The Christian political action group “Evangelicals for America” issued an apology this week to evangelist Franklin Graham for using footage of the late evangelist Rev. Billy Graham in political advertisements supporting former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign.
The group, formerly known as “Evangelicals for Harris,” acknowledged that it did not obtain permission from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) before using the clips to promote Harris’s campaign. The organization admitted the use of the clips may have violated copyright laws and also gave the appearance that Graham would have supported Harris’s run for office.
“In the lead up to the 2024 presidential election, Evangelicals for America PAC’s ‘Evangelicals for Harris’ campaign produced several ads using clips of Rev. Billy Graham. We did this believing that our use of the clips of Rev. Graham, although not done with the prior permission of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), would meet the criteria for Fair Use under the US Copyright Act,” the group wrote.
BGEA had confronted “Evangelicals of Harris” for using the footage, claiming it infringed on their copyrights by using clips of Graham for political purposes.
“Our intent was not to infringe on BGEA’s copyright or to give the impression that Rev. Graham would have taken a side in publicly supporting one political candidate over another in an election, so we apologize to BGEA,” the pro-Harris group said in a public statement Tuesday.
As CBN News reported in 2024, the organization used the clips last summer to win over some “on-the-fence” conservative evangelicals in swing states.
“Evangelicals for America” threw their support behind Harris, claiming she had a “pro-family” position and was a “terrific combination” candidate who they believed would “unite our country.”
The group claimed to have helped Joe Biden win his presidency in 2020 under their “Evangelicals for Biden” banner by being “the largest independent evangelical grassroots campaign ever to support a Democratic presidential candidate, which provided strategic support by flipping Trump voters into Biden-Harris voters.”
“We helped Joe Biden win in 2020, and we’re helping Kamala Harris today,” the Rev. Dr. Jim Ball, founder and chair of the group, said at the time in the push against Trump’s campaign.
However, the group’s decision to use a video clip of the late Billy Graham preaching about confession, coupled with a 2015 interview clip of Trump saying he wasn’t sure whether he had ever asked God for forgiveness, was deemed to be a step too far.
Evangelist Franklin Graham had blasted the group for using the image and soundbite.
He wrote on Facebook and X, “The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris. They even developed a political ad trying to use my father Billy Graham’s image to help promote her—or rather to try to make Donald J. Trump look bad. They are trying to mislead people. Maybe they don’t know that my father was a firm supporter of President Trump in 2016. He appreciated the conservative values and policies of President Trump, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed. President Trump isn’t perfect—none of us are—but I believe he has changed over the years. This recent assassination attempt has had a huge impact on him—and I thank God that his life was spared.”
BGEA sent a cease-and-desist letter to the organization last October over the matter. After the election, a dialogue continued between the two organizations over the incident.
“We have continued dialogue with BGEA since the election, and we affirm its position that Rev. Graham’s purpose was always clear: telling people about God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who alone came from heaven to earth to make a way for all mankind to be saved from our sins. He never politicized the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the works he created through BGEA,” “Evangelicals for America” explained in their recent statement.
“Rev. Graham aimed to win a hearing for the Gospel with all people, whether they were Americans who identified as Democrats, Republicans, or something else, or simply people from another country who had no context for American politics,” they added.
“Evangelicals for America” says they have removed all the ads and will not use clips of Billy Graham or BGEA without explicit permission.
“Our hope is that these actions and our commitment not to use Rev. Billy Graham within a partisan electoral context will clarify confusion over the message in our original ads; affirm the value and importance of Christian dialogue about the way we engage in politics, and prioritizes Christians remaining in communion despite differences,” they wrote.
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