The granddaughter of the late evangelical Christian leader Billy Graham is using her platform to warn fellow Christians about Trump, saying that support for the president spits on her grandfather’s legacy.
Jerushah Duford wrote an op-ed for USA Today, where she called out evangelical leaders for failing the nation.
“I have spent my entire life in the church, with every big decision guided by my faith. But now I feel homeless. Like so many others, I feel disoriented as I watch the church I have always served turn its eyes away from everything it teaches. I hear from Christian women on a daily basis who all describe the same thing: a tug at their spirit,” she began in her piece.
The tug, she says, is what makes women feel uncomfortable voting at the polls because they are having to choose the “lesser of two evils”.
“Most of these women walked into a voting booth in 2016 believing they were choosing between two difficult options. They held their breath, closed their eyes and cast a vote for Donald Trump, whom many of us then believed to be “the lesser of two evils,” all the while feeling that tug,” she wrote.
Now, she wants evangelical women to stop criticizing Trump in hushed tones and to raise their voices against him.
“The God we serve empowers us as women to represent Him before our churches. We represent God before we represented any political party or leader. When we fail to remember this, we are minimizing the role He created for us to fill. Jesus loved women; He served women; He valued women. We need to give ourselves permission to stand up to do the same.”
Duford also criticized the church for their lack of action and said they need to stop supporting Trump if they want to gain any credibility again. She believes the modern church honors Trump before God.
“Jesus said repeatedly to defend the poor and show kindness and compassion to those in need. Our president continues to perpetuate an us-versus-them narrative, yet almost all of our church leaders say nothing,”
“It seems that the only evangelical leaders to speak up praised the president, with no mention of his behavior that is antithetical to the Jesus we serve. The entire world has watched the term ‘evangelical’ become synonymous with hypocrisy and disingenuousness,” she continued.
Additionally, she said the support of Trump was an insult to Billy Graham’s legacy.
“Trump has gone so far as to brag about his plans, accomplishments and unholy actions toward the marginalized communities I saw my grandfather love and serve. I now see, through the silence of church leaders, that these communities are no longer valued by individuals claiming to uphold the values my grandfather taught.”
You can read her entire op-ed here.