No Kings, Yet, Franklin Has One---larger print to read
Stephen Hanson
*Sorry, making this one larger to read:
A Country Pastor
No Kings, Yet, Franklin Has One
By A Country Pastor
*(I have followed this guy's sermons/writings, now for a while. I felt that this one today was very relevant.)
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On this No Kings Day, I find myself reflecting on a voice many still trust, Franklin Graham, using the name of God to elevate a man, Donald Trump, to a place no human belongs. When a preacher says a political leader has been “raised up by God” and calls for loyalty to that leader’s movement, something sacred has been crossed. Faith has been shifted from trust in God to trust in power, and that is a line Scripture has always warned us not to cross.
I’m writing this as a pastor in a rural small town, where I know people who trust these words deeply, where I see firsthand the pull of strong leadership and the comfort that comes from believing someone is in control, and I also see how easily that trust can drift, slowly and almost unnoticed, from God to someone we can see, someone who promises strength, certainty, and victory.
Today, across the country, people are gathering in what are being called No Kings events, and while these are civic gatherings and not religious services, they still offer something meaningful for people of faith because they create space for us to live out the kind of love Jesus taught, a love that serves, includes, and lifts others up, and that way of love stands in sharp contrast to the pursuit of power, loyalty, and control that we are seeing elevated by voices like Franklin Graham and Donald Trump.
Just this week, speaking at CPAC, Graham called on conservatives to unite ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to elect candidates aligned with Trump’s values, saying that while Trump himself will not be on the ballot, “his policies are,” and adding, “We’ll only have one chance at this. We’ll never get another president like Donald Trump. Never,” and as the leader of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, his words carry spiritual weight, which makes their direction all the more significant.
And in that same week, we watched another moment unfold as MAGA religious Speaker Mike Johnson publicly honored Trump, offering praise and recognition in a way that felt familiar, echoing scenes from Scripture and history where leaders were surrounded by those who brought gifts and bowed low before them, and moments like that reveal how easily admiration becomes elevation and how quickly respect begins to look like devotion.
And this is where the contradiction becomes impossible to ignore, because Franklin hides behind a ministry that proclaims God’s love for the whole world, yet now speaks in a way that narrows hope to a single political path, and a preacher entrusted with pointing people toward God is now pointing them toward a man’s policies as if they are the path forward.
When a man claiming to speak for God as the world’s pastor points people to a politician as the way forward, he has stopped pointing to Jesus.
And it goes even deeper, because we are living in a time of global tension, conflict, and war, where nations posture, threaten, and push for dominance, and in that kind of world, when a leader begins to act as if everyone should align and as if loyalty should extend beyond borders, it takes on the language of control, and when a leader suggests that everyone loves him, or that they should, it reflects a desire to rule, and when a religious voice blesses that, it does not reflect Jesus but echoes the very temptation Jesus rejected.
So let’s pause and be honest about what we say so often and what it really means, because God so loved the world, and that line from John 3:16 is not soft, not narrow, not national, and not partisan, but radical, because God so loved the world, not a nation, not a party, not a movement, but the world, all of us, everywhere, even now and even here.
That is where Christian nationalism gets it wrong, because it turns the Gospel into something smaller, drawing lines where God erased them and framing faith in terms of winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, power and control, until it begins to look less like Jesus and more like the kingdoms of this world.
There’s a strange irony in all of this when you think about shoes. Franklin Graham has built a global ministry around shoeboxes, sending gifts to children around the world as a sign of care and connection, and at the same time, we see Donald Trump handing out shoes that feel oversized, flashy, and made for show. And somewhere in the middle of that is the quiet call of Jesus, who never handed out symbols of status but invited people to walk a different path. Not bigger shoes. Not louder shoes. Just a faithful walk. Because following Jesus was never about what we wear or what we’re given, it was about how we walk, and whether our steps actually reflect love, humility, and care for others. It’s hard not to notice the contrast between a faith that is meant to carry people forward in love and a culture that keeps trying to dress it up into something else.
God’s love does not work that way, because it reaches across borders, across enemies, across every nation, every people, and every side of every war, reaching the ones we agree with and the ones we don’t, the ones we call allies and the ones we call enemies, extending beyond every flag, every election, and every claim of power, and that kind of love cannot be controlled and cannot be claimed by any leader.
Scripture has already shown us this pattern in 1 Samuel 8, where the people asked for a king so they could feel secure and be like other nations, placing their trust in something visible and powerful, and God allowed it while warning them what it would cost, their freedom, their identity, and their relationship with God as their true King, and that story remains a mirror for us today.
Because when love is replaced with loyalty and faith is used to secure power instead of serve people, we step away from the way of Jesus and toward something else entirely, and Jesus never called people to rally around Caesar or give allegiance to empire, but instead called people to love, to serve, to lay down power, and to live in a different kind of kingdom, and when offered the kingdoms of the world in Matthew 4, Jesus refused them, and that refusal tells us everything.
And this is why No Kings Day matters, because it brings us back to a simple truth that no leader, no matter how strong or celebrated, stands in the place of God, and the moment we begin to treat any human authority as carrying that kind of weight, we begin to lose sight of the Gospel, and as it is written in Acts 5:29, we are called to obey God rather than men.
Faith is about following a Savior who turned away from power and chose the path of suffering love, and that is the difference and that is the line.
So today, on this No Kings Day, I choose to remember that God so loved the world, not a nation, not a party, not a movement, but the world, all of us, everywhere, and if we are really trying to follow God, then our lives should reflect that kind of love in how we show up, how we speak, and how we stand alongside others.
There are ways to take part in that today, whether you show up in person and stand alongside others in your community, or support in smaller ways by driving by, waving, honking, or holding a sign from your car as encouragement, or by calling your representatives and reminding them that leadership is meant to serve people and not power, and if you want to find a gathering near you, you can look up local events through organizers and community groups in your area.
No kings. Just God. And a way of living that still looks like love, even here.
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