With a huge outreach to the Hispanic populace, which makes up 60 percent of San Antonio's population, Billy Graham's four-day crusade last month drew 247,500 people and filled the Alamodome for the first time in its three-year history.
On the third night, 75,000 attended, including 10,000 watching on a screen at nearby Hemisfair Park, as Michael W. Smith and dc Talk sang. On the closing night, April 6, which featured Christian singer Jaci Velasquez, 66,250 showed up.
Graham praised the cooperation of Hispanics and Catholics, including an early endorsement from Archbishop Patrick Flores, the highest-ranking Catholic official in Texas.
"The Devil has separated us, and a crusade like this is used of God to bring people of all denominations together," Graham declared in his opening sermon. "We need one another." About 10 percent of the 700 churches that participated in the crusade were Roman Catholic. In all, 50 denominations took part.
ARCHBISHOP ON THE AIR: Flores, one of the nation's first Mexican-American bishops, met with Graham and taped radio spots in English and Spanish encouraging Catholics to attend the crusade to help bring them to a closer commitment to their faith.
Some fundamentalists criticized the ecumenical spirit, posting fliers in downtown San Antonio picturing Graham in a clerical collar with the caption: "Reject Billy Graham—He's Too Catholic."
Del Sanchez, pastor of Lifeway Community Church in San Antonio, helped organize Hispanic churches, and news of the crusade flooded Spanish-language radio and television stations. Crusade planners put "Good News" billboards throughout the city and sought to reach many low-income areas. Churches provided free transportation to the crusade.
In a west-side area of low-income families, children handed out fliers advertising the crusade under a wall-sized mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Guadalupe Community Center.
Reflecting the multicultural aspect of San Antonio, a mariachi band led by Louis Sanchez played on opening night, and contemporary Christian musician Steve Green, who sings in both English and Spanish, performed. Former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson sat with the evangelist's wife, Ruth Graham, on opening night. Texas Gov. George W. Bush said Graham had been a transforming influence in his life a decade ago.
Crusade officials said 22,576 people, or about 9 percent of those attending, came forward for spiritual guidance during altar calls. They said that is three times higher than the usual rate.
People made their way to the floor of the Alamodome along with the singing of Graham's trademark invitation hymn. Just As I Am also is the title of Graham's autobiography, released April 30 by HarperCollins and Zondervan.
CULT WARNING: More than once, Graham mentioned the March suicides of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He said those who died were like everyone else—searching for true spiritual meaning.
"I hope people on the edge of life, like those people of Heaven's Gate, will come to know Christ and find the fulfillment they are searching for," he said. "Cults are made up of people who are fanatically following a leader who leads them astray. "
Crusade officials said relatives of Marshall Herff Applewhite, the leader of Heaven's Gate, attended each meeting.
"Just as the Alamo is remembered as the turning point of Texas' history, so today this Alamodome can become a place of new beginning for you," Graham declared in his final message. "'Remember the Alamodome' can be a spiritual rallying cry to celebrate what God has done in the lives of so many south Texans during this past week." Graham conducted two earlier campaigns in San Antonio, one in 1958 and another in 1968—which drew 94,900 in four days. He plans a California crusade in September and October in San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
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