Billy Graham steps down as CEO from eponymous ministry
Though the evangelist—and founder of Christianity Today—will still remain chairman of the board at the 50-year-old Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, his son, Franklin, will now be chief executive officer. "I'm not retiring," Billy said in a press release, "but I now want to turn over the administrative and management burden of running the organization to my son, who has proven to be a great leader both in running the Samaritan's Purse ministry and in working closely with our organization." Franklin will continue to serve as first vice chairman of the board, as he has since 1995, when it was announced he would succeed his father as head of the ministry. (See an earlier version of the AP story here.)

Speaking of Graham ... The most recent biographical sketch of Billy Graham comes from Salon.com, which is devoting its "People" area this week to religion in America. Writer David Rubien doesn't offer many new stories or summarize Graham's life an a particularly new way, but it's directed at an audience that probably doesn't know much about Graham's background. Sadly, the article doesn't offer much in the way of resonance. Salon has long attempted to make its "Brilliant Careers" a hallmark of the site, but there's not much here beyond "he's the best at what he does." There's the obvious note that he's "king of ecumenical evangelism," but the final words are "Whether or not you're a Christian, you have to admit, he gets results. Numbers don't lie." Weblog's guess is that Graham would be irritated. Graham gets huge numbers, yes, but so do lots of evangelists. Graham is all about commitment. Better biographical sketches are available from Christian History magazine (by Graham ...