Emma Watson ‘defied God’ by accepting Best Actor MTV Award, claims Donald Trump inauguration pastor
A pastor who preached at Donald Trump’s inauguration has claimed that Beauty and the Beast star Emma Watson is defying God’s definition of gender by accepting a gender-neutral award from MTV.
The comments come from Franklin Graham, who was one of the pastors invited to preach to millions during Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony.
Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, is the President of international charity Samaritan’s Purse. He is listed as a trustee of Samaritan’s Purse UK, which runs the annual Christmas Shoebox Appeal in British schools.
Taking to Facebook this week he lashed out at Emma Watson, who picked up the Best Actor gong at the MTV Awards this week after a decision to abolish gender-segregated acting categories.
Graham wrote: “I read where MTV had the first gender-neutral awards last night.
“Why do some people want to totally delete gender from existence, as if it’s a bad thing? Genders are a part of God’s design.
“He created us male and female (Genesis 5:2). No matter how much MTV or others want to change or redefine it, they’re never going to change the fact that God made us male and female.”
At the ceremony earlier this week, Watson was named Best Actor in a Movie for her lead role as Belle in Disney’s live-action remake of its classic Beauty and the Beast.
Watson beat competition from fellow nominees Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Hugh Jackman (Logan), James McAvoy (Split) and Hailee Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen).
“MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone,” she said in her acceptance speech.
“To me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories.”
Watson added: “Empathy and the ability to use your imagination should have no limits.
“This is very meaningful to me, both to be winning the award and to be receiving it from you in such an inclusive, patient and loving way.”
Franklin Graham was invited to preach at Donald Trump’s inauguration earlier this year despite his concerning record of anti-LGBT comments.
Last year Graham declared gay people are ‘the enemy’, attacking churches that have become LGBT-inclusive.
He accused LGBT activists of “trying to cram down America’s throat the lie that homosexuality is okay”, alleging that anti-discrimination laws will mean that “your children, and your grandchildren will be at risk to sexual predators and perverts”.
In a 2015 interview with a Russian newspaper, Graham praised Vladimir Putin’s support for anti-gay laws – and claimed that homosexuals “take people’s children”.
Parroting disturbing rhetoric often used by anti-LGBT vigilantes in Russia, he said: “Homosexuals cannot have children, they can take other people’s children.”
He added: “I very much appreciate that President Putin is protecting Russian young people against homosexual propaganda. If only to give them the opportunity to grow up and make a decision for themselves.”
He was selected for Trump’s inauguration despite his slew of extremist comments.
