JD Vance visits Billy Graham Library, extols 'great message' of the Gospel
'The Gospel belongs to everybody'
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, visited the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday to pay his respects at the graves of the late evangelist and his wife.
Vance, 40, noted how the Gospel message to which Graham devoted his life cuts across class and racial divides.
Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham, mentioned Vance's visit in an X post, noting how he was on his way to Alaska but wishes he could have been there to join the vice presidential hopeful.
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Vance was accompanied instead by Franklin Graham's children, daughter Cissie Graham Lynch and son Roy Graham, along with Billy Graham's longtime assistant David Bruce, who also serves as executive vice president of the Billy Graham Library.
"We were pleased that Senator [Vance] and his wife Usha could visit [the library] while they were in Charlotte today," Graham tweeted. "He has said that he watched my father preaching the Gospel on television growing up."
Graham also tweeted brief remarks Vance made about what he believes the message of the Billy Graham Library is and how the Gospel has influenced his own life.
"Billy Graham believed the Gospel belonged to everybody: to rich and poor, to black and white, and that was something that really meant a lot to my grandmother," Vance said.
“I think It’s a great testament to Billy, because it’s not about Billy, it’s about Jesus.” —Senator @JDVance at @TheBGLibrary today pic.twitter.com/qXC8DuHlHR
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) September 24, 2024
"I think it's a great testament to Billy because it's really not about Billy," Vance said of the library. "It's about Jesus. It's a great message. It's a message ... again, that the Gospel belongs to everybody. And it's the message that I heard with the person who ultimately made me who I was: my grandmother."
Vance has been outspoken about the critical role his grandmother, Bonnie Blanton Vance (whom he called "Mamaw"), played in his life growing up in Middletown, Ohio, while his mother was struggling with addiction.
"She really just got me," Vance, who rose to fame as the bestselling author of Hillbilly Elegy, told NBC News in a 2017 interview about his grandmother's influence. "She understood when I needed somebody to ride me. She knew when I needed love and comfort. She knew when she needed to just be sympathetic. She was really smart."
The Billy Graham Library is described as "a ministry, prayerfully planned with the intention of communicating the unchanging, life-giving message of Jesus Christ to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year who may never attend a Crusade." The museum, which contains Graham's preserved childhood home, opened in 2007.
Some members of the Graham family have differing views over the 2024 presidential election.
While Franklin Graham has long praised the political stances of former President Donald Trump, Billy Graham's granddaughter and Franklin Graham's niece Jerushah Duford recently suggested during an "Evangelicals for Harris" Zoom call that Trump supporters are causing people to turn away from Christianity. She expressed support for his opponent in the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies," Duford said. "It's a vote against another four years of faith leaders justifying the actions of a man who destroys the message Jesus came to spread, and that is why I get involved in politics."
Franklin Graham, by contrast, has taken Evangelicals for Harris to task for using footage of his father to attack Trump in a way he alleged was deliberately misleading.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
