Homophobic hate preacher Franklin Graham to speak at the Republican National Convention
Franklin Graham with US President Donald Trump during a Trump rally on August 22, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Ralph Freso/Getty)
Anti-LGBT+ preacher Franklin Graham, known for claiming that gay people “take” children from straight couples and are exacting a ‘moral 9/11’ on America, is to address the 2020 Republican National Convention.
The evangelical Trump fanatic, who heads the controversial Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse, is slated to address the convention on Thursday night, when the president himself is also due to speak.
Graham was previously invited to preach at the president’s inauguration in 2016 and has maintained close ties to the Trump administration despite his extreme views on LGBT+ issues.
Republican National Convention speaker Franklin Graham has an extreme anti-LGBT+ record.
The Trump ally has previously declared homosexuals “the enemy” of civilisation, and suggested that gay Democrat Pete Buttigieg will face “eternal damnation” for marrying a man.
On a 2015 trip to Russia, he accused gay people of “taking” children from straight couples – and lavished praise upon Vladimir Putin for imposing an anti-gay propaganda law.
He said: “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.”
One of his most shocking remarks came in 2016, when he blamed gay people for a “moral 9/11”.
In an interview with Fox News pundit Todd Starnes, Graham said: “The country is imploding. We are seeing a moral implosion. Just like we saw the World Trade Center on 9/11 when the planes hit the tower, they imploded, they fell from within, and this is what’s happening to our country, we’re falling within.
“Our foundations have been weakened by immorality and it’s beginning to crumble.”
He added: “I want the school boards of America in the hands of evangelical Christians within the next four to six years.
“And it can happen and that will have a huge impact because so many school districts now are controlled by wicked, evil people, and the gays and lesbians, and I keep bringing their name up, but they are at the forefront of this attack against Christianity in America.”
Preacher accused of exploiting coronavirus relief efforts.
The preacher was the centre of fresh controversy early in the coronavirus pandemic, when his Samaritan’s Purse charity was granted permission to set up a temporary relief site in New York’s Central Park.
Franklin Graham brought in a camera crew to record an Easter sermon from the tent hospital ‘relief’ site
Although Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed to have received assurances that there would be no discrimination at the site, the preacher went back on his word almost immediately – refusing to admit any volunteer medical personnel unless they signed a statement disavowing homosexuality.
The preacher publicly compared homosexuals to drug addicts as he stuck by the policy – while also facing criticism for bringing a professional camera crew at the height of lockdown to film sermons and evangelising videos from the supposed hospital relief site.
The shocking conduct led to a serious fall-out with city lawmakers, with the preacher eventually told to “pack up his tents and leave”. Plans for a second relief site in the city at an Episcopal Church were scrapped in their infancy after Graham refused to waive his anti-gay policy.
An unrepentant Graham insisted: “The vast majority of the people in the city believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.”
