Thursday, January 30, 2020

British people are 'cancelling' Franklin Graham and the Charlotte Observer is here for it

The British are giving Franklin Graham exactly what he deserves.

If it weren't for Trump's impeachment trial, this situation would be getting more attention. The British are up in arms about Franklin Graham visiting their country and they are also a bit more successful in showing their disdain

From Pink News:
The Trump-supporting preacher, who is known for praising Vladimir Putin’s anti-gay laws and blaming gay people for a “moral 9/11”, is set to visit the UK at the start of Pride Month in June as part of an evangelist tour.  
 Venues hosting the tour have faced complaints from LGBT+ activists – with a Liverpool conference venue dropping him on Monday. Following the pressure, two further venues have followed suit Glasgow’s SEC Arena confirmed on Wednesday that his May 30 rally at the venue will not go ahead.

A spokesperson told PinkNews: “The booking for this event was processed in the same way we would for any religious concert of this nature and as a business we remain impartial to the individual beliefs of both our clients and visitors. “However, we are aware of the recent adverse publicity surrounding this tour and have reviewed this with our partners and stakeholders. Following a request from our principal shareholder the matter has been considered and a decision made that we should not host this event.” His planned June 6 rally at Sheffield Arena has also been scrapped, after a decision by Sheffield City Council.

While Graham is fluctuating between the standard "I don't preach hate" excuse  and actually contemplating a lawsuit, the editorial board of Charlotte Observer in North Carolina is poking gaping holes through his veneer of innocence:

Our Bibles say that Graham is right about all of us being sinners. But there’s a Sinai-sized hole in his suggestion that he’s an equal-opportunity sin-hater. Graham might say he’s “coming to speak for everybody” in the UK, but he has history of spending an awful lot of time talking about one community in particular. We know this because we counted. 
In the last six months alone, Graham has singled out the LGBTQ community in at least 19 Facebook posts. He’s railed against the “LGBT agenda,” mocked gender identity, and frequently reminded folks that marriage should be between a man and a woman only. That’s far more time than he spent on sins like pride and lust — or the bigger ones like stealing or bearing false witness or coveting thy neighbor’s wife. The only transgression that gave the LGBTQ community a run for its money in being singled out as a sin was abortion, which fell a few posts short. Contrast all those LGBTQ mentions with the number of times Jesus talks about homosexuality in the Bible. That would be zero. 
 . . .Thankfully, Graham’s selective pulpit pounding on homosexuality has become a relic as Americans have largely moved the opposite direction, and Graham’s status as a spokesman for Christians has been diluted by his laughable insistence to look the other way at Donald Trump’s immorality. 

The vast majority of my readers know that I absolutely love the figurative dragging of an anti-LGBTQ leader.  So of course I'm enjoying all of this. And to tie it to an implication that Graham's shameless embrace of Trump may be adding to this backlash makes it extra sweet.

Like cake with ice cream. Two scoops.

2 comments:

Frank said...

Well I guess there was some good news today after all.

Anonymous said...

Indirectly, Jesus did comment (or rather failed to comment) on homosexuality in the parable of the Roman soldier and his sick manservant. This parable is reported in two of the gospels - and in two languages. The English translation "manservant" in both languages comes out as "servant of the bedroom". But Jesus performed the miracle and cured said manservant, without making any comment about being 'gay' was a no-no. Jesus didn't discriminate!

And that brings me on to one of my favourite put-downs I inflicted on a Bible-thumping 'preacher'. It was back in 2008 at South Carolina Pride in Columbia (I had to go as I saw a poster proclaiming "South Carolina Is So Gay" on the subway at London Pride). During the parade, I noticed this preacher holding a Bible proclaiming "gays are going to hell" or words similar. I went over to him an casually asked which version of the Bible he day, knowing that is was very probably the King James Version. He proudly confirmed that it was indeed the King James Version.

"Ah, Kings James the First of England," I replied, adding, "England's gay king who had a habit of parading his boyfriend, the dashing young Duke of Buckingham, throughout the realm". The preacher went and sat in his car, while a few in the crowd came and shook my hand!

And all this goes to show that you cannot 'cherry-pick' bits of Christianity to suit a homophobic agenda.