With apologies to Ulysses Everett McGill, Franklin Graham reminds me of the O Brother Where Art Thou? character, with his determination to have “bona fides.” McGill is an escapee from prison searching for buried treasure while Graham is a political hack and evangelical holy man.
Facing criticism from his own supporters, Graham has made attempts to embellish his evangelical credentials and restore his place as the “paterfamilias” with “bona fides.”
“Bona fides” refers to evidence showing a person’s credentials and legitimacy. Graham, like the entire tribe of MAGA evangelicals, has lost his “bona fides.” As Pete Hogwallop tells Ulysses, “Since we been followin’ your lead, we ain’t got nothing but trouble.”
There are two public exhibits of Graham’s attempt to restore his evangelical credibility. One is a is a personal letter Graham sent to President Trump. Second, is a national television advertisement offering personal salvation to anyone praying the “Sinner’s Prayer.
Focusing on this pair of Graham’s performances demonstrates how he projects a traditional evangelical message of salvation in an ostentatious evangelical posturing.
The result is a Janus-faced performance of politics and faith. The biblical word for Graham’s performance is hypocrisy, a word meaning literally to “wear a mask.” Graham’s two faces are more than hypocrisy. His use of the traditional language of salvation undergirds the diverse manifestations of policies diametrically opposed to evangelical faith. Graham has managed to position himself as a preacher with a passion for the eternal destination and salvation of the president and as an ardent supporter of Trump’s policies of division and demolition.
And his two-faced gaze serves two purposes: distance from Trump however slight and a continued defense of Trump’s salvation and Christian faith.
Dismantling the evangelical prophetic tradition
Borrowing from Cornel West’s powerful critique of the Black prophetic tradition, I suggest the evangelical prophetic tradition has been dismantled. Graham is the head servant in the Trump administration as “Al Sharpton was ‘the head house Negro on the Obama plantation.’”
Graham has given God’s blessing to an imperial system, displayed in Trump’s bombing of motorboats in the war on drugs as well as his bombing of Iran. We are talking about a corporate state, a massive surveillance and national security state. We are dealing with corporate graft on levels never before seen in American history. Trump’s personal wealth has exploded under his watch.
Graham loves being Trump’s servant. He will not say a critical word. He will not oppose a single Trump policy. Graham is the paradigm of the sellout. As West puts it, “It is sad and pathetic. We are living in the age of the sellout.”
In a perverse reversal of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53), Graham is becoming “as one from whom others hide their faces,, despised, and held of no account.” The Janus-face has a short shelf life because people see clearly the hypocrisy.
Not since Thomas Jefferson took his scissors to the Bible, has anyone cut out as much of Jesus. Evangelicals are the anti-Jefferson. While Jefferson scissored out the supernatural from the story of Jesus, he retained Jesus’ moral teachings.
Evangelicals cling to the supernatural and an array of required beliefs but find Jesus’ moral teachings “woke” and liberal. The teachings of Jesus on forgiveness, love of enemies, care of the poor and the sick have been replaced with “an eye for an eye,” revenge, killing of enemies and elimination of empathy.
The Christians who once proclaimed “For God so loved the world” have turned to an authoritarian, vitriolic, destructive rhetoric of division, anarchy, and chaos. Instead of “Jeus loves me,” President Trump exclaims, “I really hate my enemies.”
Evangelicals have forsaken the gospel for a religious demagoguery wed to authoritarianism with a kind of propaganda promoting fear, hatred and bigotry in the pursuit of political power. Evangelicals no longer are concerned with “Shall we gather at the river” but with invitations to the White House for prayer in the gold-gilded Oval Office. MAGA evangelicals are Judas traitors to the prophetic tradition.
The Letter
Graham wrote the president a letter. Five months after receiving Graham’s evangelistic letter, Trump shared an image of it on Truth Social.
Any attempt to get Trump’s attention requires initial flattery. Graham sounds as if he’s writing a letter of recommendation to the Nobel Peace Prize committee.
Graham congratulates Trump on the ceasefire his administration helped negotiate between Israel and Hamas. He quoted Matthew 5:9, saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and told Trump, “that is what you are.”
Graham piled on his personal assurance of Trump’s salvation. He writes, “This week you commented to the media that you might not be heaven bound,” Graham wrote. “Maybe you responded in jest, but it is an important issue to know for certain that your soul is secure and will spend eternity in the presence of God,”
Franklin added traditional evangelical theology. “The only One who can save us from Hell is Jesus Christ. You can’t save yourself; I can’t save myself. Good works, prominence, success — none of these get us to Heaven. The only way to Heaven is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.”
Graham assures Trump of his salvation while also informing him again of the only way to be saved – “through the shed blood of Christ.” Does Graham have a hidden warning for the president?
The television ad
Hello, I’m Franklin Graham. Maybe your heart has been gripped by fear as millions of others have because of this coronavirus pandemic. But I want you to know that God loves you, He made you, and He created you. He knows everything about your life. You don’t need to be afraid. Jesus said, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” If you’ve never invited Jesus Christ into your heart, if you’ve never trusted Him as your Savior, you can pray right now to do that. Just simply pray this prayer, “God, I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sins. I believe Jesus Christ is your Son. And I want to invite Him to come into my heart, into my life. I’m willing to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord. And I pray this in Jesus’ name.” If you’ve prayed that prayer, call this number that’s on the screen, and do it right now. We’ve got someone who will pray with you, talk with you, encourage you. God bless. The number given on the screen is 888-388-2683.”
Which Janu-face of Graham can we trust? His political face promotes fear; his evangelical faith promises freedom from fear. Graham’s politics proclaim: “Be very afraid because the liberals are destroying America.” His preaching says, “Be not afraid.”
Graham calls our propensity for war, peace. The “peace” of Trump is based on threats, bluster, violence: kill or be killed. Graham’s “God talk” establishes the nation as an instrument of peace. He uses “peace” as a means of legitimating the violence Trump calls peace.
Graham usually keeps the two languages separate from one another. He doesn’t show his two faces in the same place at the same time. Graham’s television ad inviting people to faith in Jesus doesn’t contain any right-wing politics about gays or Graham’s endorsement of Trump’s kidnapping of Nicholas Madura, the president of Venezuela. .
Put Graham’s two faces on a split screen Smart TV. On one screen, “the sinner’s prayer.” On the other screen, Graham’s speech at CPAC.
Graham said at CPAC: “We’ll only have one chance at this,” he said. “We’ll never get another president like Donald Trump. Never.”
Graham urged attendees to be a united front against the “Democrat socialist agenda,” which includes abortion and transgender rights policies. He said the agenda was “birthed in Hell” and stands against God’s word.
Graham also praised Trump’s efforts in Iran. He said mainstream media outlets were trying to “plant seeds of doubt” in Trump’s political base by reporting that his own base is unhappy with the military operations there.
Stretching his biblical hyperbole to a breaking point, Graham compared Trump’s efforts to “protect Israel and the Jewish people from, what I believe, was the possibility of nuclear annihilation by the radical Islamic regime” to Esther, the religious figure who is believed to have saved the Jewish people from persecution in Persia after being raised up by God.
Giving President Trump biblical character analogies is a favorite evangelical hobby. I’ve heard Trump compares to Cyrus, Solomon, David (just weird), Samson, Abraham and Jesus. “I believe God has raised him up for a time such as this, like Queen Esther,” Graham said. Trump in biblical drag is an evangelical perversion.
Behold the two faces of Graham. Is he a biblical preacher or a right-wing politician? Is he preaching the gospel of Jesus or the gospel of Trump? I am not sure, but I mistrust Graham’s campaign to reinterpret the past, rebuild his credibility and reinvent his persona. He will always be the Janus-faced one in my book.
