Jerushah Duford, the granddaughter of the late Rev. Billy Graham, announced Wednesday that she is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Duford’s announcement came during an “Evangelicals for Harris” Zoom call. She made the divisive argument that Christians who support former President Donald Trump are somehow driving people away from Christ, according to The Christian Post.
Jerushah Duford, whose mother Virginia “Gigi” Graham Tchividjian is Graham’s oldest daughter, spoke in a recorded video because she was unable to attend the virtual event, which also included speakers such as former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and “public theologian” Ekemini Uwan, who has claimed “whiteness is wicked” and that churches should pay global reparations to “people of African descent.”
The event reportedly reached 40,000 people as the Harris campaign attempts to court Evangelical voters despite her liberal views on issues such as abortion and sexuality.
“I was thinking this morning that if you told me 10 years ago that I would be taking an active role in politics, I’d have laughed. But then I had to stop and realize this is so much more than politics,” Duford said in her recorded video.
“But then I had to stop and realize this is so much more than politics,” she continued. “In 2016, when a man bragged about assaulting women, various leaders of my faith then propped up this man as a poster boy for godly manhood and leadership. This broke my heart as I have watched — quite frankly, for the last eight years — people who were curious about Jesus and His teachings [have] done a 180 and walked in the other direction from my faith.”
Duford, a licensed professional counselor, referred to Isaiah 1:30, which says, “For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water” to describe those who support the former president.
“These things happen slowly over time. First, people professing the Lord made excuses for [Trump’s] lack of kindness, then for the name-calling. Soon it was making excuses for assault. Then it became making excuses for January 6, and now making excuses for convicted assault and 34 felonies,” she said.
Duford continued on her tirade, saying she is “terrified to think of how far this turning our head the other way and making excuses will take our country – but more importantly, our witness to the world.”
She explained why she is choosing to vote for Harris.
“Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies. 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,” she said.
Duford closed her remarks by admonishing her listeners to “pray for the faith leaders in our country to take a stand for justice, mercy and humility.” She also urged them to “take the Evangelicals for Harris pledge on our website” and to “go perform actions of service in your neighborhood or community, and then come back and share your story with the Evangelicals for Harris campaign.”
Duford has been a vocal critic of former President Trump, having made multiple negative comments about him. In 2020, she penned an op-ed claiming that Christian support for Trump “insults his legacy.”
In the piece, she criticized Trump’s positions on public housing, immigration, and other issues.
I feel it every time our president talks about government housing having no place in America’s suburbs. Jesus said repeatedly to defend the poor and show kindness and compassion to those in need. Our president continues to perpetuate an us-versus-them narrative, yet almost all of our church leaders say nothing.
I feel this tug every time our president or his followers speak about the wall, designed to keep out the very people Scripture tells us to welcome. In Trump’s America, refugees are not treated as “native born,” as Scripture encourages. Instead, families are separated, held in inconceivable conditions and cast aside as less than.
There is so much wrong with Duford’s little diatribe. For starters, if she wants to vote for Harris, that’s her prerogative. But the notion that Trump supporters are somehow responsible for pushing people away from Christianity is absurd on its face. This sounds to me like the “holier-than-thou” version of “Orange Man Bad.” It’s an effort to guilt Christians into supporting her chosen politician.
What is ironic is that folks on the left routinely criticize folks on the right who claim Christians can only be Republicans. Yet, they are more than willing to use the same tactic when it suits them.
Moreover, there isn’t a single election in which the candidates are perfect. The idea is that folks should vote for the candidate who lines up most with their own values.
It is also rich that Duford argues that voting for Harris is the Christian thing to do given her radical stance on abortion and support of pushing transgenderism among children. The hypocrisy is quite palpable.
Perhaps Duford should instead make the case for her chosen candidate instead of bashing Christians who disagree with her like some modern-day political Pharisee.
