Who Is Franklin Graham? Evangelist And Son Of Billy Graham Will Give Bible Reading At Donald Trump’s Inauguration

There will be a familiar family name on the inauguration stage in Washington, D.C., as Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president on Friday afternoon. Following in the footsteps of his father Billy, who offered prayers at four presidential inaugurations, Rev. Franklin Graham will read a passage from the Bible at the invitation of Trump.

It will be the second time that the younger Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelist Association in Charlotte, will read a prayer at an inauguration. In 2001, the 64-year-old took part in the swearing in of George W. Bush, just as his father had been involved in the inaugurations of Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

While Graham didn’t officially endorse Trump during the election campaign, he strongly indicated his support for the Republican candidate and disapproval of Democratic positions. Responding to leaked audio of Trump discussing women in crude terms with entertainment broadcaster Billy Bush, Graham did not shy away from criticizing Trump, but he reserved his harshest condemnation for President Barack Obama and Trump’s election opponent Hillary Clinton.

“The crude comments made by Donald J. Trump more than 11 years ago cannot be defended,” the pastor wrote on Facebook. “But the godless progressive agenda of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton likewise cannot be defended ... The most important issue of this election is the Supreme Court.”

It is clear that Graham would like a conservative-minded justice to replace Antonin Scalia, who died in February last year. In particular, Graham has been a vocal opponent of abortion rights.

“Abortion is a sin and is clearly murder in God’s eyes,” he wrote on his Facebook page after false reports of Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue. “The people who perform it have no conscience.”

Billy Graham, for a long time the country’s most famous and most popular religious figure, had relationships with both Republican and Democratic presidents, including a visit by Obama to his house in 2010. Indeed, he was a registered Democrat, even though he voted for candidates from both parties.

The elder Graham also accepted exceptions for abortion in the case of rape, incest or danger to a woman’s life. If he had his time again, he said, he would not have had such close associations with political leaders.

In contrast, Franklin Graham appeared on Trump’s “Thank You Tour” and said that Trump won because “God showed up.”

Billy Graham has also indicated his views differ from those of his son on the subject of Islam. After Franklin Graham called Islam “very evil and wicked,” Billy replied in 2005 “well, he has [his] views and I have mine. And they are different sometimes.”

It is those comments from Franklin Graham that led Muslim advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic relations (CAIR) to call for Trump to drop Graham from his inauguration, calling him a “notorious Islamophobe.”

But Graham, who also courted controversy when invoking Jesus during his prayer at George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2001, has restated his alliance with Trump in a media blitz ahead of the inauguration.

“It wasn’t Donald Trump that has divided this country,” he said on Fox News Thursday. “This country’s been divided for a long time. And we do need to come together, and we need to pray today more than ever. Our country needs prayer. Our leadership needs prayer. Our Congress needs prayer. Only God can fix the country.”