“I therefore … urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:1-3
Franklin Graham appeared on a TBN special Inauguration Day broadcast with Mike Huckabee on January 20, asking Christians to pray for the new commander in chief and come together as a nation.
Following an inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Graham said President Joe Biden’s speech was “conciliatory,” adding that his call for unity offered “an olive branch” at a volatile time in our nation’s history.
“I just pray that as Christians in this country, that we will stand up and we will pray for this president and try to help him where we can and try to honor God in all that we do and all that we say,” Graham said. “Our goal as Christians is to build up and to strengthen, and we want to build up America, we want to strengthen America. We need to preserve our democracy as best as we can.”
While Graham said he can’t back everything the new president stands for, such as abortion and same-sex marriage, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for unity.
“These are moral issues that of course I could never support, but there may be other areas in his administration that we can support and back him and help him without compromising our moral standard,” he said.
“I would encourage Christians to take a stand for the moral issues that we face as a nation. … We want to be salt, preserving influence in this world that we live in. … And we want to be light.”
Speaking to the Capitol riots the first week of January, Graham condemned the violence and disrespect on display over national television and across social media.
He also gave a word of encouragement to people on both sides of the aisle if national healing is to take place: “We need to move on as a country. … We need to let the past go behind us and move forward.”
Does praying for politics make a difference? Consider these 4 Biblical truths.
Can America be united again? Read these words of wisdom from Billy Graham and Franklin Graham.
