On Friday, Evangelical pastor Franklin Graham, spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump, stated that the U.S. leader is just a man, clarifying that he is not God, not Jesus Christ, not the savior of the world.
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Currently, Graham is in Madrid, where he will be the main guest of the Festival of Hope, a massive gathering of evangelical worshippers that has generated controversy due to the mix of religious praise with ultraconservative political stances and criticisms of the rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community.
Graham’s image appears on posters, buses, and billboards throughout the Spanish capital. The preacher maintains that his goal is not to make evangelical disciples, but to share with the people of Spain how they can have a personal relationship with God.
Regarding the timing of his event coinciding with Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit to Madrid, Graham maintains that it is simply a coincidence. “People in Europe and Spain want to know what God has to say. They don’t care so much about what the church has to say, but rather what God has to say,” he stated.
On social issues, Graham defended his traditional view of marriage and sexuality. “Sex is not love,” he affirmed, adding, “God made the sexual relationship for a man and a woman in a marital relationship.”
Although he assured that “the LGBTQ+ community is absolutely welcome” at his events, he maintained that “I would be doing them a great disservice if I didn’t tell them the truth and what God has to say.”
Regarding his relationship with Trump, Graham clarified that he does not interfere in government policy decisions. “When I am invited to be with him at the White House, I want to share with him the truth of God’s word,” he explained.
When asked if Trump sees himself as “the savior of the United States,” the pastor avoided answering directly: “That’s a difficult question. I haven’t had that conversation with him, so I don’t know.”
Graham defended Trump’s actions in the Middle East, and although he did not explicitly define himself as a Christian Zionist, he justified the alliance between evangelicalism and Judaism from a biblical perspective: “The Bible is very clear that God gave the land of Canaan, or present-day Israel, to the Jews.”
However, he clarified that “the Jewish state of today is not a biblical state, it is a secular state,” and therefore considered it necessary to be very careful, because they do not necessarily represent God.
Graham attributed responsibility for the Gazan conflict to Iran, although he acknowledged that what has happened to the Palestinian people is tragic.
