San Oo said.

Patients at a loss

“For me as well as for other patients, we are all in trouble because of Ma Phyu’s arrest,” said HIV patient Ma Aye, from Kyauk Badaung.

“We have not received our medicines, which she administers. Emotionally, we are very discouraged because she’s not around. All of our other patients are sad and crying. We don’t know what to do.”

Intimidation, poor treatment

Opposition activists have accused the junta of intimidating HIV/AIDS patients and their supporters.

And while Burma has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Asia , estimated at 1.2 percent of adults, fears that aid money could be misdirected by the secretive junta has left donors reluctant to contribute proportionately.

An estimated 339,000 people were infected with HIV at the end of 2004, according to the military government’s National AIDS Program—nearly double the estimated 177,279 cases reported at the end of March 2002.

In the last three years, the junta has opened up to about 30 international agencies working to fight the disease, but their activities remain limited.

Volunteers say the junta’s attitude toward HIV prevention has improved recently, after officials denied its rapid spread throughout the 1990s.

Original reporting by May Pyone Aun for RFA’s Burmese service. Edited by Khin May Zaw. Service director: Nancy Shwe. Produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation that broadcasts news and information in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. The purpose of RFA is to provide a forum for a variety of opinions and voices from within these Asian countries. Our Web site adds a global dimension to this objective. RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news alerts, send an e-mail to Leave RFA. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to Join RFA.

Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Source: Yahoo News.

By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority and used it to mold the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. "CPR efforts were unsuccessful," he said.

Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him unresponsive."

Falwell had survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then was hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest. Later that year, doctors found a 70 percent blockage in an artery, which they opened with stents.

Falwell credited his Moral Majority with getting millions of conservative voters registered, electing Ronald Reagan and giving Republicans Senate control in 1980.

"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," Falwell said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.

The fundamentalist church that Falwell started in an abandoned bottling plant in 1956 grew into a religious empire that includes the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, the "Old Time Gospel Hour" carried on television stations around the country and 7,700-student Liberty University. He built Christian elementary schools, homes for unwed mothers and a home for alcoholics.

He also founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, which began as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971.

Liberty University's commencement is scheduled for Saturday, with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker.

In 2006, Falwell marked the 50th anniversary of his church and spoke out on stem cell research, saying he sympathized with people with medical problems, but that any medical research must pass a three-part test: "Is it ethically correct? Is it biblically correct? Is it morally correct?"

Falwell had once opposed mixing preaching with politics, but he changed his view and in 1979, founded the Moral Majority. The political lobbying organization grew to 6.5 million members and raised $69 million as it supported conservative politicians and campaigned against abortion, homosexuality, pornography and bans on school prayer.

Falwell became the face of the religious right, appearing on national magazine covers and on television talk shows. In 1983, U.S. News & World Report named him one of 25 most influential people in America.

In 1984, he sued Hustler magazine for $45 million, charging that he was libeled by an ad parody depicting him as an incestuous drunkard. A federal jury found the fake ad did not libel him, but awarded him $200,000 for emotional distress. That verdict was overturned, however, in a landmark 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that even pornographic spoofs about a public figure enjoy First Amendment protection.

The case was depicted in the 1996 movie "The People v. Larry Flynt."

With Falwell's high profile came frequent criticism, even from fellow ministers. The Rev. Billy Graham once rebuked him for political sermonizing on "non-moral issues."

Falwell quit the Moral Majority in 1987, saying he was tired of being "a lightning rod" and wanted to devote his time to his ministry and Liberty University. But he remained outspoken and continued to draw criticism for his remarks.

Days after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell essentially blamed feminists, gays, lesbians and liberal groups for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He later apologized.

In 1999, he told an evangelical conference that the Antichrist was a male Jew who was probably already alive. Falwell later apologized for the remark but not for holding the belief. A month later, his National Liberty Journal warned parents that Tinky Winky, a purple, purse-toting character on television's "Teletubbies" show, was a gay role model and morally damaging to children.

Falwell was re-energized after family values proved important in the 2004 presidential election. He formed the Faith and Values Coalition as the "21st Century resurrection of the Moral Majority," to seek anti-abortion judges, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and more conservative elected officials.

The big, blue-eyed preacher with a booming voice started his independent Baptist church with 35 members. From his living room, he began broadcasting his message of salvation and raising the donations that helped his ministry grow.

"He was one of the first to come up with ways to use television to expand his ministry," said Robert Alley, a retired University of Richmond religion professor who studied and criticized Falwell's career.

In 1987, Falwell took over the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry in South Carolina after Jim Bakker's troubles. Falwell slid fully clothed down a theme park water slide after donors met his fund-raising goal to help rescue the rival ministry. He gave it up seven months later after learning the depth of PTL's financial problems.

Largely because of the Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals, donations to Falwell's ministry dropped from $135 million in 1986 to less than $100 million the following year. Hundreds of workers were laid off and viewers of his television show dwindled.

Liberty University was $73 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, and his "Old Time Gospel Hour" was $16 million in debt.

By the mid-1990s, two local businessmen with long ties to Falwell began overseeing the finances and helped get companies to forgive debts or write them of as losses.

Falwell devoted much of his time keeping his university afloat. He dreamed that Liberty would grow to 50,000 students and be to fundamentalist Christians what Notre Dame is to Roman Catholics and Brigham Young University is to Mormons. He was an avid sports fan who arrived at Liberty basketball games to the cheers of students.

Falwell's father and his grandfather were militant atheists, he wrote in his autobiography. He said his father made a fortune off his businesses — including bootleging during Prohibition.

As a student, Falwell was a star athlete and a prankster who was barred from giving his high school valedictorian's speech after he was caught using counterfeit lunch tickets his senior year.

He ran with a gang of juvenile delinquents before becoming a born-again Christian at age 19. He turned down an offer to play professional baseball and transferred from Lynchburg College to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.

"My heart was burning to serve Christ," he once said in an interview. "I knew nothing would ever be the same again."

Falwell is survived by his wife, Macel, and three children, Jerry, Jonathan and Jeannie.