[10] His maternal grandfather, Lemuel Nelson Bell, served as a medical missionary in China for over 20 years and co-founded Christianity Today.

[8] Graham was raised in a log home in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, surrounded by a family deeply committed to Christian ministry.

As his father, Billy Graham, gained national recognition, an increasing number of tourists began visiting their home daily.

To ensure greater privacy, the family purchased several acres of land in the mountains outside of Montreat, North Carolina, where they built a log house named Little Piney Cove.

[13][7]: 44 In 1970, Graham attended LeTourneau College in Longview, Texas, and was expelled from the school for keeping a female classmate out past curfew.

[16] Graham gained his first experience in ministry in 1975 when he was invited by Bob Pierce, President of Samaritan’s Purse, to accompany him on an international trip.

[7]: 258 In 1989, Franklin Graham held his first evangelistic event, continuing his father’s preaching to large audiences in stadiums and other venues worldwide.

This meeting was linked to his father, Billy Graham’s, longstanding relationship with Carter dating back to the 1973 Atlanta Crusade and later integrated evangelical outreach activities in Georgia.

[35] As president of Samaritan’s Purse, Franklin Graham has overseen a broad range of humanitarian relief efforts in response to conflicts, natural disasters, and other emergencies around the world.

In 1978, while studying at Appalachian State University, Franklin Graham was approached by surgeons Lowell and Dick Furman from Boone, North Carolina, who proposed establishing an organization to send Christian physicians to missionary hospitals for short-term voluntary service.

Cooke asked Graham if he would help expand the initiative by providing shoeboxes filled with gifts for children affected by the war in Bosnia.

Since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, the organization, through local partners, has been delivering food, water, warm clothing, and medical assistance.

During the organization's work in Ukraine, Franklin Graham visited the teams operating the hospital and offering medical assistance.

[47] In April 2011, Graham told ABC's This Week program that Donald Trump, who had recently declared an interest in the Republican nomination for the 2012 U.S. presidential race, was his preferred candidate.

"[52] The same newspaper noted that the day after Trump's victory, Graham had posted a comment on Facebook in which he wrote, "Did God show up?

"[56][57] In December, when Christianity Today magazine, founded by Graham's father Billy, published an editorial calling Trump "profoundly immoral" and supporting his removal from office, Graham responded by saying his father had voted for Trump and saw him as the "man for this hour in history for our nation" and that the magazine was "representing the elitist liberal wing of evangelicalism.

"[60] In January 2021, Graham compared the ten Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump to Judas Iscariot, suggesting that the Democrats had promised them "thirty pieces of silver".

[61] Graham supported North Carolina Amendment 1, which was passed by a voter referendum on May 8, 2012, prohibiting same-sex marriage and all domestic partnerships.

"[63] In December 2017, several British MPs urged the Home Secretary to consider refusing UK entry to Graham from speaking at an event due to take place in Blackpool in September 2018.

Gordon Marsden, an openly gay Labour MP suggested that Graham's comments may have contravened British laws on hate speech.

The pastor said that Graham's visit had triggered an "enormous amount of protest from Christians in the north-west" of England, and his presence would be "extremely destructive in the area".

Graham also acknowledged that Putin’s background—as a former KGB officer and a political figure with personal controversies—leads some critics to label him as ruthless and compare him to a modern czar.

"We have seen what COVID can do," said Graham, citing Samaritan's Purse work to help during the outbreaks in Cremona, Italy; Los Angeles; North Carolina and the Bahamas.

"[79] In September 2010, Graham stated on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour that building churches and synagogues is forbidden in most countries in the Islamic world.

[83] However, Graham was again criticized in 2015 when it was revealed he had again taken up his salary from BGEA where his annual compensation was significantly higher than that of the CEO's of similar, but much larger, non-profit organizations.

In the introduction to the one-page letter, the fourteen signatories stated: "We are greatly troubled by recent attempts by some religious leaders to use faith as a political weapon.

In the open letter closing Graham stated, "In this election season and challenging economic time I am praying for our country and for those who lead it—for we are commanded in Scripture to do so.

"[102] The Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin rebuked Graham as a "hypocritical bigot" who "has rationalized Trump's infidelity and racism, ignored his lies, cheered his inhumane immigration policy and behaved as a political hack rather than a religious leader," also writing "Buttigieg gets the benefit of being attacked by a right-winger whom progressives revile, gets to underscore a message of generational change and acceptance and gets to demonstrate what a class act he is.

Many opponents said statements Graham had made were incompatible with their values, and that his appearance would be divisive, could be disruptive, or lead to a breach of the peace.

[109][110] After threatening legal action for breach of contract and giving assurances to venues that his preaching would not be discriminatory, Graham's tour was rescheduled for mid-2022.