If your father or grandfather is a preacher, that doesn’t automatically make you a preacher. If your mother and father are godly people, that doesn’t necessarily make you godly. It’s not hereditary, in other words.
I’d like to think that pretty much every Christian has this down pat by now, as anyone who’s traced biblical stories about family can rightly attest to. However, two relatives in the family of the legendary Rev. Billy Graham, in the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, are showing two different sides of what it means to be an evangelist.
Rev. Franklin Graham, fresh off helping the survivors of Hurricane Helene where FEMA did not, is offering prayers for GOP nominee Donald Trump. His granddaughter, meanwhile, is writing opinion pieces in favor of Kamala Harris, saying that the values she learned from the grandpa she called “Daddy Bill” has led her to support a woman who would federalize the right to abortion on demand at any time during pregnancies and force Christians to perform and pay for them.
Jerushah Duford, said granddaughter, wrote the piece, published Wednesday in Newsweek: “I’m Billy Graham’s Granddaughter and I’m Voting for Kamala Harris,” the headline read.
OK, I lived one town over from Chris Christie at one point, and I’m voting for Trump; where’s my Op-Ed? Also, to be clear, Duford has long been using her grandfather’s name to push her political causes, particularly in terms of pushing Christians to accept LGBT rights and other causes.
In 2020, for instance, she wrote a letter of support to Evangelicals Concerned (“Proclaiming the Good News of God’s Love for Gay and Lesbian People,” the front page read) lamenting the death of George Floyd and noting that she was “born into a prominent Christian family as a white heterosexual woman,” which is why “the passion I have always had for the marginalized community is not something I came across from experience.” She also appears to currently be an “LGBTQ+ friendly” mental health professional in Greenville, South Carolina.
In other words, this might be the least surprising thing you read all day from somebody whose Christianity could at best be described as heterodox and, at worst, be described as opportunistic cherry-picking.
That isn’t mentioned in the Newsweek piece, which simply said that, along with being Billy Graham’s granddaughter, she’s “a licensed therapist serving children, couples, and families.”
“I pray that Christians will invite God into our hearts as we select our nation’s leaders next month. This will require a courageous realignment for some of my fellow evangelicals who I feel may have been led astray by the MAGA movement,” Duford said in her piece. “But to admit error is not weakness. To reclaim our values is to find strength.”
Is Franklin Graham’s approach more effective?
Which values are these? Federally legalizing abortion up until the moment of birth? Marrying an apparent nanny-impregnator? I don’t really remember “Daddy Bill” encouraging the presidents he talked with to, say, allow the city of Springfield, Ohio, to become overwhelmed by Haitian migrants that Kamala Harris once bragged about opening the door to.
Instead, the issue is a matter of personality for Duford.
“As someone who enjoyed the privilege of growing up around the revered minister Dr. Billy Graham — or as we grandchildren knew him, ‘Daddy Bill’ — I recognize very little in former President Donald Trump of the Christian faith that has inspired my life. Both men have stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, but I fear this may be the only characteristic they share,” she wrote.
“Trump’s words and actions are fundamentally incompatible with evangelical principles. Contrary to some who claim he has been anointed by God to lead; Trump cannot return the U.S. to faithfulness. Sadly, by embracing such a megalomaniac, Christians have been turning away those who are curious about the Lord. We lose credibility when we say God is love, but then rally, and sometimes even riot, in support of an individual whose entire worldview centers on himself.”
We’re now at the point, apparently, where “the personal is political” has become “personalities equal policy” in left-wing circles.
I don’t think anyone believes we’re electing a pastor-in-chief — and if we did, a woman who got her start in politics by dating a significantly older, married man, ended up marrying a man with a bevy of heavy-duty moral failings, and promises to act in a way antithetical to virtually every biblical value, isn’t exactly the woman to fit the role.
Oh, but Springfield does get a mention: “Looking at my grandfather’s legacy, it’s clear that his values centered firmly in unity, justice, and compassion. Billy Graham joined with Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the fight for civil rights. He held the first large mixed-race event in then-segregated South Africa and proclaimed that ‘apartheid is a sin.’ He would certainly condemn efforts to dehumanize the hardworking Haitian immigrants who are revitalizing towns like Springfield, Ohio.”
Being for Martin Luther King, Jr. and against apartheid are two of the least controversial positions one could hold as a righteous Christian during the Civil Rights era. As for Springfield — no, he probably wouldn’t dehumanize them, but he also wouldn’t use them as a political football, as so many who have been led to migrate here on the promise of being able to clog up the system with dubious asylum claims are doing. That’s more dehumanizing than pointing out an Ohio town has been overwhelmed by the policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
And she persisted: “In Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, I see a commitment to service and a future built on unity and hope — values that were deeply important to my grandfather.”
No, what you see — at least in my brief experience with your oeuvre — is two people who believe in political values like yours. You may flatter yourself in believing that this represents service, unity and hope. Perhaps some Newsweek readers will, too. They will be the only ones.
Meanwhile, this was what the Rev. Franklin Graham, Billy’s son, was doing this week:
“FATHER, WE BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL HEAR OUR PRAYERS, WE COME TO SAY THANK YOU AND TO PRAY FOR OUR NATION. IF IT BE THY WILL THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL WIN THIS ELECTION.” – @Franklin_Graham pic.twitter.com/6XayNLwuaP
— Real America’s Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) October 21, 2024
“Our nation is guilty of many sins,” Franklin Graham said. “Father, we pray for President Trump. We pray for his family, those that he loves. Watch over and protect them. Guide and direct his steps, and Father, we pray that when he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he’ll do is he’ll turn to You and ask for Your help.”
“We pray for our nation, and Father, if it be thy will, that President Trump will win this election. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
The contrast couldn’t be clearer. Billy Graham’s son is praying about this election. His granddaughter is lecturing us about what her grandfather would have believed, absent her grandfather on this Earth to confirm it. Which one is closer to what Billy Graham would have wanted? If you have to ask, you obviously never heard the man speak.
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