Jerushah Duford, granddaughter of the tardy Reverend Billy Graham, announced Wednesday that she is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Duford’s notice came during a Zoom call hosted by Evangelicals for Harris. According to The Christian Post, she made the polarizing argument that Christians who support former President Donald Trump are somehow turning people away from Christ.
Jerushah Duford, whose mother Virginia “Gigi” Graham Tchividjian is Graham’s eldest daughter, spoke in a recorded video because she was unable to attend the virtual event, which also featured speakers such as former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and “public theologian” Ekemini Uwan, who claimed “whiteness is evil” and that churches should make global reparations to “people of African descent.”
According to reports, 40,000 people attended the event. Harris’ campaign is trying to court evangelical voters despite her liberal views on issues such as abortion and sexuality.
“I was thinking this morning, if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be taking an active role in politics, I would have laughed. But then I had to stop and realize that this is about so much more than politics,” Duford said in her recorded video.
“But then I had to stop and realize that this is about so much more than politics,” she continued. “In 2016, when a man bragged about assaulting women, various leaders in my faith community held this man up as a poster child for godly masculinity and leadership. This broke my heart as, frankly, I have watched over the last eight years how people who are curious about Jesus and his teachings [have] I made a U-turn and turned away from my faith.”
Duford, a licensed professional counselor, pointed to Isaiah 1:30, which says, “For you will be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water,” to describe the former president’s supporters.
“These things happen slowly over time. At first, the people who profess the Lord have found excuses for [Trump’s] “First it was about making excuses for the lack of kindness, then for the name calling. Soon it was about making excuses for assault. Then it was about making excuses for January 6th, and now it’s about making excuses for convicted assault and 34 felonies,” she said.
Duford continued her tirade, saying she was “horrified at how far this turning a blind eye and making excuses will take our country – and, more importantly, our testimony to the world.”
She explained why she decided to vote for Harris.
“Voting for Kamala means so much more to me than just politics. It is a vote against another four years of religious leaders justifying the actions of a man who is destroying the message Jesus sought to spread, and that is why I am politically dynamic,” she said.
Duford concluded her remarks by urging her audience to “pray for our nation’s religious leaders to stand for justice, mercy and humility.” She also urged them to “take the Evangelicals for Harris pledge on our website” and “do service in their neighborhood or community and then come back and share their story with the Evangelicals for Harris campaign.”
Duford has been a vocal critic of former President Trump and has made several negative comments about him. In 2020, she wrote an editorial claiming that Christian support for Trump “insults his legacy.”
In the PieceShe criticized Trump’s positions on public housing, immigration and other issues.
I feel it every time our president talks about how there is no room for public housing in America’s suburbs. Jesus has repeatedly said to defend the needy and show kindness and compassion to those in need. Our president continues to stick with the “us versus them” narrative, yet almost all of our church leaders say nothing.
I feel that tug every time our president or his supporters talk about the wall that is designed to keep out the very people that Scripture says we should welcome. In Trump’s America, refugees are not treated like “locals” as Scripture demands. Instead, families are separated, held in unimaginable conditions, and dismissed as less than.
There is so much wrong with Duford’s little rant. First of all, she is perfectly within her rights to vote for Harris. But the idea that Trump’s supporters are somehow responsible for people turning away from Christianity is absurd on its face. To me, it sounds like the holier-than-thou version of “Orange Man Bad.” It’s an attempt to guilt Christians into supporting their elected politician.
Ironically, leftists regularly criticize rightists for claiming that Christians can only be Republicans, and yet they are more than willing to utilize the same tactics when it suits them.
Also, there is no single election where the candidates are perfect. The idea is that people should vote for the candidate who most aligns with their own values.
It’s also powerful that Duford argues that a vote for Harris is the most Christian thing to do, given her radical stance on abortion and her support for promoting transsexuality in children. The hypocrisy is quite palpable.
Maybe Duford should be advocating for her elected candidate instead of beating up on Christians who disagree with her like a modern-day political Pharisee.
