During an appearance on CNN this Tuesday, the granddaughter of iconic preacher the Rev. Bill Graham and niece of modern evangelical firebrand Franklin Graham said that her uncle’s support for President Trump is misguided, adding that Trump has not shown himself to be a “Christian” as some of his most vocal supporters believe.
“I think my uncle is an incredible,” Jerushah Armfield told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “He has an incredible humanitarian ministry that’s been on the front lines often before a lot of ministries have been there.”
“I think he probably needs to stick to doing that,” she continued. “I think he believes he’s speaking to a larger audience than he is. I think the audience he was once speaking to is starting to migrate to a little more progressive open mindedness.”
Armfield spoke about a trend among a segment of American evangelicals who seem to sacrifice their moral principles when it comes to their preferred political candidates, namely Donald Trump and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. She also noted how the term “evangelical” was originally meant to distinguish believers from fundamentalists, but now has “started to really represent, actually, a branch of Christians that seemed to be a little more conservative and a little bit more hypocritical, a little bit more willing to compromise on the personal morals of a candidate in lieu of what politically they could gain for their party.”
Armfield also dismissed the whole notion of a “war on Christmas.”
“I haven’t seen ‘Merry Christmas’ really be attacked,” she said. “I‘ve been told ‘Merry Christmas’ by all sorts of walks of lives and all sorts of cultures just this year.”
According to Armfield, President Trump has not shown himself to be a Christian.
“My Jesus that I follow was really somebody who fought for the outliers, and I think that Trump has actually done the opposite in kind of ostracizing them,” she said.
This isn’t the first time Armfield has criticized her famous family. Speaking to The Washington Post in January, Armfield said that Franklin Graham’s assertion that Trump is an ambassador for Jesus “diminishes not only my Jesus but all he stood for and came to Earth to fight against.”
Watch the CNN segment below:
Rev. Billy Graham's granddaughter Jerushah Armfield says the term "evangelical" is outdated and even "hypocritical," adding that the term seemed to "represent a willing to compromise on the personal morals of a candidate" https://t.co/j50mb513dd
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) December 27, 2017
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