Rep. Robert Pittenger told
Newsmax TV on Thursday that he "never heard Billy Graham say whether someone was a Christian or not" in nearly three decades of working with the famed evangelist.
"I've watched him on 'Larry King Live' many times — and Larry King would say, 'Dr. Graham, am I Christian or not?'" the North Carolina Republican told "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "And Dr. Graham would never respond.
"He would always say, 'I'll leave that up to the judgment of God," Pittenger, an Evangelical Christian, told Berliner. "I think it's a real push at this point to say that he's not a Christian because he wants to build a wall."
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Even though Pope Francis said that Trump's views on immigration showed that he was
"not Christian," Pittenger said that "the inference is if that's not Christian, then that comes from the realm of, 'Are you, in reality, a Christian if you don't do Christian things?'
"The proof's in the pudding," he told Berliner.
"We all have policy differences. I go to Bible studies and prayer groups with people on different sides of the aisle — and we have different policy views on many issues.
"I'm not going to say that they're not Christian or don't act in a Christian way because they have a different policy view," Pittenger added. "I'll leave that up to the mercy and judgment of God."