Former President George W Bush says famed evangelist Billy Graham ended up saving his life by getting him to stop drinking.
George W. Bush, recalled in an interview with Focus on the Family that he'd been drunk the first time he met Graham at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
But the two then went for a walk that launched Bush's rejection of alcohol and embrace of Christianity.
'We started talking about religion,' the former president said in the interview.
'And Billy sent me a Bible and I started reading the Bible.'
In a personal piece written for the Wall Street Journal, Bush writes how he believes that Graham was, with C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th century's most influential figures in evangelicalism.
'I was captivated by him. He had a powerful presence, full of kindness and grace, and a keen mind... He told me about one of the Bible's most fundamental lessons: One should strive to be better, but we're all sinners who earn God's love not through our good deeds, but through His grace,' he said.
Bush explains how after he returned to Texas there was a package waiting for him - it was a copy of The Living Bible - a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments.
He said it was a transformative moment.
George W Bush says Billy Graham saved his life | Daily Mail Online
