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A liberal group is being threatened with a lawsuit for using a video of Christian icon Billy Graham in a pro-Harris/Walz political ad.
The group, Evangelicals for Harris, has released a video featuring a clip of evangelist Billy Graham—with a shorter clip of Donald Trump spliced in.
Be informed, not misled.
The video has been spliced and edited to project something Billy Graham was not saying.
Here's the narrative on the video:
Graham: "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."
Trump: "My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy. I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy."
Graham: "Keep clear of people like that."
In a statement to American Family News, a spokesman with the Billy Graham Evangelical Association explains that in his interaction with 11 presidents of both parties, Rev. Graham sought only to encourage and never to criticize and would object to the use of his sermon in the Evangelicals for Harris ad.
Franklin Graham, Billy's son, told Christianity Today, a publication Billy Graham himself founded many years ago, that the pro-Harris group is "trying to mislead people" by positioning his father's remarks against those of the former Republican president."
CT gives this description of the ad:
The ad begins with a clip of 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, 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.
Who are these people?
Evangelicals for Harris was founded by Jim Ball, a so-called evangelical minister and former head of both the Evangelical Environmental Network and Evangelicals for Biden. Since its launch in August, the group has had over 300,000 people sign up for information about the campaign, according to Ball. Jerushah Duford, Billy Graham’s granddaughter; Bishop Claude Alexander of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Baptist pastor Dwight McKissic are among the group’s signatories. (Alexander is also a CT board member.)
Ball said the “Keep Clear” ad, named after Graham’s admonishment to “keep clear of people like that,” was inspired by a desire to rely on the biblical wisdom of Billy Graham, whom Ball considers a personal hero, and to reintroduce young people to the evangelist.
“We’ve never had a situation where a single individual has threatened democracy and the rule of law like Mr. Trump has,” said Ball. “We’re also hoping to provide a witness to others that love should be at the heart of how we look at politics. … How are we called to love our neighbors in the public square? We think hands down that Kamala Harris is the candidate that everyone should be voting for on that regard.”
Ball is projecting a profile of confusion and deception by using the name "Billy Graham" to promote a far-left, anti-biblical agenda.
That ad is the result of a $1 million ad campaign by Evangelicals for Harris.
Can they legally do that?
In late September and early this month, Evangelicals for Harris, a grassroots campaign of the political action committee Evangelicals for America, said it received multiple letters from lawyers representing the association, including a “cease and desist” letter. An October 2 letter, sent from outside counsel and obtained by Religion News Service, threatened to sue Evangelicals for Harris on the basis of copyright infringement.
The lawyers representing Evangelicals for Harris also released their formal legal response to the threatened lawsuit. Originally sent on September 28, the letter asserts that the ad does not constitute copyright infringement or violate the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s right.
They write that the public discussion of Trump’s moral failings is “essential First Amendment expression” and that the use of Billy Graham’s sermon is protected under the Copyright Act.
“EFH will not be removing the ‘Keep Clear’ advertisement in response to your demand. The advertisement is a transformative, noncommercial use of less than two percent of a widely disseminated video, aimed at a market that BGEA (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) was prohibited from targeting,” the letter says.
Takeaway
Christian apologist Dr. Alex McFarland, who is not affiliated with BGEA, told the American Family Association the whole notion of Evangelicals for Harris is perplexing. "Not only do they not speak for Christians, if they're voting for ungodly things – which that's what Kamala Harris stands for – they're not living as Christians."
McFarland says the group's assertion that Trump is irredeemably crass and self-serving is inaccurate – but more importantly, it's irrelevant.
"I've met Donald Trump. I was on many, many phone calls during his first administration. He's a nice person," McFarland says, "but we shouldn't care [if] he's nice or not. He is a constitutionalist."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. VOTE.