Franklin Graham

William Franklin Graham III (b. 1952) is the eldest son of Billy Graham and has led both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and Samaritan's Purse (an evangelical humanitarian organization) through the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. The contrast between father and son is the defining story of the evangelical establishment's political transformation: Billy Graham (1918–2018) spent his later decades explicitly regretting the degree to which he had allowed himself to become a partisan political figure — particularly his friendship with Richard Nixon, which he later described as a betrayal of his calling. In his final decades, he deliberately cultivated relationships with both parties and avoided partisan endorsements. His 1994 statement that 'I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human rights and social justice' signaled a deliberately broader political vision. Franklin Graham abandoned this posture entirely: 1. Obama-era radicalization: In a 2011 ABC interview, Franklin Graham said the question of Obama's birth certificate 'looks like he could answer pretty quickly' and questioned Obama's faith; the White House called the remarks 'preposterous.' In 2010 he had told CNN that Obama 'was born a Muslim' because 'the seed of Muslim is passed through the father,' though he added that he considered Obama a Christian today; in 2012 Graham said he regretted comments that 'cast any doubt on the personal faith of our president.' 2. Anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric: Graham has called Islam 'a very evil and wicked religion,' has said gay people can go to heaven only if they repent. He organized a Response prayer rally campaign across all 50 state capitals in 2016 — framed as prayer but functioning as evangelical voter mobilization. 3. Trump endorsement and defense: Graham was among the first major evangelical leaders to support Trump in 2016 and among the most consistent Trump defenders. He defended Trump after the Access Hollywood tape, after Stormy Daniels's accounts, and after the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, when he called the rioters 'thugs' but likened the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to Judas. 4. Decision America Tour (2016): Graham led a bus tour across all 50 states, holding prayer rallies that were explicitly pitched as civic engagement but functioned as evangelical political mobilization for Republican candidates. 5. International LGBTQ advocacy: Through Samaritan's Purse, Graham has worked in countries with active anti-LGBTQ legislation and has made statements supportive of anti-gay laws in Russia and elsewhere. Graham's institutional significance: he commands Billy Graham's entire legacy infrastructure — the BGEA's mailing lists, donor networks, and moral authority among older evangelical audiences. His use of that infrastructure for explicit partisan Christian nationalism represents one of the clearest institutional conversions in the evangelical establishment's rightward shift.

Themes this entry appears in

• Christian Nationalism
• Anti-LGBTQ
• Political Strategy
• Anti-Democratic

Connections from Franklin Graham

• influenced → Billy Graham (2001) — Franklin Graham inherited leadership of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (2001) and Samaritan's Purse (from 1979) and used Billy Graham's institutional legacy — his donor networks, moral authority, and evangelical credibility — as the platform for explicit Christian nationalism and Trump endorsement; Du Mez contrasts this with Billy Graham's late-career regret over partisanship.
• influenced → 2016 Election: The Machine Delivers (2016) — Franklin Graham's 'Decision America Tour' in 2016 — 50 state capital prayer rallies ostensibly nonpartisan — functioned as a voter mobilization infrastructure that primed evangelical audiences for Trump's candidacy. Graham said he was not endorsing any candidate, but after the election credited God's intervention for Trump's win, and used his inherited platform of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (with its list of millions of evangelical households) to reach audiences that the Republican Party's own ground operation could not. Graham's framing — that America was in moral freefall and needed a leader who would fight for Christian values — mapped directly onto Trump's campaign message.
• influenced → Trump Evangelical Advisory Board (2016) (2016) — Franklin Graham took part in the June 21, 2016 New York meeting at which Trump's campaign announced its Evangelical Executive Advisory Board, though he was not named to the board; his presence lent the Graham name to Trump's evangelical outreach. His Decision America Tour (2016), framed as prayer and described by critics as political mobilization across all 50 states, was timed with the election cycle and amplified evangelical support for Republican candidates including Trump.

Sources

• Graham said 'seed of Islam' passes through father of Obama — PolitiFact (2010)
• Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation — Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020), pp. 260–280
• Franklin Graham's Troubling Transformation — The Atlantic (2018)
• Franklin Graham Is the Platonic Ideal of a Trump Evangelical — New York Times (2020)