Evangelicals for Harris apologizes for using Billy Graham sermons

A political action committee formerly known as “Evangelicals for Harris” apologized for using footage of the late Rev. Billy Graham to attack President Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election.

Evangelicals for Harris, which has since been redubbed Evangelicals for America following former Vice President Kamala Harris’ electoral defeat last fall, issued a statement earlier this week acknowledging they had wrongly politicized the late evangelist’s Gospel message.

“In the lead up to the 2024 presidential election, Evangelicals for America PAC’s ‘Evangelicals for Harris’ campaign produced several ads using clips of Rev. Billy Graham,” the group said. “We did this believing that our use of the clips of Rev. Graham, although not done with the prior permission of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), would meet the criteria for Fair Use under the US Copyright Act.”

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The group went on to suggest that their use of the late evangelist’s decades-old sermons to make political attacks offended the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), where evangelist and Trump supporter Franklin Graham serves as CEO. BGEA sent a cease-and-desist letter to the political action committee last October.

“BGEA wrote to us, concerned that we were infringing its copyright in the video clips of Rev. Graham by using them for political purposes without authorization. Our intent was not to infringe on BGEA’s copyright or to give the impression that Rev. Graham would have taken a side in publicly supporting one political candidate over another in an election, so we apologize to BGEA,” they said.

Evangelicals for America added that they have been communicating with BGEA since Trump’s electoral victory, and acknowledged Billy Graham’s ministry was not intended to be political, but rather to save sinners by sharing Jesus Christ.

“We have continued dialogue with BGEA since the election, and we affirm its position that Rev. Graham’s purpose was always clear: telling people about God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who alone came from heaven to earth to make a way for all mankind to be saved from our sins. He never politicized the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the works he created through BGEA.”

“Rev. Graham aimed to win a hearing for the Gospel with all people, whether they were Americans who identified as Democrats, Republicans, or something else, or simply people from another country who had no context for American politics,” they added.

Expressing appreciation to BGEA for addressing their concerns with them peaceably in accordance with Romans 12:18, Evangelicals for America went on to affirm the group’s “intellectual property rights, including copyright in these videos, and its missional interest in protecting Rev. Graham’s legacy.”

“Accordingly, we have taken down and will not repost our ads that incorporated video clips of Rev. Billy Graham, and Evangelicals for America and its Directors have committed not to use content in electoral advocacy as to which BGEA claims copyright or other legal interests in the future without clear, written permission,” they said.

“Our hope is that these actions and our commitment not to use Rev. Billy Graham within a partisan electoral context will clarify confusion over the message in our original ads; affirm the value and importance of Christian dialogue about the way we engage in politics, and prioritizes Christians remaining in communion despite differences.”

In the weeks leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Evangelicals for Harris spent more than $1 million rolling out an ad campaign in battleground states that used footage of a Billy Graham sermon to suggest Trump exhibits the evil character of men in the last days as recounted in 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

The ad remains on X as of Thursday, despite the group’s claim that the ads have been taken down.

Our newest ad has dropped.

2 Timothy 3:1-5
But you must realize that in the last days the times will be full of danger. Men will become utterly self-centered and greedy for money, full of big words. They will be proud and abusive without any regard for their parents. They will… pic.twitter.com/4NMgvbILFc

— Evangelicals For Harris (@Evangels4Harris) September 26, 2024

Franklin Graham publicly spoke out at the time against the use of his father’s likeness to promote Harris.

“The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris,” Graham tweeted last summer. “They even developed a political ad trying to use my father [Billy Graham’s] image. They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President [Trump] in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”

The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris. They even developed a political ad trying to use my father @BillyGraham’s image. They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and… pic.twitter.com/LZe3SEm9Al

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 14, 2024

Billy Graham’s granddaughter, Jerushah Duford, participated in events with Evangelicals for Harris and claimed during one of their Zoom events last summer that Christian Trump supporters are causing people to turn away from Christianity.

“Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies,” said Duford, who is an LGBTQ-affirming counselor in Greenville, South Carolina. “It’s a vote against another four years of faith leaders justifying the actions of a man who destroys the message Jesus came to spread, and that is why I get involved in politics.”