Franklin Graham does not believe the woman.
In response to the jury verdict awarding E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million from Donald Trump for defaming her by denying he raped her, America’s most famous evangelist stood by his man.
Graham tweeted Jan. 27: “Simply put, Democrats are using the system & changing the law to go after Pres. @realDonaldTrump. They hate this man so much & will try ANYTHING to get to keep him out of office. President Trump is right about the trial when he said, ‘This is not America.’”
“They hate this man so much & will try ANYTHING to get to keep him out of office.”
The son of Billy Graham and the president of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse has been a staunch defender of Trump — despite the many and varied accusations, indictments and jury verdicts against the former president for sexual assault, financial crimes and inciting an insurrection at the Capitol. This despite the fact that his evangelist father famously would not be alone anywhere — even in a restaurant or car — with a woman other than his wife for fear of giving even the appearance of impropriety.
The younger Graham, who has an estimated net worth of $10 million, does not apply “the Billy Graham rule” to Trump.
Through scandal and trials, Graham has been a reliable defender of Trump. Last March he compared prosecuting Trump with abandoning God. He tweeted: “It’s a shameful day for America as former President Donald J. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. The Democrats have weaponized the legal system for their political gain while ignoring the current Administration’s faults and deficiencies. There’s only One who can save this country, and that is God and God alone. Why should He even hear our prayers when we have turned our back on Him? But I’m going to keep praying that God will intervene and save this nation so we will continue to be that beacon of hope for this very dark world.”
In 2019, Graham called for a national day of prayer for Trump. He explained: “President Trump’s enemies continue to try everything to destroy him, his family, and the presidency. In the history of our country, no president has been attacked as he has. I believe the only hope for him, and this nation, is God. This is a critical time for America. We’re on the edge of a precipice. Time is short. We need to pray for God to intervene. We need to ask God to protect, strengthen, encourage, and guide the President.”
Graham’s unflinching support for Trump has put him in hot water with donors and some evangelical never-Trumpers as well as progressives. In 2021, thousands of people signed a petition calling on Graham to be fired from Samaritan’s Purse and BGEV for supporting Trump after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
And just last week a progressive Christian group gathered 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for a boycott of Graham’s upcoming evangelistic crusade along the Texas-Mexico border.
Graham is no stranger to stiff criticism, but he keeps his positions and millions of people support him and his popular Operation Christmas Child effort. Yet the criticism continues.
“It is safe to say that I am deeply shocked by your continuous support of this man. You clearly have made him an idol.”
Graham’s latest defense of Trump drew intense scorn from respondents on X. For example, someone who goes by the handle Florida Native tweeted: “Reverend Graham, I used to have so much respect for you. I gave multiple times a year to Samaritan’s Purse and even had a family member who volunteered at the Billy Graham Library. It is safe to say that I am deeply shocked by your continuous support of this man. You clearly have made him an idol. Otherwise, you would have supported a man who has true conservative policy, a family man, a man who eschews sin and drama, and is a Christian. Even more shocking, you are leading other Christians down a path of destruction.”
In a Jan. 29 column in The New York Times, David French wrote not about Graham but about Southern Baptist influencer Paul Pressler, who has been disgraced with accusations of being a serial sexual abuser of underage boys and young men.
Under the headline “When the Right Ignores Its Sex Scandals,” French explains of Pressler and other public figures who are abusers: “A single person can be a predator, but it takes a village to protect him from exposure and punishment.”
While admitting both the left and the right can be guilty of such enablement, French says a “typical conservative” deals with these problems “by pretending it doesn’t exist.”
He writes: “Shortly after the Pressler settlement was announced, I looked for statements or commentary or articles by the conservative stalwarts who cover left-wing misconduct with such zeal. The silence was deafening. If you mainly receive your information from right-wing sources, the odds are good that you haven’t seen this news at all.”
French adds: “This isn’t the kind of selective ignorance in which news consumers choose or pretend not to know something they are well aware of. Rather, it’s more like a cultivated ignorance, in which news outlets and influencers and their audiences tacitly agree not to share facts that might complicate their partisan narratives. Of course, the dynamic is even worse when stories of conservative abuse and misconduct break in the mainstream media. Conservative partisans can simply cry ‘media bias!’ and rely on their followers to tune it all out. To those followers, a scandal isn’t real until people they trust say it’s real.”
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