Franklin Graham: Continuing a Legacy

The Early Days / Personal Life

In this edition of Faces of Intrepidity, a sub-series where America Mission™ explores the life of Franklin Graham following in his father’s legacy, while establishing one of his own. An evangelist, missionary and servant of the people, Graham’s agencies have been the face of hope in times of disaster, while he spreads his ministry.

Franklin Graham pauses for a moment while helping hurricane
Helene victims in North Carolina through Samaritan’s Purse.

EARLY LIFE

William Franklin Graham III was born in Asheville, NC in the summer of 1952, barely one year before his father, William “Billy” Franklin Graham Jr., was to become a household name. Growing up in the family’s log cabin and surrounded by his father’s ministry, Franklin was almost certain to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Prior to Franklin’s birth, his father had hosted rivals in Michigan and California, gaining almost instant notoriety. Held in circus-style tents, the revivals garnered immediate attention, most notably from the Hurst family of Newspapers. The instant spotlight found the Graham family facing unprecedented backlash. With Franklin still an infant, his father received a $1 million contract offer from NBC that the new father turned down. Instead, Billy Graham began holding more revivals around the country. As his popularity continued to grow, revivals spread around the world to London, Ethiopia, Africa, Russia and more. The public events, often broadcast and replayed on public television continued for 58 years.

A rebel without a cause

Billy Graham’s ministry grew beyond imagination and resulted in him serving 13 United States presidents. The constant touring by his father, meant Franklin and his siblings, Gigi and Anne, were often alone with their mom. As a result, the family’s safety and security became a major concern. Franklin recounted how the FBI reached out to the family, suggesting additional security, an event he documented in his best-selling book Rebel Without A Cause.

Franklin’s book title speaks to his early rebellious nature. His antics, which included smoking, eventually saw him leaving a private Christian school he attended in New York, finishing at a North Carolina public high school in Black Mountain. The early 1970s found him again in scholastic trouble, getting expelled from the non-denominational LeTourneau College in Texas.

A mission trip changed his course, and he graduated with a AS degree from Montreat-Anderson College in 1974. He obtained his BS degree from Appalachian State University four years later and was ordained in 1982.

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Setting a course for change

In 1973, Franklin Graham went on a mission trip to Asia with Samaritan’s Purse, an organization that would later play a big part in his life. Following a trip to Jerusalem a year later that he credited as an awakening, Franklin would join Samaritan’s Purse again in 1975, traveling with it’s founder Bob Pierce. The two continued to travel, as he outlines in Rebel Without A Cause, highlighting trips and meetings in in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, India, and Nepal.

Four years later, Pierce passed away and Franklin’s involvement within the organization made him the perfect fit to take over as CEO. He immediately set a path to build Samaritan’s Purse in a similar fashion to his father’s organization the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He now works at both organizations.

Franklin grew Samaritan’s Purse from a global outreach to a global company with offices in the European countries of Ireland, German and the UK, and there are additional offices in Japan, Hong Kong and Canada, as well as the company’s headquarters in Boone, N.C. Samaritan’s Purse does charity work and assistance in over 100 countries.

In addition to medical and food assistance around the globe, the organization, under Franklin’s leadership has done relief work in the aftermath of hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Following the devastation in the Appalachian Mountains caused by Hurricane Helene, Samaritan’s Purse partnered with private companies and individuals for rescue and support missions. More than 350 flights were conducted in region, helped organize more than 29,000 volunteers.

In total, the Boone-based group has just 32 full-time staff and more than 83,000 volunteers.

Political connections

Like his father, Franklin Graham is no stranger to the political scene. In the course of his ministry and mission work, Franklin has met with six United States Presidents: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Donald Trump.

US Presidents (from left) George H Bush and Bill Clinton pose with Billy Graham, Franklin Graham
and US President Jimmy Carter outside the Bill Graham Library in Charlotte, NC in 2007.

Franklin was an early supporter of President Donald Trump and remained so even after funding cuts. Samaritan’s Purse was owed $13 million when President Trump halted, then ended, the US-A.I.D program. In an interview with Time, Franklin supported ending the international funding agency even at the cost to his organization. He backed up his statement by saying the government agency’s funding had gotten away from the core mission of providing food and medication.

The support for Trump came despite Franklin leaving the Republican Party over bipartisan support for a bill funding planned parenthood and increased tolerance toward abortion. He told the Washington Post “This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself Independent. I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America.”

Franklin’s support carried through the election, and we went on to give the invocation for President Trump’s 2025 inauguration,

“Mr. President, over the last four years I’m sure there were times when you thought it was pretty dark.
But look at what God has done. We praise him and give him glory.”
. . . “Our father and God… May our hearts be inclined to hear your voice.
We know that America can never be great again if we turn our backs on you.”

Vice President JD Vance (from left), Baron Trump and President Donald J Trump watch on at Franklin
Graham delivers the invocation inside the Capital during Trumps 2025 inauguration.

Leaving the Republican party was not his first descent from political figures. He was distant from President Barack Obama siting the then candidate’s position on same-sex marriage and abortion. Later remarks about Obama’s faith led to Franklin issuing an apology. Religion News reported the apology “I regret any comments I have ever made which may have cast any doubt on the personal faith of our president, Mr. Obama.”

Not the first controversy

Franklin’s remarks and ensuring apology to Obama was not the only controversy he has encountered in his career. Being outspoken on both his Facebook and X accounts and being steadfast in his religious beliefs have drawn their fair share of rebuttals. He has been a constant focus of negative comments and actions from LGBTQ groups, hard line democrats, some republicans and television news commentary.

He also became the focus of multiple newspaper and television reports regarding his salaries at the two organizations which, at one point, was an allocated for $1.2 million, but received $880,000 combined between the two groups. The articles came amid Franklin’s 2015 strong remarks against LGBTQ activities and same-sex marriage laws, as well as condemning Muslim prayer at the Orland airport.

He also caught backlash from tweets regarding the Biden administration’s nomination and later approval of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg “Mayor Buttigieg says he’s a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized.” The remarks were made over a serious of tweets on the now replaced app Twitter. Franklin Graham maintains a strong, and outspoken presence on the site’s replacement X.

Franklin also cut short a UK book tour amid LGBTQ protests and legal action which later went in his favor.

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A best-selling Author

Another area where Franklin followed in his father’s footsteps is as a writer. He is credited with 21 books as of 2023.

In addition to Rebel Without A Cause, Franklin has had two other books hit the New York Times Best Sellers list – The Name and Living Beyond the Limits. His books often share his life experiences, the Christian faith and the work of his organizations and included several children’s books.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is In-my-fathers-eyes.jpg

The future

Franklin Graham has preached at over 325 events in over 55 countries. He has several events planned in 2025 through his Festivals and God Loves You Tours. Events are planned in Germany, UK, and Belgium with a goal to “mobilize the Christian community to gather as many people as possible to hear the message that Jesus Christ is (John 14:6) “the way, the truth and the life.”

His most recent event, in March of 2025, was held in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, his second time there and in the same location where his father spoke in 1960. He told a room full of reporters,

“The world has changed, politics have changed, but the Gospel does not change.
It’s the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

The quote defines the mission both he and his father set forth to spread ministry and mission throughout the world.

Stay tuned for next time’s edition of
Faces of Intrepidity!

We sincerely hope you join us and the many who’ve decided that America is their mission too. If you enjoyed this edition of Faces of Intrepidity, please follow America Mission™ and TheQuestionableGardner on 𝕏. Join our official 𝕏 Community and Telegram for more AM content.

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