"Hearst made Billy Graham who he is today by financially backing him and publicizing him. Rockefeller was supportive of Billy Graham’s New York Crusade, and the Manhattan-Chase Bank helped Billy Graham out tremendously."

Background:

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is an interdenominational evangelistic association engaged in a worldwide program of evangelism, Christian education, radio/TV broadcasting, films, and relief aid. It was founded in 1950 by Billy Graham. (2) In the late 1940s Graham had become the favorite evangelist of media barons William Randolph Hearst of the California Hearst dynasty and Henry Luce, head of Time, Inc.

Graham became the spearhead of their anticommunist campaign. (3) Luce and Hearst promoted Graham....

Graham had achieved public prominence during the l940s; by the l950s, he was already a national figure, in large part due to his activities with Youth for Christ (see Private Connections). In l949, he held a three-week tent crusade in Los Angeles, sponsored by Youth for Christ and other Christian organizations. On instructions from William Randolph Hearst, newspaper editors around the country gave extensive coverage to Graham's crusade. Dramatic conversions of public figures and large numbers of crusade attendees helped catapult Graham's ministry into prominence. Graham split with the fundamentalist wing of the evangelical movement during the l950s, due less to his own theological differences with fundamentalism, than to his willingness to work with a variety of organizations which were less separatist and less dogmatic in their doctrinal positions. (10)

Graham maintained his connections to the corporate world in the 1960s and 1970s. The organizing board of his 10-day crusade in Madison Square Garden in 1969 came from the highest echelons of the business world. They included Elmer Engstrom, chairman of the executive committee of the board of directors of RCA Corp; George Champion, chairman of (Rockefeller owned) Chase Manhatten Bank; Roger Hull, chairman of the board of the Mutual Life Insurance Company; and Dr. W. Naxey Harman, head of Genesco. (8) The main activity of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is the evangelistic crusades led by Graham. Since his first tent revival in Los Angeles in 1949, Graham has preached in 64 countries before hundreds of millions of people. (3)

Graham, who reached his peak of popularity in the 1970s when he was a close friend and confidant of former President Richard Nixon, has in the 1980s changed his view on the place of the church in politics. Graham has remarked that "conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the eighties, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it. "(4)

Conservative Texas billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt gave $456,000 to the BGEA between 1975 and 1981. The Pew Memorial Trust gave the BGEA $85,000 in 1969 and $100,000 in 1974 and 1975. (8) The W. Berry Lowell Foundation gave the BGEA $198,812 from 1967 through 1969. In 1975 it gave $67,000, in 1976 $15,000, in 1977 $160,000, and as of 1981 was donating $100,000 to $125,000 annually. (8) The Myrtle L. Atkinson Foundation of Canada gave $4,000 in 1976. The Sid W. Richardson Foundation gave $25,000 annually from 1975 to 1978; the J. Willard Marriott Foundation gave $2,500 in 1975, 1977, and 1978; and the Butler Manufacturing Company Foundationgave $2,500 in 1978. (8)

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See posts:

Nazi Sponsor Nixon's Tapes and Billy Graham

Hearst and Hitler

Tricky Dick Nixon & The Nazis

The Right Relationship (Chase-Nazi Bank connection)