April 5 1999

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Franklin's sister and Billy Graham's number-two daughter has, by all accounts, inherited a portion (some would say "a double portion") of her father's spirit. One evangelical leader recently said that listening to Anne preach is like "listening to Billy with a skirt." Even her father acknowledges that "if ever there was a woman called of God, my daughter Anne is one." But she was never considered as a candidate for succession in her father's ministry (as far as was made known to her) and has not been invited to speak at crusades.

Yet Anne Graham Lotz, one-time stay-at-home mom and Bible-study organizer (she still cleans her own house), is emerging—almost in spite of her circumstances—as a gifted and spellbinding "Bible expositor"—she does not call herself a "preacher." Time magazine said that Anne "inherited the greatest share of Billy's gift"; Franklin says she "is a powerful woman" and "an anointed, powerful speaker"; Ruth Graham says, "God has given her an unusual gift"; Billy Graham has called her "the best preacher in the family."

Her first major public-speaking address at Amsterdam '83 was described by Graham biographer William Martin in his A Prophet with Honor as "a stunning display of a genetic gift for capturing the attention of a gathered assembly." Billy Graham later noted in his autobiography that her message "haunts me even as I write these memoirs."

Her presentation at the Christian Workers Conference at San Juan Mission World (1995) evoked spontaneous applause, interrupting her message three times. It is Anne that Billy Graham calls when he's looking for sermon help: "She can look at almost any page in the Bible and outline it for you. She's never been to Bible school or seminary or even college ...