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Franklin Graham Claims He’s Not ‘Bashing People Because They May Be Homosexual’

New Civil Rights Movement | April 17, 2020

Topics: anti-LGBTQ hate, anti-marriage equality, Franklin Graham, Laura Ingraham, marriage equality, Pete Buttigieg, Samaritan's Purse

“If you want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you,” evangelical pastor Franklin Graham has said. But in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, he swears he’s not homophobic.

Franklin Graham is doing some public relations work for his Samaritan’s Purse conservative Christian non-profit after the organization was met with great concern and warnings for requiring its medical professionals and even its volunteers working at its Central Park coronavirus field hospital in New York City to sign a document agreeing to support Graham’s anti-LGBTQ beliefs.

After Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who has an ugly history of anti-LGBTQ and white nationalist remarks, announced on-air Wednesday that she was sending Samaritan’s Purse a “significant” donation, she asked Graham why the left is concerned about his anti-LGBTQ policies.

“We have a statement of faith, Laura,” Graham said, as Media Matters reports (video below).

“We believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. And that’s — that goes back to the beginning of time to the first man and woman that God created,” Graham claimed. “And this is our standard, and so for people that we hire — we are a Christian organization. We are a religious organization, so we want to hire people of like mind, and we have a statement of faith that we require our employees to sign. And in that is ‘a marriage is between a man and a woman,’ and this is very offensive to some people and the gay community.”

It’s also very offensive to the majority of Americans. Last year Gallup found nearly three out of four Americans (73 percent) believe same-sex relationship should be legal, and more than six in 10 (63 percent) believe marriages of same-sex couples should be legal.

“And listen,” Graham continued. “I’m not homophobic, and I’m certainly not going around bashing people because they may be homosexual.”

Graham literally is going around bashing people because they are gay.

“I believe in that God loves all of us. He created us all, but we also are sinners, and our sins separate us from God. And I want people to know how they can have a relationship with God, and that’s through faith in his son Jesus Christ. So, I don’t bash homosexuals. I want homosexuals to know the truth, that God does love them.”

Graham also wants gay people to know “the truth of the Gospel,” he has said, but as he preaches it.

“I’m not afraid of homosexuals, I’m really not — matter of fact, I love them,” Graham has said. “I love them enough to care to warn them that if they want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you.”

Last year Graham infamously warned Pete Buttigieg he will suffer “eternal damnation” if he does not “repent” his homosexuality.

“God’s Word defines homosexuality as sin,” Graham added, criticizing the former Indiana mayor for kissing his husband in public. It’s “something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised, or politicized.”

Graham’s use of the Bible as a weapon is very selective, as NCRM reported last year.

In 2018 he claimed now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged attempted rape was just something “he did as a teenager” – apparently no repentance required – unlike being gay, according to Graham.

He has also called an alleged child abuser (the details are horrific and sickening) a “great patriot.” Apparently no repentance required there, either.

And Graham has defended Trump’s affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels as “nobody’s business” — although he insisted in 1998 that Bill Clinton’s “sins are not private.”

Watch Graham and Ingraham on Fox News via Media Matters:

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

Franklin Graham Is Behind NYC’s Central Park COVID-19 Field Hospital

New Civil Rights Movement | April 2, 2020

Topics: Brad Hoylman, Central Park, coronavirus, covid 19, Franklin Graham, Mount Sinai hospital, Samaritan's Purse

Volunteers are asked to “support” Graham’s anti-LGBTQ beliefs, while a New York state senator warns the organization not to discriminate.

North Carolina’s infamous anti-LGBTQ activist, Franklin Graham, a religious extremist who is closely tied to President Donald Trump, is behind the emergency COVID-19 field hospital in New York City’s Central Park. Graham founded and runs the evangelical ministry Samaritan’s Purse, whose mission is neither healthcare nor disaster relief, but “to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

It’s unclear how a far right wing anti-LGBTQ Christian evangelical organization was allowed to build a 68-bed field unit that will be managed by a top New York City hospital, Mount Sinai, which has Jewish roots and whose president is openly gay – both of which violate Graham’s mission.

Gothamist notes that Graham has “a track record of using humanitarian missions to proselytize an evangelical agenda.”

The New York Times once described Samaritan’s Purse as an “American evangelical relief group that is using private donations and United States government money to help victims of two earthquakes,” and reported it “has blurred the line between church and state as its volunteers preach, pray and seek converts among people desperate for help.”

Graham wants only Christian medical staff, including doctors, to work in his field hospital.

If you are a Christian doctor, nurse, paramedic, or other medical professional interested in serving COVID-19 patients in our @SamaritansPurse Emergency Field Hospital in NYC, please visit https://t.co/EEw1jNtrrk. pic.twitter.com/5i7EeKxLDi

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) March 29, 2020

According to Samaritan’s Purse, volunteers are asked to support Graham’s extreme anti-LGBTQ beliefs.

“The primary mission of Samaritan’s Purse is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we seek volunteers who have the same mindset. We ask that volunteers review our Statement of Faith and agree to support the ministry guidelines of Samaritan’s Purse.”

His Statement of Faith includes this belief:

“We believe God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman as unique biological persons made to complete each other. God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”

New York State Senator Brad Hoylman on Monday warned Graham to not discriminate.

You know those medical tents being constructed in Central Park?

They’re being set up by notorious anti-gay bigot Franklin Graham.

Mr. Graham must promise to treat EVERY patient with dignity and respect. pic.twitter.com/9ynZ4jHvrU

— Senator Brad Hoylman (@bradhoylman) March 30, 2020

Graham has also sent his “mobile ministry center” to NYC.

Written by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement. Image via NCRM

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