AP reported that the Rev. Billy James Hargis, a broadcast evangelist and anti-Communist crusader, died at age 79 on Saturday.
A figure in the news in the 1950s and 1960s, he founded the interdominational Christian Crusade; AP reported that his broadcast ministry spanned some 40 years on more than 500 radio and 250 television stations. During his life he launched bibles by balloon into Eastern Europe; battled with the IRS when it removed his tax-exempt status; and answered charges in 1976 that he had engaged in sexual acts with female and male students at his American Christian College. He denied it.
He also founded the David Livingstone Missionary Foundation.
Rev. Billy James Hargis Dies
Rev. Billy James Hargis Dies