Famed Christian organization being forced to fight over leftists’ use of Billy Graham image

The famed Christian organization launched by evangelist Billy Graham is being forced to fight a leftist organization over its allegedly illegal use of Billy Graham’s image.

It’s in a political ad that a far-left organization calling itself Evangelicals for Harris has created, and is pushing to try to persuade voters to support Kamala Harris, with her pro-abortion, pro-transgender, anti-faith agenda.

It is a report from Religion News Servicea that outlines the fight:

The ad begins with a clip of renowned evangelist the Rev. Billy Graham, wearing glasses, a gray suit and tie, leaning in toward a pulpit.

“But you must realize that in the last days, the times will be full of danger,” Graham declares. “Men will become utterly self-centered and greedy for money.”

Suddenly, a clip of former President Donald Trump is spliced in. Standing before a row of American flags at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump says: “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy.”

For the next few seconds, the ad, which has racked up over 30 million views, flips between Graham’s 1988 sermon, contrasting his points with shots of Trump using violent language, claiming to be “the chosen one” and talking about kissing women without their consent.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, while explaining it normally does not comment on disputes like this, did confirm in the report that it has communicated with the leftists promoting Harris’ campaign about the “unauthorized, political use of BGEA’s copyrighted video.”

The report said the Harris fans also confirmed they’d gotten multiple letters from lawyers for the association, including a “cease-and-desist” order.

“It may be worth noting that, in all of his years of ministry and across relationships with 11 U.S. presidents, Billy Graham sought only to encourage them and to offer them the counsel of Christ, as revealed through God’s Word. He never criticized presidents publicly and would undoubtedly refuse to let his sermons be used to do so, regardless of who is involved,” the BGEA statement explained.

The report pointed out that Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, now is head of the organization, and was on social media earlier explaining the apparent violations by the Harris group.

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

He pointed out, “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 policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”

The Harris organization said it was only holding “Trump’s own words up to the light of Scripture, the necessity of repentance, and Biblical warnings against leaders exactly like Trump.”

The Harris group lawyers also claim that they have a First Amendment right to the material as part of their public discussion of Trump.

Promoters of the video also are using the often-repeated Democrat trope that Trump is a threat to democracy, when in fact Joe Biden and Kamala Harris often have used their ability to rewrite federal rules and regulations to violate the Constitution, as evidenced by the many lawsuits over those disputes.

Further, Harris openly has bragged about her plans to walk into homes when she wants to determine whether people are storing their guns properly, and her vice presidential nominee has confirmed he does not believe the First Amendment protects all Americans’ speech. He also wants to gut the Constitution’s outline for the Electoral College in elections.