One of Billy Graham's granddaughters praised Trump at the RNC. Another is asking Christian women not to vote for him.
Cissie Graham Lynch and Jerushah Duford are both granddaughters of the late evangelical leader Billy Graham, but they stand on opposite ends of the Trump spectrum.
Lynch delivered an address at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, where she called President Trump a "fierce advocate" of faith, condemned transgender inclusion, and accused Democrats of trying to make "faith organizations pay for abortion-inducing drugs," apparently referring to birth control, which does not induce abortion.
Duford also made her political stance clear on Tuesday, writing in an op-ed for USA Today that "every big decision" in her life has been "guided by faith," but now she feels "disoriented as I watch the church I have always served turn their eyes away from everything it teaches." Many Christian women have been telling her they also have experienced a "tug at their spirit," felt when they hear Trump say things about "government housing having no place in America's suburbs" or his border wall, "designed to keep out the very people scripture tells us to welcome."
Seeing Trump holding up a Bible in Lafayette Square earlier this summer, minutes after peaceful protesters were tear gassed, should have offended "anyone intimately familiar with the word in it," Duford said. Yet few evangelical leaders have come forward to say Trump's "behavior is antithetical to the Jesus we serve." Because of this, the "entire world has watched the term 'evangelical' become synonymous with hypocrisy and disingenuousness," Duford declared, and "my faith and my church have become a laughing stock."
Duford does not want Christian women to ignore the "disrespect and misogyny" being shown by Trump, and she emphasized that they "represent God before we represent any political party or leader." In November, she said, evangelical women must "embrace your inner tug, and allow it to lead you to use the power of your God-given voice and not allow Trump to lead this country for another four years." Read the entire op-ed at USA Today.
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