Evangelical Franklin Graham Addresses Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group's Event
Influential evangelical leader Franklin Graham has continued his anti-LGBTQ associations by speaking to a hate group that brands 鈥渢rans鈥� activists as guilty of harming children.
Graham was guest speaker at the anti-LGBTQ hate group Illinois Family Institute鈥檚 titled 鈥淔aith, Family and Freedom.鈥� Graham鈥檚 remarks included his support of President Donald Trump and what he called the nation鈥檚 faltering state of morality. But his appearance at the Nov. 1 event outside Chicago links him to a group with a history of anti-LGBTQ stances perhaps even more extreme than his own.
The Illinois Family Institute is a of anti-LGBTQ hate group American Family Association, though it operates independently.
Examples of the Illinois group鈥檚 statements about LGBTQ people include that homosexual behavior is 鈥渕edically, emotionally and spiritually unhealthy.鈥� In July, Laurie Higgins, a cultural affairs writer for the group, said that trans people are harming children, stating that the 鈥渞avenous, pro-鈥榯rans鈥� behemoth smells the blood of children in our murky cultural waters and is hurtling toward them with blinding speed.鈥� Higgins went on to say that 鈥渢rans activists [are] in league with 鈥榤any homosexuals鈥欌�� and are 鈥減ropagandizing, grooming, and mutilating children.鈥�
For his part, Graham has recently been admonished for what some of his critics liken to hate speech. He鈥檚 聽with 鈥渄eepening depravity that now vexes our country鈥� and called Islam
The closest he came to addressing LGBTQ issues at the banquet was when he told the crowd sex is for a man and a woman in a 鈥渕arriage relationship,鈥� according to a review of the event posted by the right-wing blog .
The Illinois Family Institute responded to a Hatewatch request for comment with an email that it also posted on Facebook that started, 鈥淪urely you jest.鈥� The email went on to聽address聽issues other than Graham鈥檚 appearance and included a long passage from "The Pilgrim's Progress," a Christian novel. A spokesman for Graham told Hatewatch that the evangelist is traveling and might not be able to answer questions.
Graham, a son of the late evangelical preacher Billy Graham, is president and CEO of Samaritan鈥檚 Purse, and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. , Samaritan鈥檚 Purse provides 鈥渟piritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world,鈥� including those affected by war, natural disasters, disease and famine. The charity has faced criticism for using its 聽donation program to try to convert children in majority-Muslim countries to Christianity.
According to the Illinois Review, Graham said during his keynote address that Trump became president because God was behind the election, 聽But he also said Trump is the victim of an attempted coup by the left and 鈥�.鈥� The "deep state" theory聽holds there are forces in the federal government trying to overthrow the Trump administration. Graham also praised Trump because he surrounds himself with Christians such as Vice President Mike Pence, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
, 鈥淚 just believe as a Christian, we are to show love; we are to show compassion to people, not to point the finger, not to do this, but to do this 颅鈥� to love them, to welcome them, to embrace them.鈥�
But those words of hope stand in stark contrast to these remarks given in a Christian Broadcasting Network interview:
So I want the gay and lesbian people to know that if they repent and turn from those sins, God will forgive them and heal their hearts. But I'm not going to accept it and say what they're doing is fine. It's not fine. It's not fine with God and they'll stand before him one day.
Brett Barrouquere contributed to this report.
