Franklin Graham says LGBTQ+ advocates have an "evil agenda" & calls for "regime change" in the US
“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” — Mark 11:25
Franklin Graham is a horrible man, a sanctimonious hater, and a Christian in name only. He is long known for his vile diatribes against people who do not conform to his white heteronormative patrimony. And he took to Facebook this weekend to burnish his baleful bigotry. And once again, the LGBT+ community and their families, friends, and supporters were the objects of his acerbic diatribe.
The inspiration for his ire was a two-page release from the Department of Health & Human Services entitled, “Gender-Affirming Care and Young People”. On March 31st, Transgender Visibility Day, The Daily Caller, a reliably fact-challenged conservative website (founded in part By Tucker Carlson) reported on the release. They reviewed it through their right-wing lens and were quick to point out that toward the end, the authors had suggested that, on a “case by case" basis, it may be appropriate to perform gender-affirming surgeries on adolescents.
In fairness let's note that, while The Daily Caller did highlight the bits sure to inflame the tender sensibilities of the ever-ready-to-be-riled-up base, they did it without hyperbole or hysteria. Not so Franklin Graham. This biblical cherry-picker hyperventilated his feelings in a Facebook post linking to the Daily Caller’s article.
He starts with,
“This is vile. It’s one of the most wicked initiatives that we've seen come out of Washington. President Biden’s Democratic administration is endorsing sex-change operations and hormone treatments for children. Mutilating bodies and removing the genitalia of children is permanent. All of their manipulated research saying that it improves mental health or increases happiness is just a lie from hell. What it really does is destroy the lives and futures of these children.”
If you take the rantings of this man at face value, you would assume that the Biden administration is advocating for indiscriminate surgical and hormonal intervention in children’s healthcare with no regard for their wellbeing today - or in the future. And that research indicating gender dysphoria is a psychological trauma that needs to be addressed is “a lie from hell”.
How does that kind of language help anybody? Graham has no background, education, or experience that gives him any expertise in medicine, science, or child development. His opinion is based only on his prejudices. Prejudices originally instilled and cultivated by a perverted reading of the Bible.
Has Graham ever talked to an adolescent with gender issues? Has he spoken with anyone who has received gender-affirming counseling, hormones, and/or surgery? Has he had conversations with anyone who has done research in the field? Has he taken a dispassionate look at the subject? Of course he has not. He is a religious zealot interested in hurting people he does not like. People he has never met.
Whether Jesus was the Son of God or not — or whether he even existed or not — his empathy and message of compassion are evident. Graham does not care. He gives dismal weight to Mathama Gandhi’s comment, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” (Actually, Gandhi never said this, but another Indian philosopher Bara Dada did say “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians, you are not like him.”)
Graham added,
“Churches and followers of Jesus Christ must stand against this evil agenda. Politicians who support this shouldn’t be in leadership, and we need to work to get them out of office in the next election—whether they're Republican or Democrat [sic]. Speaking of regime changes—we need one in this country. What do you think? “
Conservatives love to talk about “regimes” — with its implication of authoritarianism — whenever the Democrats are in power. But that is just more hysteria. Every two years, Americans have the opportunity to go to the polls and vote for a change in the government. Authoritarianism only exists in countries where the vote is denied or diminished by redistricting that curtails the political power of an opponent. A result Republicans, not Democrats, are legislating for.
And as for “agenda” what does he think the administration is trying to do? Ruin the lives of kids because they are sadists who take pleasure in inflicting pain? Hell. I am the last to claim that liberals get everything right. But when it comes to inflicting pain on children, that is a conservative ambition.
Franklin Graham long ago rejected religious Christianity for political Christianity. He is a cynic who uses the Bible the way other conservatives use the Constitution to justify their biases. And they can do so because the base does not read. They want Graham and his fellow travelers to tell them what to think and who to hate.
If — or when, as Graham believes — Jesus were to return, it is clear whose side he would be on. He would celebrate with good people, whatever their sexuality and gender. And he would do his damndest to help abject sinners like Franklin Graham see the error of their ways. So they might become decent human beings worthy of being called a Christian.