Franklin Graham shares some lessons from ‘America’s Pastor’

RALEIGH, N.C. — Before the 2016 elections, Billy Graham’s son went to the evangelist’s mountain home, seeking advice before a 50-state tour to pray with Christian voters. In his new book, Through

My Father’s Eyes, Franklin Graham recounts that his father had concerns.

Billy Graham had become known as “America’s Pastor” by advising presidents of both parties, from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush. Would his son, coming into his own as a more partisan evangelical, be taking sides?

“He was concerned because it was a political year and that, ‘Franklin you don’t want this to be seen as political,’” the son said. “And that’s why I went out of my way to make sure that this was a prayer rally. … And I made sure I did not tell anyone how to vote.”

The younger Graham avoided endorsing candidate Donald Trump, but has since become a Trump ally, and writes in the book that he thanks God the Republican was elected.

As the leader of his father’s namesake association and the Samaritan’s Purse charity, Graham has been more in the spotlight since his father’s death in February at age 99.

Graham acknowledges both conservative Christians and a wider audience in his book, which intersperses his views on religion, culture and Trump with quotes from his father and family anecdotes.

“I started by just looking at the things that I have learned from my father that I thought I could pass on to others, that would help them in their lives,” Graham said.

Each chapter starts with a Billy Graham quotation, and there are poignant stories about their relationship, from the father’s admonishment against playing with matches, to his advice to a son committing his life to Jesus at 22.

Others are laugh-out-loud funny, such as when Franklin Graham’s mother, Ruth Graham, spotted a “most ridiculous-looking man” walking down a beach wearing loud shorts, black socks and Hush Puppy shoes: “As he drew closer, she gasped. ‘Oh no, it’s my husband!’”

But Graham, now 65, writes that while Republicans shouldn’t take Christian voters for granted, “The progressives have infiltrated our schools, our government and our nation. Progressivism is nothing more than godless secularism, and it has stormed through the gates of America’s bulwark.”

“Unfortunately this progressive movement is more prevalent right now in the Democratic Party, but it’s also in the Republican Party. And it’s growing. And this is a very dangerous thing,” he said. “I was a Republican and I went independent — I just got sick of all of them and didn’t want to be beholden to any group.”

Eschewing party labels would likely have pleased the father Graham describes as a humble man who wanted to keep the focus on God.

Some have started working to place a statue of him in the Capitol, while others are petitioning for a Billy Graham holiday.

“My father would have said: ‘This is too much Billy Graham.’ He wouldn’t have liked it,” Graham said. “There was discussion at one time about taking his name off the name of the organization. He didn’t like it being called the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He didn’t want people talking about Billy Graham. And this is one of the things in the book that I want to try to get people to understand: My father wanted his life to be about God.”