Billy Graham — I can’t bring myself to call him “Reverend” — issued a statement yesterday through the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) in support of Amendment 1, the constitutional marriage discrimination amendment being put before North Carolina voters next Tuesday.
According to Martha Waggoner of the Associated Press, Graham’s statement will appear in its entirety in a full-page pro-marriage discrimination ad running in 14 North Carolina newspapers this weekend. The statement reads, in part:
“At 93, I never thought we would have to debate the definition of marriage. The Bible is clear — God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote for the marriage amendment. . . Watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern. I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected.”
The fact that the 93-year-old Graham — who was born during the final days of the First World War — supports marriage discrimination is not, in and of itself, surprising, when one considers both his age and his evangelicalism. What is rather surprising, however, is the fact that he’s made such a public anti-gay pronouncement at all. After all, the man has been essentially in retirement since 2007. Since that time, he’s left most of the right-wing craziness to his son, Franklin “President Obama may or may not be a ‘son of Islam’” Graham, and his daughter, Anne “9/11 was God’s way of getting back into the government and our schools” Graham Lotz. Waggoner notes that William Martin, an authorized biographer of Graham, cannot recall any effort by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association similar in size and scope to its current pro-discrimination push in the organization’s entire 62-year history. And according to Martin, professor emeritus of religion and public policy at Rice University, this can only mean one thing: that the source of this bigotry is not Franklin Graham, who heads the BGEA, but Billy Graham himself.
“I am somewhat surprised that he would take that strong a stand. In the past, I have heard him say with respect to homosexuality, there are greater sins. Franklin has been more outspoken about it, but it sounds as if this is Mr. Graham expressing his own will.”
For what it’s worth, both Franklin Graham and Anne Graham Lotz have also endorsed Amendment 1.
While Graham’s evangelical “crusades,” pro-war views on Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, and closeness to twelve American presidents (most notably the racist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic Richard Nixon) give me the heebie-jeebies, the fact is that he was one of the most widely-admired figures of the twentieth century. (Hell, he’s made Gallup’s list of the Top 10 Most Admired Men 55 times since 1955.) Billy Graham forged himself a place in history decades ago; he had absolutely nothing to gain by weighing in on the battle over North Carolina’s Amendment 1. It’s a shame that, when confronted with the choice between preserving his popular image as a venerable, unifying figure and mounting one last crusade against the LGBT community, Billy Graham chose the latter. It says a lot about the man’s true character, that he selected for what may be his final public gesture an act of malice, divisiveness, and discrimination. Supporters of Billy Graham like to call him the “pastor to presidents” and “the world’s preacher,” but now there’s one more title to add to the list: bigot.
Wear it proudly, “Reverend.” You’ve earned it.
The Bible is anything but clear when it comes to marriage. It’s full of men with multiple wives and concubines. Where is this biblical one-man, one-woman marriage mandate?
Shame! Shame! Shame!
Ummm….let’s see…1st Biblical marriage – Adam and Eve….definitely NOT Adam and Steve! You suddenly call a man who has preached Biblical principals his entire life a bigot because he feels that marriage should be reserved for 1 man and 1 woman. You know, it seems funny that everyone wants to get up in arms anytime someone refers to a member of the LGBT community as anything but one of the accepted PC terms but yet the LGBT community has no problem calling someone who disagrees with them a bigot or some other derogatory name. So here’s the deal I propose, I’ll keep right on being a “bigot” right along with this man of God who has done nothing but stand up for his beliefs rooted in God’s word, a you just keep right on being a big ol’ hypocrite! Wear it proudly….you’ve earned it!!!
I was surprised at this announcement. I do not remember him having a negative comment until now. I had respected him until now. And I agree that many men of God in the Bible had multiple wives and children from mistresses. I can’t recall any scriptures referring to marriage for one man and one woman, maybe one man and many women.
Christian theology, like denominations or jurisdictions, are many. Some support our civil and spiritual validity, and some do not. Major mainline Protestant Churches worldwide, the United Church of Canada and the USA, the Anglican Churches in South Africa, Canada and the USA, and the Lutheran Churches in Scandanavia and the ELCA in the USA are examples of contextual scriptural churches.
Literalists and fundamentalists are selective hypocrites. They decide which parts of the Leviticus Holiness Code they adhere to, and which they do not. They do not advocate the murder of sinners as that definitely does. There is a positive sexual theology concerning moral monogamy in marriage for same sex couples. Many have raised children. However, we are not speaking about Christian Canon Law, but a Dominionist theocracy for North Carolina and elsewhere in the USA. This is unacceptable for a state with a mini-DOMA law, a history of Jim Crow and KKK, and laws against heterosexual interracial marriage until 1967.
Jaye, you euphemistically call someone seeking to deny other’s their rights a “disagreement” – you’re a joke and Graham is a bigot.
Jay said: “Ummm….let’s see…1st Biblical marriage – Adam and Eve”
Jay, I’ve thumbed through Genesis several times and I do not see any marriage ceremony there. God did not pronounce Adam and Eve “husband and wife” He made Eve as a help-mate for Adam. In essence, He was giving her to Adam as a servant for his needs. There was no “marriage” there. Marriage comes later in the Bible, like many generations later, and it was created by mankind to ensure property and lineage rights. Although marriages can be blessed and supported by God, the institution was not created by Him which means we human beings can amend it as we see fit (as we have always done throughout the centuries).
Also, fun fact: The Christian Church did not recognize marriage as a sacrament until the 11th century. So, it was not a sacrament longer than it has been. If it was indeed created by God, then the Church should have been in on it from the beginning. This historical discrepancy should not exist if God created marriage as a sacred institution.
Nick K., too true, and it is beyond hysterical that fake christers cite an unmarried couple (and one where the mother begat the human race with her homicidal maniac son!) as their heroes of marriage.
But, as always, Mrs. Betty Bowers says it best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw
[...] John Becker wrote earlier today, onetime anti-Semite Graham has come out in support of Amendment 1, the [...]
Priya Lynn – nowhere in my previous comment did I ever use the word disagreement. Additionally, the point of my comment was more about the name calling than anything else. And the fact that when anyone disagrees with the LGBT community they are labeled a bigot and attacked. We do not attack you when you disagree with us, so why attack us? And not all of us believe that members of the LGBT community should have the “right” to marry members of the same sex! That is not equal rights, that is additional rights. The LGBT community already has equal rights. They have just as much right to marry a member of the opposite sex as I do. They just choose not to indulge in it. Granting the right to marry members of the same sex would, in fact, grant them additional rights that my moral code doesn’t allow for me. Now think long and hard about this before you make some hate filled rebuttal.
As for Adam and Eve not being the first married couple, let’s get real here, we can argue semantics all day long but the bottom line is, 2 dudes ain’t what started in the garden. Additionally, when speaking about multiple wives and homosexuality happening all throughout the bible, bear in mind that wickedness started out in the garden and has been with us as a race since then. So it would stand to reason that the wickedness that we see every day now would also appear throughout the pages of that historical book.
Not quite as much a joke as you would like to believe!
Jaye, do you seriously believe the world started in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago? Because if you do, in the face of scientific fact, you’ve pretty much obliterated all your credibility. Just saying.
Scientific fact? You claim scientific fact? How do you prove that the earth existed millions and millions of years ago? Who know what a million years looks like? No, I have obliterated no credibility because the FACT is, what you call fact is nothing more than a few people’s opinions over time that have been accepted as fact. You have no more way of proving your “scientific fact” than you do of disproving my beliefs! FAIL! Try again….
“How do you prove that the earth existed millions and millions of years ago?”
It’s called geology. Try going to a museum or reading a book sometime. It might help.
Jaye, (RE: #12) You don’t have a shred of self-awareness, do you? You are incapable of seeing the irony, aren’t you?
Jaye said “Priya Lynn – nowhere in my previous comment did I ever use the word disagreement.”.
Right, you said “disagrees” – what the hell was I thinking?! The word “disagrees” bears no relationship to the word “disagreement”.
That was pretty pathetic Jaye. You tried to trivialize someone attacking a minority by trying to deprive them of rights by characterizing it as a disagreement.
Jaye said “Additionally, the point of my comment was more about the name calling than anything else.”.
Jaye when someone does something immoral its justified to call them a name. Gays have done nothing immoral, have not tried to deprive anyone of their rights and so it is not justified to call them names – you’re the hypocrite here.
Jaye said “And the fact that when anyone disagrees with the LGBT community they are labeled a bigot and attacked.”.
Jaye, when one person says chocolate ice cream is best and another says its vanilla, that is a disagreement. What you and graham are doing is not disagreeing with gays, you are oppressing them and treating them as inferior. Gays criticizing your oppression is not an attack on you, it is you, a bigot, who is attacking them – there is no equivalence in anyway between what you are doing to gays and what gays are doing to you.
Jaye said “We do not attack you when you disagree with us, so why attack us?”.
You DO ATTACK US! You try to deny us the same rights you have you bigot! Stop trying to hide from the injustice you promote.
Jaye said And not all of us believe that members of the LGBT community should have the “right” to marry members of the same sex! That is not equal rights, that is additional rights. The LGBT community already has equal rights. They have just as much right to marry a member of the opposite sex as I do.”.
In a muslim country they say christians have the equal rights – everyone has the same right to be muslim. You wouldn’t accept that BS in that situation so don’t expect us to accept your idiocy.
Having the right to marry only the opposite sex is NOT equal rights. Tom has the right to marry Jane but Suzy doesn’t have the same right Tom has to marry Jane – that is sex discrimination, that is NOT equal rights.
Jaye said “Granting the right to marry members of the same sex would, in fact, grant them additional rights that my moral code doesn’t allow for me.”.
When the right to same sex marriage is granted heterosexuals like you will have the same right to a same sex marriage that gays have. You try to have it both ways and claim opposite sex marriages is a right for both gays and heterosexuals but somehow in your bigoted mind the right to same sex marriage is not – that’s an awfully childish way to argue Jaye and you know it. You expect us to think you’re principled when you try to pass off BS like that? Get real. You know for most gays their moral code doesn’t allow them to marry an opposite sex partner. According to your “logic” that means gays don’t have a right to opposite sex marriages, opposite sex marriages are a special right only heterosexuals have. Do you want to acknowledge now that your argument is wrong? Of course not because you’re a bigot and logic and the truth don’t matter to you.
Jaye said “Now think long and hard about this before you make some hate filled rebuttal.”.
Jay, it should be obvious to you that I’ve thought one hell of a lot longer and harder about this than you or you wouldn’t be making such sophomoric arguments.
As far as Adam and Eve goes, they most certainly were never married so spare us the Adam and Eve “argument” about marriage.
And Jaye, please explain it to me: Adam and Eve didn’t have the knowledge of good and evil until they ate from the forbidden fruit so why did your god punish them for something they couldn’t know was wrong? Your god sounds like a real monster, completely unjust, given that why should we accept your bible inspired beliefs have any relevance on the rightness of same sex marriage?
Jaye said “Scientific fact? You claim scientific fact? How do you prove that the earth existed millions and millions of years ago? Who know what a million years looks like?”.
Jaye just as we can’t see electricity but can infer its existance by, for example, seeing a light bulb light up or feeling it when we stick our fingers in a light socket we can infer that millions of years of history exist by looking at indirect evidence such as looking at the rates of deposition of layers of sediment and counting geological layers in the earth’s crust.
Ask yourself which is more likely:
A) A few people made up a story about the earth being millions of years old and despite there being no evidence to support this and only evidence to contradict it virtually every scientist in the world either lies or blindly accepts this as truth despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
or
B) There is consistant indirect evidence from a wide variety of scientific fields that all fit logically with a world millions of years old and the vast majority of scientists accept this because no one has every found any evidence to contradict that.
Its funny because I was told by someone the reason I hate x-tianity so much is because I am gay. The first part I would agree with but the second part as to the reason why is not true. Being gay has nothing to do with (though I think it does fuel the fire..lol, my reason is because x-tianity is a lie…there is no truth to it and it has been proven time and time again that it is a lie. That’s the reason why.
Wyocowboy I am the same way. I tell people I am not gay because I am an atheist and I am not an atheist because I am gay though the anti-gay beliefs of most religions made me question why I believed what I did.
Wyocowboy & Tim W, it’s much the same for me, too. The persecution of gays by a multitude of Christians is not the reason I don’t believe in their (or any) religion, but it is one of several reasons why I loath it. I went through a transitional doubting phase long before I realized just how ugly god’s followers could be (yeah, I know, I’m slow).
Tangential a bit here Richard but it is the same for me with Republicons. Their virtually uniform addiction to promoting virulently anti-gay & anti-women political rhetoric and civil legislation has caused me to loathe them with every fiber of my being. I cannot imagine voting for a Republicon candidate for ANYTHING for the rest of my natural life. They owe me and my fellow LGBT citizens a lifetime of abject apology for 30 years of sheer, unmitigated persecution. If Republicon candidates should want my vote they will have to leave their party of lies and hatred and run as an independent or in another party. I’m done with ‘em.
Got excited there! Back to topic.
I’m not a fan of Billy Graham as I think fundagelical christianity is batshit. That said, it seems uncharacteristic of BG to come out talking this way at the end of his life. He’s 93. His wife is gone. He likely has dementia. He is vulnerable. His world has shrunk significantly and his contacts are likely made up mostly of Franklin and Anne, Lotz hyperchristianist fundagelicals with a dominionist appearing ideology, who could likely convince him to say anything. I think we should assume that he is simply speaking the batshit his children are pumping him with. We see fundagelicals coaching little children and getting them to spout all kinds of racist, sexist, homophobic nonsense not infrequently and I think this is the same thing. I find it quite sad for Billy Graham that he has so little power to maintain his own personhood anymore. His disgusting children have usurped that for their own personal gain.
Paul, since Billy is the father of Franklin and Annie, perhaps he deserves much of the “credit” for who they have become. Or maybe F & A are always monitoring which way the wind is blowing in today’s fundagelical world, and then adjust their views accordingly in order to remain relevant in that world. I wish more fundagelical offspring would look to Jay Bakker for inspiration (I guess Jay’s mom deserves a lot of credit for who he became).
And, yeah, I feel the same way about today’s Republicans. And even if they suddenly ended their persecution of gay people, they would need to change on lots of other issues before I would ever vote for any of them.
Sometimes they just make it way too easy…
http://docandraider.com/2012/05/04/sometimes-they-just-make-it-too-easy/
[...] Marriage Act,” constitutional marriage discrimination amendments like the one on the ballot today in North Carolina, and the religion-based bigotry that justifies the unconscionable way families [...]
Shame on all who voted yes yesterday. Believing anyone who suffers from delusion…. no proof of god… or the giant spaghetti monster.
I am ashamed to be a North Carolinian today
[...] sexuality, this conversation tends to focus on anti-gay measures promulgated by leaders such as the Rev. Billy Graham, the man dubbed America’s pastor. (In light of Graham’s recent explicit shift to the [...]