Source: The Washington Post

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey

For decades, Billy Graham was perhaps America’s most famous religious figure, someone who could draw hundreds of thousands to evangelistic “crusades,” someone picked by president after president to pray at inaugurations. If America had a pastor, Graham was it.

Yet as he aged — he’s now 98 and ailing — members of this evangelical royal family began to form their own views. Now as Graham’s son, Franklin, prepares to participate in the inauguration of Donald Trump, the views among Billy Graham’s descendants reflect tensions that have flared anew with the election over the proper role of Christianity in public life.

File photo: Franklin Graham at Ireland’s Celebration of Hope was held April 2-4, 2008, in Belfast. (Photo courtesy of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)

Franklin Graham, 64, never formally endorsed Trump but used his “Decision America Tours” to mobilize voters. Graham will read a Bible passage at Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, though he says he doesn’t know which one yet.

Graham joined Trump in Alabama during the president-elect’s “Thank You” tour on Dec. 17. “Having Franklin Graham, who was so instrumental, we won so big, with evangelical Christians,” Trump said.

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