The apple that fell far from the tree

The world's continual disappointment in Franklin Graham, Billy's son

Man from Queens, and Billy’s wayward son

Franklin Graham has weighed in on Republicans who this week voted for impeachment. He compared them to Judas, one of the chosen whom Christians believe betrayed Jesus to the authorities, which ultimately resulted in Jesus’ tortuous death:

Graham, son of internationally-known evangelical preacher Billy Graham, heads Samaritan’s Purse, a nonprofit evangelical Christian organization that serves as something of an evangelical Red Cross — provided the recipients of the organization’s largesse don’t mind their aid wrapped in scriptures. He has fashioned himself as heir apparent to his father, but there are several kinks in that plan. For one thing, Franklin Graham has made a practice of being actively anti-LGBTQ+, and he’s made downright horrible statements about Muslims.

The Rev. Billy Graham, Franklin’s better-known father who died in 2018, leaned Republican but mostly stayed apolitical in public because, as he said, Jesus didn’t belong to a political party. The senior Graham was definitely an evangelical and believed all waters flowed from Jesus, but he also said:

The word politics has a wider meaning than merely a political party or party platform.

Son Franklin’s slavish devotion to Trump has caused rifts in his own family and in parts of the empire built on the senior Graham’s work. More than a year ago during Impeachment I, in fact, Christianity Today, a publication founded by Billy Graham, called for Trump’s removal from office (as they’d earlier decried then-Pres. Bill Clinton):

We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people. None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.

Franklin fired back that he knew good Christian Republicans in office who, if they agreed with Christianity Today’s characterization of Trump’s failings, “would have joined with the Democrats to impeach him.”

That is Logical Fallacy, Circular Reasoning edition.

His prayer that opened the 2020 Republican National Convention moved thousands to sign a petition to remove him as head of Samaritan’s Purse.

But perhaps the most stunning recent leap from scriptural leadership is this: In Franklin Graham’s analogy, if those 10 Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment are Judas, then that makes Trump…Jesus.

Hey! I don’t create the memes. I just share them.

Let’s just leave that right there.

Franklin, whose reported net worth hovers around $10 million, was an early supporter of Trump, and has insisted that Trump is “a work in progress” and that at the very least this work-in-progress has kept us safe from “secularism,” which for evangelicals is an enemy every bit as threatening as “socialism” is for, well, the secular crowd, the same group Franklin Graham fears. Franklin has also said as recently as December that Trump will go down in history as “one of the greatest presidents.”

These are the kind of statements that give evangelicals — and their hard-kernel cousins, the fundamentalists — a bad name. This particular sect of Christianity has more than its share of well-coiffed men anxious for relevancy who can always be counted on to lean into a microphone and spout nonsense. There is no logic. There is no scriptural backing. There is no acknowledgement of reality, but there are cameras and microphones recording every word and so Hey, Mom! I made the papers!

Frankly, when Pat Robertson — purveyor of some of the most outlandish and hateful comments known to God — tells you that Trump is living in an alternate reality, maybe you’d best listen.

All of that to say this: Republicans? If Franklin Graham is against you, all will be for you.* You did the right thing.

And Franklin? Baby Jesus is crying.

Selah.

*That’s a paraphrase of Rom. 8:31, and you can look it up here.