Forget the Mueller Report – Franklin Graham Prays to Protect Trump from His "Enemies"

Yesterday was the special day of prayer that Franklin Graham and many other conservative Christian pastors held so believers could pray to protect President Donald Trump from “his enemies.” True to his word, Rev. Graham further politicized his religious mission in a four-minute Facebook video thanking his followers for joining him in praying to protect President Trump. His video’s point was, you guessed it, a prayer to protect Trump from his enemies.

Conversation-stoppers are a common but always unethical debate method. We might argue about politics. But for a believer to argue about God, well, that’s something else. Graham’s purpose in giving this “prayer,” which was really a crass political speech, was to stop discussion of President Trump’s presidency or policies, supposedly under God’s mantle. The way Graham did this, although extraordinarily unethical, was nevertheless quite clever.

We all know, of course, that President Trump causes controversy. We all know that he faces opposition and impeachment threats because the Mueller Report documents lots of suspicious behavior. The proper way to defend President Trump would be to point out merits of his policies and to present evidence that he had not done wrong. Graham, it seems, had no tools to accomplish either purpose. So, instead, he submerged his political purpose under what pretended to be a standard Christian prayer. He denied that he was doing anything political: “this isn’t politics; this isn’t endorsement; this is a prayer, praying for our commander in chief, Donald J. Trump. He is the President of the United States and God commands us to do that.” But his prayer was political and it was an endorsement.

A Standard Christian Prayer?

Most of what Rev. Graham prayed about sounded like what many pastors would say if they wanted to pray for the nation’s leaders. He began by referring to a biblical commandment: "Our Heavenly Father, You tell us in your Word, the scripture, the Bible, that we are to pray for those in authority. And that's why we are coming to you today." (Graham presumably referred to 1 Timothy 2:2.)

Painting a thick coat of paint, Graham claimed that God himself called on him to hold a day of prayer for Trump: “The Lord laid it in my heart that we needed to pray for him.” Graham claimed heavenly authority, not political wisdom. Graham prayed further: “we ask that you give him wisdom.” That bit sounds fine; we should all want our leaders to be wise.

Graham continued: “We ask that You would lead and guide the president.” Concluding, Graham said, consistent with evangelical theology, that “Only God can change the human heart.” None of that surprised me. Thousands of pastors of different political and religious perspectives could say the same thing.

But Graham Became Political

But, despite having promised not to be political, Graham quickly sided with Trump’s political priorities: he asked for God to give Trump “Wisdom to deal with the problems we have at the border. Wisdom to deal with the trade issues, our trading partners, other nations.“ Those are not biblical points; they are political controversies. Not everyone agrees that the United States even has a major border problem. Is illegal immigration a serious problem, or is it simply a panicky thing that Fox News and talk radio drummed up? When Graham assumed that there was a big border problem that we need to solve, he was already siding with one contentious political position over another. That is, he assumed that the border is a problem, when many people think that it isn't. That’s not prayer; it’s politics. We should figure out how big a problem we have with the border by reporting, statistics, and evaluation. It is not something that Graham should assume in what he pretends is a nonpolitical prayer. Similarly, plenty of economists, including many Trump administration economists, disagree that trade was a problem until Trump made it into one. The nation should handle the issue by fact-gathering and analysis, not by giving an arrogant political speech impersonating a prayer.

The hot issue in American politics right now is, of course, the Mueller Report, which contains a lot of information that makes the president look bad. In a representative democracy, the way to handle controversy is to discuss things. It is not democracy when we pray to shut down  the debate. And, yet, Graham prayed that “We also ask that you would protect him from his enemies.” The only enemies I know of are those who would like to vote against Trump or to hold him responsible for what they believe to be well-proven misconduct. Should a pastor pray to protect Trump against the consequences of his actions? Dubious. 

And, contrary to his promise to make this a prayer, not a political speech, Graham prayed this: “We ask for your favor on the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Indeed, just to make sure we didn’t miss the point, Graham pointed out that Trump won the election, but “It has been very difficult for his enemies to accept that.”

Enemies? Twice in his four-minute allegedly non-political prayer video, Graham called people who disagree with Trump’s presidency or policies “enemies.” He didn’t call them the loyal opposition. He did not call them people who held different opinions. He didn’t even call them misguided souls. He called them enemies. That is completely political and it is the kind of political talk that no free people should ever listen to.

Let’s think about speech delivery. Graham’s voice took on a reverent tone when he started to pray. He leaned over and folded his hands. He did not speak like a political speaker. He spoke quietly with his eyes closed. Sneaky.

Debate-Stoppers

I began this post by talking about conversation-stoppers – debate-stoppers. People can debate about global warming, trade policy, limits on presidential authority, or Supreme Court appointments. If we work at it, we can even talk reasonably about abortion. None of that interested Graham. He prayed. He claimed that God had instructed him to pray for the president. He called for a special day of prayer, not to debate about the best policies, but to protect President Trump from his “enemies.” Graham prayed to pit Americans against one another, to crush rational dialogue, to imply that Donald Trump’s controversial policies were the only policies that God could endorse.

Magna Carta, British Museum

The Magna Carta referred to the king of England like this: “John, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou,” as if God himself had appointed John to be king. Yet the Magna Carta limited the King's power! 

In the United States, we don’t have kings, and people who disagree with the president, who vote against him, or who present evidence that he has done wrong do not thereby become enemies. Graham’s purpose in giving this prayer – no, let's call it what it is, this obnoxious, divisive political speech masquerading as a prayer – was neither to praise nor obey God, but to defend Trump by condemning his political opponents.

It is always dangerous for political people to pretend that God fights on their side.

See my earlier post about Graham's special day of prayer, in which I show how Graham called on the Divine Right of (Only Republican) Presidents. Also, VP Mike Pence mixed religion and politics.

P.S.: Graham prayed for Trump’s son Barron, but not for daughters Ivanka or Tiffany. Does he have something against women?

P.P.S. An article I wrote a few years ago complained about another kind of debate-stopper, in which conservatives use fake Founding Fathers quotations to support gun rights. The idea is that liberals might argue with the NRA, but who would argue with Thomas Jefferson? But the quotations were not real. (The article is behind a paywall, but your local library can probably find a copy on a database.) Graham’s prayer did something similar: you might argue with a conservative economist, but who would argue with God? So Graham pretended that he was speaking for God.