Franklin Graham is on a crusade, but not exactly like the ones his famed evangelist father led.
Billy Graham, now 97, crisscrossed the globe for decades, preaching electrifying sermons in stadiums, prompting attendees who were spiritually moved to pledge their lives to Jesus.
Now his eldest son, 63, is traveling to each of the nation's 50 state capitols rallying already born-again Christians to pray, vote and elect representatives who will promote "biblical values" in the public sphere.
Graham will be in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, speaking at noon on the Capitol's steps.
His Decision America tour is not political or partisan, he says. The preacher is not working for either Republicans — he has resigned his membership — or Democrats, and he won't be endorsing any candidate.
It's more a religious call to arms.
"Without God," Graham says in a recorded message on the tour's website, "there is no hope."
Since taking over Samaritan's Purse in 1978, Graham has built the group into a nonprofit juggernaut of disaster relief and international development, one of the nation's 50 largest charities. And as the staff and thousands of volunteers serve humanitarian needs, they also share their faith.
Early last year, Graham and colleagues at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association came up with the idea for the Decision tour, says Steve Rhoads, vice president of the organization, after witnessing a decline in overtly Christian participation in the political arena — and not just at the national level, but also in states and neighborhoods, school boards and city councils.
"When things get dark, that's when the church needs to pray and seek God as never before," Rhoads says. "We need to stand up for what we know to be right."
Just days before the Utah tour stop, he insists "there's been a movement in this country to marginalize and quiet Christians."
"Being a Christian in this country and speaking up for Jesus winds up being a more precarious position than it used to be," Rhoads says. "We need to rediscover our obligation to speak up, to engage in genuine biblical activism. We want to do it in a kind, generous, and polite way, but shouldn't be giving any ground."
On that, Graham is clear.
When Graham calls "homosexuality" a sin, Rhodes says, "it's just like saying adultery is a sin or abuse is a sin. It doesn't help to redefine terms of the Bible."
Not all Christians, however, interpret their sacred scriptures in the same way, especially on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, the sanctity of life and helping the poor. And non-Christians are completely left out — or worse.
Graham "calls Islam a dead religion. He mocks LGBT rights. Raises funds for 'persecuted Christians' in the U.S. like bakers who won't sell cakes to same-sex couples," writes Cathy Lynn Grossman in a recent Religion News Services profile of the evangelist. "[He] boycotts businesses that use happy gay couples in their advertising, condemns 21st-century secularism as the godless successor to Cold War communism."
The younger Graham "arrived loudly on the U.S. political scene at George W. Bush's 2001 inauguration when he prayed 'in Jesus' name,' thereby excluding non-Christians at the national civic event," Grossman writes. "It was distinctly different than Billy Graham's prayers to 'the Lord' at decades of inaugurations and national memorials."
Within a few years, Billy, she writes had "retreated to his mountain cabin, a senior statesman of American Christianity who claimed he learned his lessons decades ago to stay out of public politics."
The Decision tour has attracted large audiences so far, and Utah organizers expect the same level of enthusiasm here.
"We need to define who we are as a nation spiritually," says the Rev. Gregory Johnson, president of Standing Together, a consortium of the Beehive State's evangelical churches, "and get back to foundational beliefs, which seem not to be seen in national discussions, politics or in the news."
Leaders and members from more than 70 evangelical churches have committed to attend the rally, with another 60 from the Southern Baptist Convention promoting it in their congregations, he says. "It could be the largest buy-in of any [evangelical] event we've ever hosted in the state."
This is Franklin Graham's first time in Utah, Johnson says, but the Christian speaker— and his famous father — met with former presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, urging fellow evangelicals not to eschew Romney because of his Mormonism.
"Religion alone should not be a reason not to vote for the LDS candidate," Johnson recalls the father and son telling their supporters. "Mitt is closer to our values than Barack Obama was."
Johnson feels confident about how Graham's message will be received.
"I don't think there's a Latter-day Saint in Utah that couldn't resonate with the heart of it," the evangelical says. "We all have strong, similar concerns about the direction of the country."
All such like-minded biblical believers, he says, are looking for "a fresh wind over our land."
pstack@sltrib.com
Twitter: @religiongal