Coca-Cola's Super Bowl commercial is unapologetically pro-LGBTQ

You can either chalk it to age or weariness at seeing the New England Patriots featured, but I don't intend to watch the Super Bowl this year. BUT this upcoming commercial during the Super Bowl by Coca-Cola is awesome.

According to The Advocate:

Coca-Cola's upcoming Super Bowl commercial, "The Wonder of Us," is breaking new ground with its LGBT inclusivity. With Pride symbols and a diverse cast, the 60-second spot explicitly targets and supports LGBT consumers. The voice-over states, “We all have different looks … and loves" while displaying a female couple onscreen. It also proclaims "There’s a Coke for he — and she — and her — and me — and them." while showing a presumed genderqueer-identifying individual wearing a rainbow collar.

I know someone will probably cry foul about "how Coca-Cola is exploiting the community for profit." And will probably ask questions about "what is Coca-Cola giving back to the LGBTQ community. Both are valid statements and questions.

 But for now, just let us have this. Seeing a commerical like this does wonders for the self-esteem of our LGBTQ kids.

'Same-sex promposal creates ridiculous drama at AL high school' & other Friday midday news briefs

Same-sex promposal leads to suspensions and walkout at Alabama high school - A young girl asked her girlfriend to the prom and the school freaked out, thereby causing a bunch of unnecessary mess. Seems to me the attempts to supposedly "protect" the children is worse than the thing folks claim they need protection from. 

Black History is LGBTQ History - You damn right!

Honoring Black LGBTQ Icons - And on that same note . . . 

FRC's Tony Perkins furious at article spotlighting religious right takeover of HHS - My post from last night because of article below:

The religious activists on the rise inside Trump's health department - THIS is the article Tony Perkins doesn't want you to read. Especially the part about how his folks are attempting to gak the courts.

'Bathroom bill' author gets a Republican primary challenger in North Carolina -Yes! "Primary" that fool!

FRC's Tony Perkins furious at article spotlighting religious right takeover of HHS

FRC's Tony Perkins is furious at article spotlighting religious right takeover of HHS.

Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council sounded off a hysterical alarm on Thursday regarding an article published last month in Politico. Perkins goes on as such:

The president laid out a compelling plan for the year in his State of the Union address, but it's important to remember that the key to good policy is good personnel. So, it's no surprise that anti-faith liberals are attacking some of the appointees in this administration, especially in one of the largest and most powerful departments, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has been the nemesis of conservatives, especially under Barack Obama. 

HHS under the previous administration promoted blatant anti-faith policies, including forcing faith-based employers like the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their faith in the healthcare plans they provide. HHS also in 2009 had rescinded President Bush's 2008 conscience regulation which merely enforced federal laws prohibiting government discrimination against pro-life healthcare entities. They did nothing to enforce conscience protections for the likes of Cathy DeCarlo, a nurse who was forced to participate in an abortion at a federally funded hospital, or churches in California that have lost their healthcare coverage because the state mandated abortion coverage in violation of federal law preventing such discrimination. The attack on life and faith under the prior administration may have been at its most egregious at HHS in the Obama era. 

So when competent pro-life conservatives were appointed to oversee HHS, of course anti-life liberals pitched a fit. As we wrote before, Valerie Huber is an excellent choice for the team over at HHS, due to her experience in social sciences and practical public health programs encouraging risk avoidance in the context of sexual behavior. Last week, the liberal media went after two other solid conservatives working to implement the president's agenda. The left's effort to demonize qualified people over policy differences sinks lower and lower. Roger Severino, for instance heads up the Office of Civil Rights, the office at HHS that oversees helping defend civil rights laws. After HHS announced a new division to protect the conscience rights of healthcare providers who object to being forced to participate in abortion or assisted suicide -- the protections of which are in existing law -- and after HHS issued a new proposed rule to enforce 25 conscience laws on the books, Roger was slammed as a conservative evangelical along with Shannon Royce, who heads up the office of faith-based initiatives.

FRC's piece goes on like this, making sure to appropriate the word "faith" to mean only the very narrow definition the organization has.

In reality, the Politico article has nothing to do with any "purge." Instead, it spells out legitimate concerns regarding some members of HHS who seem to be sacrificing the mission of the agency in pursuit of their personal religious agendas:

Franklin Graham's fawning praise of Trump is simply embarrassing

The speed from which Franklin Graham pivoted from "Stop picking on Donald Trump. We never said he was perfect." to "Oh my God! Isn't Donald Trump so dreamy! We need to pray for him!" is embarrassing. Especially when one considers that had not the media pressed him and other evangelicals on the matter, they probably wouldn't have mentioned Trump's many moral lapses. As the investigations into how Russia helped the Trump campaign continues, I have a feeling that Graham will be regretting his kiss-ass behavior in support of Trump.

And I bet that Graham never asked that Obama be prayed while HE was president. Yet more proof that Trump's relationship with Graham and company is merely about acquisition.

(Editor's note - I offer a pre-apology just in case it is proven that Graham did in fact ask for Obama to be prayed for.)

'Anti-LGBTQ group already talking about repealing marriage equality' & other Wed midday news briefs

NOM: Supreme Court Is ‘One Retirement Away’ From Ending Marriage Equality - NOM's pipe dream isn't that much of a pipe dream and it reminds us of the simple fact that besides NOM, there are anti-LGBTQ organizations and hate groups just planning to take away marriage equality, even as you read this. But giving up is not an option. We can fight and defeat this notion. And the first step is in the mid-terms. Y'all need to vote and get as many folks to also vote as you can.

Trump’s State of the Union speech omits mention of LGBTQ rights - Surprise! NOT!

Efforts to help LGBT Puerto Ricans after Maria ‘being forgotten’ - We can't let this happen, y'all.

New York School System Holds Its First Summit For LGBTQ Students - New York is a start but we need this in other places too.

The memes from Trump’s first State of the Union address are in and they’re brutal - Damn right. And you KNOW we don't care, either. We are going THERE.

Randy Rainbow has a couple of things to sing about Trump and his 'base'

I personally think that Trump's base, i.e. many of his supporters, are entitled fools who can't deal with the fact that the country is becoming more diverse and no one thinks that they are special anymore. For too long, they have been coddled by being referred to as "the American heartland" or "real America." They don't want to let go, so they whine about lazy people, political correctness, and some bull about erased heritage or tradition.

I could go on, but the incredibly talented Randy Rainbow is better at describing them through song. I could only offer up profanity and words so "non-progressive," they would make Truman Capote blush.

Take it, Randy:

'45 times Trump has attacked the LGBTQ community in his first year' & other Tue midday news briefs

Trump

45 times Trump attacked the LGBT community in his first year in the White House - Just 45 times? Yes, we know that Trump isn't the LGBTQ community's best friend. But it's a point we need to hammer home, so ONE MORE TIME FOR THE FOLKS IN THE BACK!!!

These ‘No Promo Homo’ Laws Are Hurting LGBTQ Students Across America - There are laws in seven states which prevent teacher from even talking about homosexuality in any type of "positive" light. This is harming our LGBTQ kids. 

Conservative evangelicals want to give Trump a 'mulligan,' but they gave Obama hell - And following that "one more time for the folks in the back" philosophy, a repost of my piece from last night. Repetition of truth is a very good tactic for the LGBTQ community to learn.

Gay Couple in Hiding Amid Police Threats After Russia Accidentally Registered Their Marriage - This is downright scary. 

Lesbian firefighter's legal win further divides courts on anti-gay discrimination - Keep fighting, y'all.

Conservative evangelicals want to give Trump a 'mulligan,' but they gave Obama hell

One very important component missing from the debate of conservative evangelical hypocrisy in supporting Donald Trump in spite of his morally questionable behavior is how they acted towards Obama.

With Trump, they are all "well he isn't God" or "I trust his word when he says he has changed," or "we are all entitled to make mistakes."

Not so with Obama. With him, they weren't so open-hearted as the videos below show. They weren't so eager to trust his word because they were too busy implying that he wasn't a Christian ergo he danger to America, particularly its moral image.

First, let's look at Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. Perkins, whose talk of giving Trump a "do-over,' or a "mulligan" for his questionable behavior, wasn't so conciliatory to Obama's morality, values, or words in 2012:

People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch also pointed out that in the same year:

Before the 2012 election, Perkins said that voters in 2008 “chose the economy over the moral foundation of the country when we selected Barack Obama as president, and it did not work out,” claiming that Obama had set himself up “in defiance to everything that is biblically oriented in terms of the history of our country and the word of God.” He called for Christians who had voted for Obama in 2008 to “repent” by voting against his reelection and declared that Obama had a “disdain for Christianity.”

And then there is this lovely, yet insane, claim about how the re-election of Obama could mean "the end."

'TX Republicans censure state House speaker for blocking anti-transgender bill' & other Mon midday news briefs

TX House speaker Joe Straus

Texas Republicans take extraordinary step and censure GOP House speaker for blocking transgender bathroom bill - Simply trashy. Just mean-spirited mess. 

Trans soldier will be Joe Kennedy’s guest at State of the Union address - Well alright! Remind this administration of who helps in the fight for freedom, i.e. the folks they tried to kick out of the military. 

The Trump Administration Is Dropping The Ball On HIV/AIDS - That terrible administration has dropped the ball on so many other things, so why not this too?

‘No, She’s Not My Sister’: The Hidden Stresses of Gay Relationships - A harm of the so-called religious liberty argument. We don't get to talk about this like we should because the religious right bogarts the debate.

Ex-evangelist says conservative evangelical support of Trump is motivated by racism & revenge

Although I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing, seeing, and especially spotlighting the backlash against conservative evangelicals for their hypocritical support of Trump, I also think it has to be put in a proper perspective.

Former evangelist Frank Schaeffer brought that perspective Sunday on AMJoy as he tore into conservative evangelicals.

Schaeffer pointed out it is white evangelicals who support Trump as he made the argument that this support is less about values and more about racism towards former president Barack Obama and revenge.

He punctuated the interview with the following statement about evangelical leader and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. Perkins, whose controversial statement last week about evangelicals letting Trump's behavior slide because they felt bullied by the Obama Administration, has been in the center of the backlash:

 “Tony Perkins forgot his own theology and replaced it with a theology of revenge on people he disagrees with politically, and that’s what’s going on here . . .Revenge of white American, evangelical right-wingers and who they want to punch in the mouth is not just black Americans but, to put it in the words of the President of the United States, those who live in shithole countries. So they’re willing to put up with anything when it comes to moral degradation to see those ends achieved. I’m glad he put it in terms of revenge, at least he misspoke from his point of view but told the truth.” 

'Another physician rebukes Trump Administration for HHS 'religious freedom' division' & other Fri midday news briefs

A Doctor's Take on the Health Department's New 'Religious Freedom Division'- Another physician, Dr. Magda Houlberg, is calling out the Trump Administration's desire to protect healthcare workers who use their religion as an excuse to not treat certain patients. We need a few more before there can be an official backlash. And I hope they are forthcoming. 

Related post - Pediatrician isn't here for the anti-LGBTQ religious liberty con game

Fresh call to ban 'gay conversion therapy' - The Church of England is calling for a nation-wide ban on "ex-gay" therapy. Wow! Would be awesome if someone did the same thing in this country. Stop laughing . . .

Anti-LGBTQ hate group orchestrates client business practices to win cases - The anti-LGBTQ industry can't win against us fairly in the courts, so they are attempting to game the system. This doesn't come from genuine concern about "religious freedom." Such Machiavellian plots comes from the desire to discriminate.

Anti-LGBTQ Violence Claimed One Life For Every Week In 2017 - Simply awful. Just can't say anything else.

Steve Strang: Christians Who Oppose Trump Need To ‘Get Over It’ - Whatever. Write your own epitaphs.

Pence breaks tie to confirm anti-LGBT Brownback nomination - Say hello to Sam Brownback, America's ambassador at-large for religious freedom. Whatever that is. We will be watching you, Sammy.

Exclusive: Majority of Americans support transgender military service - poll - Damn right.

Conservative evangelicals need Trump like an addict needs his 'fix'

Conservative evangelicals willing to hold Trump up as Messiah as long as he gives them their psychological 'fix.'

I said it yesterday and lo and behold here it is.

Evangelical conservatives are doubling and tripling-down in supporting Donald Trump. In spite of all of his bad behaviors, including basic incompetence, racism, and allegations of adultery, religious conservative leaders are continuing to hold up Trump as the new Messiah. They claim that Trump, in spite of all of his problems, is ushering in "pro-family" and "pro-life" policies.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who knows he stepped into it earlier this week with his "religious conservatives will give Trump a do-over for his bad behavior"  comments, continued in attempts to soften the blow of hypocrisy.

According to Right Wing Watch:

Perkins said that evangelical faith leaders’ support for Trump is “not unconditional” but that “as long as he continues to be the most pro-life, pro-family president” and “continues to walk the straight and narrow with the right influence,” Perkins and his allies will continue to support his administration.

Perkins's group, FRC, also issued a public prayer for Trump:

“Thanks be to God for giving President Trump a burden to champion religious liberty. May Christians pray for and support the president for the good thing he is doing, even if they cannot approve of his past or present behavior in other respects.”

Not to be outdone, Franklin Graham, fresh from humiliating himself with awful defenses of Trump's behavior, is telling people to pray because Trump is supposedly facing a coup de etat. Franklin is echoing nonsense which shot up then fizzled down in right-wing circles about a secret government group working to overthrow Trump.

'Evangelical says religious right deserting Donald Trump would punish America' & other Thur midday news briefs

Bryan Fischer Says There Is No Reason For The Religious Right To ‘Punish America’ By Turning On Trump For His ‘Reprehensible’ Behavior -  Bryan Fischer becomes the latest religious right figure to show hypocrisy when it comes to Donald Trump. I am so enjoying taking down these receipts. I'm going to need another book to put them all in.

In three years, LGBT Americans have gone from triumph to backlash - This neither surprises nor scares me. Students of history will tell you that after every successful movement for civil rights comes a huge backlash. The key is to strap yourself down and solider on fighting no matter what.

Tolerance takes a hit: Americans less accepting of LGBT people in 2017, survey shows - Another view of the issue just in case the above link is behind a pay wall. Awful headline, though. LGBTQs are not dogs urinating on the good carpet. We don't need "tolerance" or "acceptance." We need fairness and all that we need, including fairness, will be what we will take because they all belong to us in the first place.

Conservative book ‘When Harry Became Sally’ attacks trans people while conveniently leaving them out - Another book attacking the LGBTQ community and like all of the others, it's filled with distortions. 

Nearly 700,000 adults in the US have received gay conversion therapy - And guess how much have worked . . . go ahead. 

Lastly: 

NOW would be a perfect time to remind people that support of Donald Trump is not the only area in which evangelical conservatives have displayed questionable morals. Let's talk about their DECADES-LONG war on the #LGBTQ community via propaganda and junk science.

Just click on here to read and send (even if you have already) my free 2103 online book How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America.

Pediatrician isn't here for the anti-LGBTQ religious liberty con game

Daniel Summers, a gay pediatrician, has something to say about the new division of HHS designed to protect healthcare workers who refuse to give certain treatments under the grounds of "religious liberty." He pulls no punches and makes no apologies for his rejection of this idea.

In a piece published by  The Slate , Summers says the following:

If you are a healthcare provider who doesn’t want to treat LGBTQ people or their families, please don’t waste your time and mine applying for a job in my practice.  

  .  .  . Because many people justify their bigotry against gender and sexual minorities in religious terms, this new division is quite alarming news for LGBTQ people. The creation of this division appears to open the door for medical providers to, for example, refuse to provide gender confirmation treatment for trans people, or refuse to treat children with same-sex parents. 

 One attendee at the ceremony announcing this new division was Sara Hellwege, a nurse-midwife who sued in 2014 after being denied a job at a Florida health center. The reason she didn’t get the job? She admitted that she would refuse to prescribe birth control pills because of her religious beliefs—and prescribing birth control pills was part of the job she applied for. 

 She had no business seeking the position in the first place. 

 David Gorski, a surgeon and editor of the website Science-Based Medicine, expressed the views of many medical providers, myself included, when he tweeted that “physicians who refuse to treat certain patients based on their religious beliefs are in the wrong profession and should never have become doctors in the first place.”

  . .   .If you don’t think same-sex couples should be raising children, you won’t be interacting with families in my practice at all. If you’re not willing to discuss PrEP with your gay male patients, and think HIV prevention funding would be better spent on conversion therapy, you won’t be seeing any patients here. If you’re going to ignore the needs of our trans patients or insist on mis-gendering them, we have no opening here for you. And I don’t care at all if you justify any of that with your religion. 

Check out the entire column here.

News brief special - Evangelical conservatives hit with huge backlash over hypocritical support of Donald Trump

Editor's note - What was first a small occasional drip . . . drip and moved to a slow but steady trickle is now a raging flood. Conservative evangelicals, particularly their leadership, are now facing a tremendous backlash for their dogged support of Trump and minimizing of his bad behavior (which includes racism and cheating on his wife with a porn star). It would do the LGBTQ community some good to pay attention to this firestorm and "collect receipts" for the future.  This much deserved backlash probably won't make a dent in the "true believers" crowd who support conservative evangelicals, but you would be surprised how a little sunlight makes the truth more powerful. The truth, in this case being how these folks love to demonize the LGBTQ community, but those attacks like their support of Trump, is rooted in hypocrisy, fear tactics, and un-Christian desires for power. And barring a public "come to Jesus" moment in which they admit their hypocrisy (which probably won't happen), expect them to double-down and even triple-down on their support of Trump. These conservative evangelical leaders are incapable of admitting that they are wrong.



Don Lemon perfectly nails Franklin Graham’s ‘ends justify the means’ moral hypocrisy on Trump - See above video. It means a lot to me to see an openly gay man drag Franklin Graham for his hypocrisy.

Evangelical leader defends ‘mulligan’ remark about Trump, Stormy Daniels - The Family Research Council's Tony Perkins makes a fool of himself.

After Years Of Questioning Obama’s Christianity, Tony Perkins Gives Trump A ‘Mulligan’ On Porn Star Affair - Oh if there were only a way to compare how religious evangelicals leaders dogged Obama (who ran a scandal free, successful administration ) in relation to how they lovingly embrace Trump (who has arguably the worse administration in the history of this country). Oh wait. There is this lovely piece which looks at Tony Perkins's  (the one in the last news brief) attacks on Obama when he was in office.

Former RNC Chair Michael Steele: Trump’s Evangelical Backers Need To ‘Shut The Hell Up’ - Never thought I would agree with Michael Steele, but here we are.

The religious activists on the rise inside Trump's health department - The fruits of their rotten labor Part 1. 

‘Religious freedom’ for adoption discrimination on Georgia Republican’s to-do list - The fruits of some of their rotten labor Part 2.

And the editorial pages have been brutal:

Trump's a true-believing Christian? Tell me, how does that work?

Michael Gerson: The Trump evangelicals have lost their gag reflex

Hypocritical conservative evangelicals shelter themselves from Stormygate

Franklin Graham rails against 'sin of homosexuality' days after justifying Donald Trump's sins

One would think that in light of all the scrutiny paid to the hypocritical support religious evangelicals give Donald Trump, they would be in a position of hiding or at least self-examination.

Not hardly. In spite of admissions that they only support Trump and defend his many bouts of behavior because of the power he gives them, religious evangelical leaders seem to want us to pretend that there nothing wrong with what they are doing.

Case in point is Franklin Graham. Today, he posted the following on his facebook page:

Please bear in mind that only days ago, Graham was giving poor denials to allegations that Trump racially slurred foreign countries or paid off a porn star he had an affair with at the time of present wife's pregnancy.

Finally, when pressed by about past comments he made claiming that America has a "sin problem," Graham said Trump wasn't perfect.

Keep it up, Mr. Franklin. Don't think people neither see nor know what you are doing. Dig that hole and when it gets deep enough, enjoy not being able to get out of it.

'Religious right leader Tony Perkins admits it - evangelicals don't care about Trump's behavior as long as he gives them power' & other Tue midday news briefs

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (first picture) admits that as long as Donald Trump gives the evangelical right power in terms of policy, they will overlook his consistent bad and incompetent behavior and  instead will treat him like the new Messiah (second picture.)

The Family Research Council head says that evangelical conservatives are willing to overlook Trump’s past behavior so long as he delivers for them on policy - So many things to unpack from this article:

1. Without a degree of shame, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council admits that the religious right are willing to overlook Trump's un-Christian behavior if he continues to give them what they want in terms of policy - i.e. the power to control people's lives and divert the direction of this country, less healthcare for women, and an undermining/reversal of the LGBTQ equality and safety. I always knew this. So many others already knew this. However. it's amazing to hear Perkins simply admit that all of the religious right's talk about a "moral crisis" in America over the years was a big fat lie. 

 2. If Perkins is accurate, evangelicals do not like John McCain and, just like Trump, don't view him as a war hero because he got captured. 

3. It's not just that evangelicals will overlook Trump's bad behavior. As shown in the article, they sometimes give justifications & lies about his bad behavior 

 4. The religious right should never get to demonize the LGBTQ community ever again without being strongly and repeatedly reminded of this moment.

Evangelical conservatives surrendered moral authority to Trump. They don't deserve to get it back.- A perfect time to remind folks about last night's post.

Here Are the 2018 GLAAD Media Awards Nominees - Congratulations to all of the nominees, including several of my friends for their nominations in the category of 'Outstanding Blog.' Having been nominated three times and winning one last year, I know how much of a thrill this is. Enjoy it because y'all deserve it. 

Laverne Cox Makes History As Cosmopolitan’s First Transgender Cover Girl - Not bad. Not bad at all.

Evangelical conservatives surrendered moral authority to Trump. They don't deserve to get it back.

Religious conservatives surrendered their moral authority to Trump. They don't deserve to get it back.

Recently, someone in my Sunday school put forth an interesting theory which got a lot of support. She claimed that God may have put Trump in the White House, not as a vouch of support, but to send a message to people about certain interests and concepts.

That may have a ring of truth when one considers how the evangelical right have acted with him in office, i.e. like greedy hogs at a trough constantly eating and not caring about being seen as gluttons. Today is yet another example.

According to this tweet, conservative evangelicals consider Trump's first year as a success.

The Trump administration is "genuinely interested and responsive to the concerns of the evangelical community." @tperkins @TheBrodyFile @CBNNews #POTUS https://t.co/N6ZGqgku2y

— FRC (@FRCdc) January 22, 2018

And why shouldn't they consider him a success for their cause. After all, he has given them unprecedented access and power. He has bowed to their desire for symbolic support, vouched for their ideas that their religion makes them superior, and has partly surrendered secular government agencies and judiciaries to their control.

But they don't seem to understand what they have lost.

The video below shows the many of the gaffes and horrors Trump has committed in his first year. From his awful Muslim ban to the mind-boggling irresponsible comments he made after the Charlottesville tragedy, the gaffes and horrors are many. America needed a loud and visible moral voice to remind us about the goodness of this country because of these gaffes and horrors. We received that moral voice, but it didn't come from the conservative evangelical community. They were too busy either counting the coins Trump threw at them or justifying his unjustifiable acts to receive more.

Bottom line - whenever Trump leaves office, Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, and the rest of that ilk shouldn't have moral authority to criticize folks for scratching their junk in the public, much less criticizing this country's moral climate. And as far as I am concerned, that specifically speaks about the LGBTQ community. Evangelical conservatives no longer have what little moral authority they did hold to call us out. Ever again.

Video shows intricate dangers of anti-LGBTQ discrimination

A new video released by the Colorado-based independent think tank Movement Advancement Project highlights things which people should be aware of regarding anti-LGBTQ discrimination. It goes beyond scenarios like baking cakes and arranging flowers. As the video shows, even the simplest things, such as going to the movies, can be problematic when ignorance is thrown into the mix. And many times, people aren't aware because they aren't specifically affected. 

'More cash than Christ' - Franklin Graham called out for hypocritical defense of Donald Trump

In the midst of the madness that is the Trump Administration (the latest being Trump's lack of good leadership has led to a government shutdown and it was discovered that before the election, his lawyer paid off a porn star, Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about an affair she had with him), Franklin Graham stepped up today to defend him.

Graham, who seems to never been speechless when it comes to denigrating the LGBTQ community, offered an absolutely ridiculous defense of Trump

  

Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, was questioned by MSNBC “Live” anchor Alex Witt on Saturday. 

Witt asked Graham how he could support President Trump after his sh*thole comments.
“He said he didn’t say it,” Graham said. “I don’t think any of those senators, if he did use that language, have heard that word for the first time. I’m sure that’s a word they’ve used before, I think there’s a little hypocrisy here.” 

“He said he didn’t say it, so I have to go along with the president in that he didn’t say it,” Graham claimed. 

“We have a businessman who is a president, not a politician, but a businessman,” Graham said. “We should all be grateful that he’s brought his knowledge to Washington and he’s helping to turn this economy around.” 

“Reverend, you just told me that this country has a sin problem and I know you’ve no doubt heard that the president is accused of having his lawyer pay $130,000 to a former porn star allegedly for her silence about his sexual encounter while he’s married,” Witt said. “The previous allegations as well, that access “Access Hollywood” tape, does that challenge your faith in the president?” 

“Does the president have a sin problem?” Witt asked. 

“I can promise you he is not President Perfect,” Graham replied.

In response to that, another pastor, William Barber, let loose with both barrels at Franklin during an appearance on "AM Joy" with MSNBC's Joy Reid:

“What we see here is a mass coverup by so-called white evangelicalism that’s more about, as I’ve said before, cash than Christ,” Barber explained. 

 “It’s heavily funded, you see Franklin Graham saying we have a sin problem. We do. But it’s not what they’re talking about.” “We see 365 days of attacks on voting rights, that’s sin, attacks on Muslims, that’s sin, attacks on the LGBT community, that’s sin, attacks on health care, attacks on living wages, giving the greedy and the wealthy tax breaks on the backs of the poor and the working poor,” Barber said. 

 “Wherever you look in the scripture, that’s sin. Anyone who attempts to justify that is engaging in a modern day form of heresy.” “It’s just wrong what he’s saying. Actually, I would say to my brother Franklin Graham, he needs to stop lying, tell the truth and not being bought off or paid or whatever is causing him to misrepresent the faith like that.”