To understand the insidious nature of Christian nationalism, look no further than Franklin Graham’s appearance at the Republican National Convention last night.
Graham already has demonstrated he knows no shame in endorsing, blessing and lionizing the most corrupt president in American history, yet people continue to send his nonprofits millions of dollars, enriching him as one of our most highly paid partisan preachers.
Mark Wingfield
At the RNC July 18, he appeared after Hulk Hogan and before Donald Trump. He was supposed to pray but gave as much of a speech as he did a prayer. His claim that he was speaking as a “private citizen” was meaningless to separate his public comments from both Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which he leads.
Graham joined the chorus of other evangelical preachers who believe God intentionally spared Trump from an assassin’s bullets last weekend in Pennsylvania: “Last Saturday in Butler, Pa., President Trump had a near-death experience, no question, but God spared his life.”
Graham said he cannot explain why God would spare Trump’s life and “allow another one to be taken,” but he pivoted from that sentence to make an evangelistic appeal to say, “God loves us and wants us to be with him in heaven one day.”
This played like an excerpt from the worst kind of funeral sermons — where the preacher or eulogist just skips right over the pain of death to make sure everyone present in the room is going to heaven.
“This played like an excerpt from the worst kind of funeral sermons.”
As for earthly things, Graham said an experience like this changes people, as it no doubt did Trump, who “rose with his fist raised in strength showing America his unshakable resolve to fight for them in this nation.”
Others not in the Trump Fan Club might see that gesture differently — that the former president put his ego ahead of not only his own safety but the safety of the Secret Service members attempting to shield him. But when you’re already God’s chosen, that must not matter.
Graham said near-death experiences “cause us to examine our lives and to reevaluate our priorities,” yet Trump made no adjustments to his America-first, anti-immigrant isolationist agenda that night. Instead, adoring fans behind him held up signs saying, “Mass Deportations Now.”
Remember, the same Bible that calls us to salvation calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to welcome the stranger among us.
But things got worse than that. Next, Graham started telling flat-out lies.
“For as long as I’ve known President Trump, I’ve found him to be a man of his word,” he declared.
“For as long as I’ve known President Trump, I’ve found him to be a man of his word.”
Apparently Graham hasn’t listened to any of the small-business owners who have been jilted by Trump through the years, hasn’t listened to any of the women who say Trump assaulted them, hasn’t paid attention to the hundreds of documented lies Trump spews between breakfast and dinner each day.
No, it turns out Graham has some other measure in mind: “When he told me and our country in 2016 that he was going to appoint conservative justices, guess what, he did. In 2016, he said he would defend religious liberty and, guess what, he did.”
By “religious liberty,” of course, Graham means the liberty of evangelicals like him, not the liberty of all people.
And then Graham threw out this whopper: “In 2019, I was with him at the United Nations when the first president in the history of this country stood there to advocate for religious liberty worldwide.”
So no other U.S. president in history has advocated for global religious liberty? That is patently false and insulting. It makes Trump out to be a hero he is not. Not only have other presidents advocated for worldwide religious liberty, Trump has not. He doesn’t want religious liberty for Palestinians. He doesn’t want religious liberty for Muslims. He doesn’t want religious liberty for Democrats.
Like Graham, Trump has only shown interest in advocating for religious liberty for his political base. All others be damned.
“Like Graham, Trump has only shown interest in advocating for religious liberty for his political base.”
Graham also hailed Trump’s work to free American pastor Andrew Brunson — a cause célèbres’ among evangelicals — from a Turkish prison. Yes, it’s great that Brunson was released, but he’s one of thousands of political prisoners held in worldwide prisons because of religious convictions.
And then Graham — speaking as a “private citizen” of course — endorsed Trump’s election: “I’m grateful and thankful for what he did as 45th president of the United States and I know that as the 47th president he will keep his word to the American people to make America great once again.”
Extra points for working a political slogan into an introduction to a prayer.
And then there’s the prayer.
Graham asked all the Republican delegates to stand “as we call upon the name of the God of heaven.” Maybe everyone there was Christian, but likely not. Yet the assumption is they are or should be.
Graham thanked God for sparing Trump’s life — “it was you and you alone who saved him” — and mentioned “the others that were injured on Saturday” and “the family who lost their loved one.”
Then he worked up to the big tell: “We say thank you for the provisions you have given to the United States of America. You have blessed this country more than any country in the world. Sadly, as a nation we have forgotten who is responsible for all the freedoms, the liberties and the bounty that we enjoy. It has all come from you.”
The fundamental starting point for Christian nationalism is the belief that America is exceptional in God’s love for our country above others. Has God really blessed America “more than any country in the world”?
Is that why we have more gun-related deaths than most other countries in the world? Is that why we have a stain of racist slavery we cannot wipe away? Is that why we imprison more people per capita than any other nation in the world?
“Amid all this blessing from God, Graham suddenly spared a thought for refugees and asylum seekers.”
Amid all this blessing from God, Graham suddenly spared a thought for refugees and asylum seekers desperately seeking entry to our Promised Land.
“Our nation is in trouble,” he told God. “We’re divided politically, racially, economically with millions of people seeking refuge and hope in our dry and thirsty land. You’re the only one who can fix the complexity of the problems that we face today. We pray for President Trump that you would give him wisdom, strength and a clear vision for the future of this nation and the task that is at hand. Continue to protect him from his enemies.”
See the link there between Trump being the only hope to implement God’s plan for America — which apparently should involve mass deportations, persecution of political enemies and allowing the free flow of guns?
Get ready for the big finish. Graham closed his prayer by saying: “We know that all authority comes from you. You are a great God, and we ask that if it be thy will that you will make America great once again, and we ask that you unite our hearts, bring us together, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
And then this little flourish at the end: “We pray this in the mighty name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.”
After an entire speech and prayer claiming America is uniquely Christian, Graham ends by calling upon “my Lord and Savior.”
As both Graham and Trump demonstrate, the power in the blood behind isn’t just America first, it’s conservative evangelicals first. And, as always, truth be damned.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality. His brand-new book is Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.
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