The political action committee Evangelicals for Harris has come under fire for using sermon clips of the late Reverend Billy Graham in a million-dollar ad campaign excoriating former President Donald Trump. In the ad, the group juxtaposes clips from Graham’s sermon on 2 Timothy 3:1-5, preached in 1988, with clips of some of Trump’s most unflattering public remarks. The Scripture passage in questions reads:
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association threatens legal action
According to The Christian Post, “The ad marks the second time the PAC has attacked Trump using footage from Billy Graham’s sermons, prompting pushback from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association CEO Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son.”
Now, the PAC may be facing legal action. The Blaze reports, “After the ad’s release, lawyers for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reportedly sent Evangelicals for Harris multiple letters, including a cease-and-desist notice. One letter, the Religious News Service reported, even threatened a lawsuit on the basis of copyright infringement. In a statement, the BGEA confirmed it shared its concerns with Evangelicals for Harris about ‘unauthorized, political use of BGEA’s copyrighted video.'”
That statement accurately noted that Rev. Graham had “relationships with 11 U.S. presidents” over the extensive course of his ministry, and “sought only to encourage them and to offer them the counsel of Christ, as revealed through God’s Word. He never criticized presidents publicly and would undoubtedly refuse to let his sermons be used to do so, regardless of who is involved.”
Evangelicals for Harris retorted that “Franklin [Graham] is scared of our ads because we do not tell people what to do or think. We merely hold Trump’s own words up to the light of Scripture, the necessity of repentance, and Biblical warnings against leaders exactly like Trump.”
People of faith
The PAC claims that Harris is a “deeply committed and faithful Christian” and links to her “faith story” on its website, yet Harris has drawn the ire of many people of faith by promoting the message that one can support the killing of preborn children while simultaneously holding to the tenets of Christianity. Very recently, she made this assertion during an appearance on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast. But the message is not new. At the National Baptist Convention in 2022, Harris said:
As extremists work to take away the freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies, faith leaders are taking a stand, knowing one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held religious beliefs to agree that a woman should have the ability to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do, and she will choose, in consultation with her pastor or her priest, or a doctor and her loved ones, but the government should not be making that decision….
To be clear, the “decision” about “her own body” is actually a decision to kill the body of her living preborn child growing within her, via induced abortion:
Rev. Billy Graham — clearly an important and influential “faith leader,” otherwise his remarks would not be used posthumously in an attempt to denounce a presidential candidate — vocally and openly opposed abortion.
Yet Evangelicals for Harris makes no mention of his beliefs on this issue — one of the Harris/Walz key campaign emphases.
Rev. Billy Graham opposed abortion on Biblical grounds
Among his comments and writings, Rev. Graham referred to abortion as “sin,” referred to the life in the womb as a “child,” and even told a young woman considering abortion, “Your child isn’t simply a mass of tissue; he or she is a human being in God’s eyes.” He condemned abortion, calling it a “big issue for Christians,” and denouncing the idea of a “right” to abortion in no uncertain terms:
The spiritual condition of man is at the root of the abortion issue. Until man’s spiritual condition is changed by the power of Jesus Christ, we will not find a full solution to this problem. It is sin that produces the problem of most unwanted pregnancies, as well as all the other disorders which plague the human race.
It is also sin that produces the misbelief that women have a ‘right’ to take the lives of unborn babies. The apostle Paul writes, ‘The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like’ (Galatians 5:19-21a).
Life is sacred, and we must seek to protect all human life: the unborn, the child, the adult, and the aged.
In his 2011 book, “Storm Warning,” Graham wrote regarding abortion (emphases added):
Few issues have polarized our society as much as the debate over abortion. It is not my purpose to get involved in the complex legal and political issues that swirl around this difficult question. There admittedly are isolated cases where abortion is the lesser of two evils, such as when the mother’s life is clearly at risk. However, for many people today abortion has become little more than another means of birth control, practiced for mere personal convenience with no regard for the fate of the infant growing in the womb – and from the Bible’s standpoint, that self-centered approach is wrong. All too often the right to life of the unborn child has been tragically lost in a tidal wave of cries for the “right” to choose.
The Bible makes it clear that God sees the unborn infant not as a piece of superfluous biological tissue, but as a person created by Him for life.
The psalmist said, “For you created me in my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb… My frame is not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13, 15-16).
God expressed a similar truth to the prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5)
When Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, visited her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist, we are told that Elizabeth declared to Mary, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in the my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).
This is a clear indication that that infant was a person, not just a piece of tissue.
He added remarks that seem similar to statements later made by Pope Francis, saying, “…millions of men and women all over the world have turned away from God… When pregnancy is the problem, or when the love and nurture of a child is not in their plans, they simply pay a specialist to cut out the problem, even when the problem is a human life….”
Graham also made it clear that killing preborn children by abortion is not the way to solve any social issue:
I have heard some people say, “Well, I’m against abortion, but with the population crisis and all the unwanted childbirth in the world, especially among the poor, abortion is probably for the best.”
Let me be quick to say that this kind of reasoning is false and dangerous. The way to solve the population crisis is first to tell men and women that God loves them and has a personalized plan already designed for each one of them. They need to understand that human life is a sacred gift from God.
Lead them to a new life in Christ through repentance and a change of heart. Then teach them about self-control and moral responsibility, as God has defined it, and help them with food and shelter if they need it.
We can demonstrate God’s love, but we must never think that we can solve one moral crisis by condoning another; especially the crime of murder, for unrestrained abortion is nothing less than that.
The Blaze notes, “While Evangelicals for Harris may indeed think they are holding up Trump to the ‘light of scripture,’ the group fails to do the same for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Ultimately, Rev. Billy Graham recognized that all sin — not just certain sin — separates every single one of us from the one true God, and that Jesus Christ came to restore humanity to a right relationship with God, through His death on the cross and His resurrection. This gift of God is available to all who would turn away from their sin and turn to Christ as Savior and Lord — from the most influential and wealthy presidential candidate to the person of meager means with no power or influence at all.
“… For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” ~ Romans 3:23-24 (NIV)
