Franklin Graham turned to social media not once but twice recently to urge Christians to vote Republican in in the midterm elections.
The president of Samaritan’s Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association posted on Facebook and X twice with variations on the same message.
On Oct. 21, he posted:
Do you know who to vote for in the midterms? Let me give you some help, but you decide. The Democratic Party wants open borders, while the Republican Party wants secure borders. The Democratic Party wants noncitizens to be able to vote; the Republican Party supports requiring voter ID. The Democratic Party wants to give taxpayer-funded benefits like health care to noncitizens; the Republican Party says no to that. And there are a hundred more issues. The choice is yours — but look prayerfully at what both parties stand for.
Then two days later, on Oct. 23, he posted a variation on the same theme:
If you’re still confused about who to vote for in the midterms, here’s something to think about. The Democrat Party largely supports puberty blockers, gender transitioning, and what they call “gender-affirming care.” The Republican Party supports the fact of two genders—biological male and biological female—as God created us. Period. You need to decide who you want running this country. You choose. Pray for our nation, and, by all means, VOTE.
Graham has been an outspoken ally of President Donald Trump. Despite raising money to provide humanitarian relief worldwide through Samaritan’s Purse and despite leading his father’s ministry focused on evangelism, Graham has become one of the most outspoken political partisans of the evangelical community.
For this, he is frequently skewered online by those who accuse him of hypocrisy and lying for not mentioning the moral failings of the Trump administration and its policies.
For example, Murry Evans, a retired university and seminary leader, posted on Facebook: “Franklin Graham, please don’t lecture me about Christian values or who I should vote for.”
He added: “All I have to do is look at Donald Trump, his character, his conduct, his treatment of other human beings, and the people he surrounds himself with. Then I look at Franklin Graham, a man who presents himself as a Christian leader while continuing to defend and promote this president. That tells me just about everything I need to know about Franklin Graham.”
Graham “has every right to his political opinions. But he doesn’t get to dress partisan politics up as the will of God and expect the rest of us to accept it,” Evans said. “I find his continued defense of Donald Trump morally indefensible. In my opinion, Graham has become a political charlatan, and I see far more of the behavior of a wealthy political grifter than the humility and compassion I associate with Jesus Christ.”
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