Pastor lashes out at Jimmy Carter’s claim that Jesus would support gay marriage
Anti-LGBT+ hate preacher Franklin Graham. (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP/Getty)
Donald Trump’s inauguration pastor Franklin Graham has lashed out at former President Jimmy Carter – for claiming that Jesus would want gay couples to get married.
Graham, who was invited by Trump to preach at his 2017 inauguration, is known for his extreme teachings on LGBT rights.
The preacher spoke out on social media this week after Breitbart News, an outlet popular with the far-right, opted to publish an article this week about a clip of Carter speaking in 2015.
Former President Jimmy Carter (Getty)
In the three-year-old interview with Huffington Post, Carter had claimed: “[Gay marriage] is no problem with me. I think everybody should have a right to get married regardless of their sex… I believe that Jesus would approve of gay marriage.
“I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”
Graham hit out at Carter over the comments in a Facebook post.
He wrote: “I have to respectfully disagree with former President Jimmy Carter on this one. He is absolutely wrong when he said Jesus would approve of gay marriage. Jesus didn’t come to promote sin, He came to save us from sin.
“The Bible is very clear. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality. God defines sin in His Word—it’s not up to our opinion, the latest poll, or a popular vote.
“What is very troubling is that some people may read what President Carter has said and believe it, whether it was this week or from a video 3 years ago that is now recirculating.
“God loves us and gives us the truth in His Word. He warns us of the serious consequences of sin.”
Franklin Graham takes the stage at a Trump rally (Mark Wallheiser/Getty)
Quoting the Bible, he wrote: “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
“Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”
A bus company in the UK recently pulled adverts from Graham advertising his upcoming visit over his anti-LGBT beliefs.
Franklin Graham talks with President Donald Trump (Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty)
Graham previously praised Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay laws, heading to Russia to spread claims that homosexuals “take people’s children”.
He has also claimed there had been a “moral 9/11” in America due to homosexuals and has declared that gay people are ‘the enemy’ of civilisation.
Graham preached at Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and has been pictured with the President on a number of occasions since, even as he continues to preach the absolute rejection of LGBT people.
The preacher has claimed that LGBT anti-discrimination laws will mean that “your children, and your grandchildren will be at risk to sexual predators and perverts”, and recently branded an inclusive sex education course as “like Sodom and Gomorrah”.
