“Jerry Falwell Jr., whose father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founded Liberty University and the Moral Majority movement, and the Rev. Franklin Graham, whose father, Billy Graham, is estimated to have preached the Gospel to millions of people, now find themselves forces of their own. Both are trying to balance their own identities, and their father’s legacies, at a time when religion is playing a powerful role in American politics.”

One, the president of the Christian university his father founded, raised eyebrows and provoked an outcry among some evangelicals when he endorsed Donald J. Trump before the Iowa caucuses.

Another, a son of perhaps the nation’s most celebrated evangelist and the successor to his father’s ministry, has drawn attention for his scathing comments about Muslims and is in the midst of what he describes as a 50-state tour “to challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box.”

Jerry Falwell Jr., whose father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founded Liberty University and the Moral Majority movement, and the Rev. Franklin Graham, whose father, Billy Graham, is estimated to have preached the Gospel to millions of people, now find themselves forces of their own. Both are trying to balance their own identities, and their father’s legacies, at a time when religion is playing a powerful role in American politics.

The excitement among Christian voters has been on display this month in Iowa, which held caucuses Feb. 1, and South Carolina, where Republicans will vote on Saturday and Democrats on Feb. 27. Similar dynamics could prove pivotal as conservative candidates also seek support in the nine other Southern states where Republicans will vote by March 5. The stakes are high for Mr. Falwell, who is not a pastor, and Mr. Graham as they ponder the rewards and perils of creating political identities apart from the ones their fathers forged decades ago.

Both men say there is no rivalry between them as they pursue different ways of engaging in politics.

“He’s got to make decisions and do things that he feels God is calling him to do,” Mr. Graham, 63, said of Mr. Falwell, 53. “And I have to do things that I feel God is calling me to do.”

But for both, those decisions play out in the shadows of their fathers.

“The Grahams and Falwells across generations have chosen different tactics, but the tactics could be equally influential,” said John C. Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron and an author of “The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy.”

He added: “I don’t see Franklin Graham as deeply involved in partisan politics the way Jerry Falwell Jr. is with his endorsement of Trump. But he’s much more active in politics in the broader sense.”

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