Changes

==Career==

==Career==

Fanning subsequently graduated in 1949 from Baptist-affiliated [[Baylor University]] in [[Waco, Texas|Wacp]], Texas,[4] and in 1952 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in [[Fort Worth]].[3] After spending most of the 1950s as a traveling evangelist,[2] Fanning in 1959 became the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.[5] He often associated in interfaith services with the Catholic archbishop, Patrick Flores of San Antonio. In 1989, he hosted the World Council of Churches' Congress on Missions and Evangelism.[2] By the time of his retirement in 2002, the church had ten thousand members. After leaving the pastorate, Fanning continued to work as an evangelist in guest preaching assignments and founded the Buckner Fanning Christian School on the North Side of San Antonio. The institution is now known as the School at Mission Springs.[6]

Fanning subsequently graduated in 1949 from Baptist-affiliated [[Baylor University]] in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas,[4] and in 1952 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in [[Fort Worth]].[3] After spending most of the 1950s as a traveling evangelist,[2] Fanning in 1959 became the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio.[5] He often associated in interfaith services with the Catholic archbishop, Patrick Flores of San Antonio. In 1989, he hosted the World Council of Churches' Congress on Missions and Evangelism.[2] By the time of his retirement in 2002, the church had ten thousand members. After leaving the pastorate, Fanning continued to work as an evangelist in guest preaching assignments and founded the Buckner Fanning Christian School on the North Side of San Antonio. The institution is now known as the School at Mission Springs.[6]

Fanning's evangelistic fervor was demonstrated in a 1950s crusade in Augusta, [[Georgia]], which drew sixty thousand persons. He was frequently compared to his friend [[Billy Graham]], whose San Antonio crusades he helped organize in 1968 and 1997. In 1957, ''[[Newsweek]]'' [[magazine]] even compared Fanning to Graham.[2] When [[John Paul II]] visited San Antonio in 1987, Fanning held an interfaith service at Trinity Baptist Church to pray for the success of the pope on his mission.[3] Fanning had been an early supporter of desegregation and [[civil rights]] for [[African Americans]] and was active in annual celebrations in January honoring [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] His preaching was credited with having helped San Antonio to avoid the racial divisiveness that developed in other southern cities during the 1960s.[7] He urged Christians to support those with different sexual preferences: "What did Jesus do, anybody whosoever calls upon Him, He will help you and lift you up and give you peace."[7] Though he did not become specifically involved in partisan politics, which he considered outside the realm of the church, Fanning urged his congregation to vote. He was a critic of the [[Conservative]] Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, which began at the national convention in 1979 in Fanning's hometown of Houston.[3]

Fanning's evangelistic fervor was demonstrated in a 1950s crusade in Augusta, [[Georgia]], which drew sixty thousand persons. He was frequently compared to his friend [[Billy Graham]], whose San Antonio crusades he helped organize in 1968 and 1997. In 1957, ''[[Newsweek]]'' [[magazine]] even compared Fanning to Graham.[2] When [[John Paul II]] visited San Antonio in 1987, Fanning held an interfaith service at Trinity Baptist Church to pray for the success of the pope on his mission.[3] Fanning had been an early supporter of desegregation and [[civil rights]] for [[African Americans]] and was active in annual celebrations in January honoring [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]] His preaching was credited with having helped San Antonio to avoid the racial divisiveness that developed in other southern cities during the 1960s.[7] He urged Christians to support those with different sexual preferences: "What did Jesus do, anybody whosoever calls upon Him, He will help you and lift you up and give you peace."[7] Though he did not become specifically involved in partisan politics, which he considered outside the realm of the church, Fanning urged his congregation to vote. He was a critic of the [[Conservative]] Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, which began at the national convention in 1979 in Fanning's hometown of Houston.[3]