(SF Gate) – Ten weeks before the election and four months before then-President Donald Trump summoned his supporters to Washington and called on them to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to the U.S. Capitol, where they staged a brutal and chaotic insurrection, one of his staunchest allies sat for an interview, the Capitol visible behind him.
There was no sign yet of the fury that would soon overtake its dome, but evangelical leader Franklin Graham painted a harrowing picture of a battle on the horizon. What would happen, the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody asked, if Trump lost? Graham’s reply stated plainly the stakes as he saw them.
“I’m just asking that God would spare this country for another four years to give us a little bit more time to do the work before the storm hits,” he said. “I believe the storm is coming. You’re going to see Christians attacked; you’re going to see churches close; you’re going to see a real hatred expressed toward people of faith.
That’s coming.” Graham said of Trump: “God has put him in this position” to defend “Western civilization as we have known it.” The Democrats, by contrast, were “opposed to faith.” While Trump may have incited the riot at the Capitol that led to his second impeachment, many of his followers already had all the encouragement they needed: They believed God wanted them to do this. READ MORE
