A group of White evangelical pastors are urging their followers to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris — and Franklin Graham is not happy.
By Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
When it comes to the intersection of faith and modern politics, evangelicals have veered toward the Republican Party, and more recently, venerated former President Donald Trump, a nominal Christian at best. (Images courtesy Unsplash / Aaron Burden, michael schaffler)
In his prime, the Rev. Billy Graham, the legendary Baptist minister and televangelist, was known as the “Pastor to Presidents.” Over nearly seven decades, Graham was a regular presence in the Oval Office, giving spiritual counsel to every sitting president from Harry Truman to Donald Trump.
Since entering politics in 2016, Trump himself has had the White evangelical Christian vote on lockdown. In the 2020 presidential election, for example, Trump’s tough brand of social conservatism led 70 percent of them to choose him over President Joe Biden.
Now, a group of White evangelical pastors want to break Trump’s political grip on the faithful. They are urging their followers to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, using Graham’s and Trump’s own words to make their case.
And Graham’s son, Franklin Graham — a staunch Trump supporter and an influential figure in conservative politics— isn’t happy about it.
The younger Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelist Association, has demanded Evangelicals for Harris (EFH) cease and desist their campaign, and vowed to sue if they don’t stop airing their ad.
In an interview with Premier Christian News, Franklin Graham slammed EFH, and condemned Harris — the first woman of color to occupy the vice presidency, the first to win a major party’s nomination for the presidency, and who is running neck-and-neck with Trump— as “anti-Christ in her positions.”
“They are trying to make it look like my father would have supported Vice President Harris,” Graham said. “My father was a strong conservative all of his life, theologically as well as politically. He would have never voted for or supported someone like Kamala Harris — someone who is almost anti-Christ in her positions. She has done nothing to support people of faith and what we believe and what we stand for.”
But EFH is standing its ground.
“Our communications, our references to Billy Graham, and this larger discussion of our community’s values are absolutely critical to a healthy democracy,” according to a response to Graham’s threat.
At issue is the decades-long claim conservatives have on evangelical voters.
By definition, every Christian is an evangelical; the word simply signifies the belief in God as creator and Jesus Christ as savior and signals a commitment to the gospel he taught when he was on Earth.
Controversy ensues when regular evangelical churchgoers unwaveringly support Trump — a boorish, twice-divorced convicted felon and purported sexual abuser with little familiarity of the Bible and no clear church affiliation.
Just recently, a group of evangelicals issued a call to return to Christianity’s basic tenets of faith and away from the political draw to Trump.
What seems to most upset the younger Graham about EFH is its video ad comparing his father’s words to Trump’s crude self-assessment.
For example, the ad begins with a video of Billy Graham preaching: “But you must realize that in the last days, the times will be full of danger, men will become utterly self-centered and greedy for money.”
Then, there’s a clip of Trump: ”My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy.”
The membership of EFH includes different races and varied faiths, and they claim credit for helping Biden reach the White House four years ago. Their platform cites the accomplishments of the current administration and Harris’ religious background; they argue she isn’t a newcomer to Christianity and has a platform aligned with Christian values.
“We keep surprising people,” Rev. Jim Ball, founder and chair, said in a statement. “We helped Joe Biden win in 2020 and we’re helping Kamala Harris today.
”Her policies are pro-family. As a former prosecutor and attorney general, she will defend our democracy, the rule of law and continue the drop in crime,” he said. “She’ll keep the government out of private family matters. She’s pro-environment and pro-climate action. And she will keep the economy growing and wages increasing, while continuing to bring prices down.”
This article was originally published by WordinBlack.com.
