In a social media post last week, evangelist Franklin Graham blasted the Evangelicals for Harris group for using a clip of his late father in an attack ad against former President Donald Trump.
Graham is the son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham and president of Samaritan’s Purse and of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
In the ad, Evangelicals for Harris used a clip from a sermon delivered by Billy Graham. “Have you been to the cross and said, ‘Lord, I have sinned. I’m sorry for my sin. I’m willing to change my way of life’?” Graham says in the clip.
The ad then cuts to a clip of former President Trump in an interview with the FAMiLY Leadership Summit in 2015. The interviewer, Frank Luntz, asks Trump if he had “ever asked God for forgiveness.”
“That’s a tough question. I’m not sure I have,” Trump replies. “I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”
The ad then flashes these words: “Is there any greater denial of Christ…than to say ‘I don’t need his forgiveness?’”
Graham, a longtime supporter of Trump, criticized Evangelicals for Harris for using the clip. “The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris,” he said. “They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham’s image. They are trying to mislead people.”
“Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed,” Graham added.
In the unedited version of the interview, Trump said, “That’s a tough question,” before sharing that he is Presbyterian and that he “loves God and loves [his] church.” He also praised his former pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, for giving “great sermons.”
Luntz asked Trump again, “But have you ever asked God for forgiveness?”
