Evangelical icon and proud Trump supporter Franklin Graham — who once boiled down Trump’s affair and pay-off to a porn star to “nobody’s business” — went on a Twitter tirade attempting to jab presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg for being gay.
The Twitter sermon predictably backfired.
Graham called Buttigieg’s sexuality a “sin” that shouldn’t be “flaunted, praised or politicized” and defined marriage as a union between “a man and a woman,” a staple moral and political conviction for most conservative evangelicals.
Presidential candidate & South Bend Mayor @PeteButtigieg is right—God doesn’t have a political party. But God does have commandments, laws & standards He gives us to live by. God doesn’t change. His Word is the same yesterday, today & forever. 1/3 https://t.co/QHDNY3pwzJ
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) April 24, 2019
Mayor Buttigieg says he’s a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized. The Bible says marriage is between a man & a woman—not two men, not two women. 2/3
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) April 24, 2019
The core of the Christian faith is believing and following Jesus Christ, who God sent to be the Savior of the world—to save us from sin, to save us from hell, to save us from eternal damnation. 3/3
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) April 24, 2019
Graham was predictably dragged on Twitter for the rant, with some of Twitter’s most prominent LGBT voices, like writer Roxane Gay and “Ellen” show producer Andy Lassner, schooling Graham on his views.
Congratulations.
You’re everything Jesus wasn’t.— andy lassner (@andylassner) April 25, 2019
God doesn’t like you at all so worry about that.
— roxane gay (@rgay) April 25, 2019
Buttigieg’s campaign declined to comment to TPM, but it’s not the first time that conservative evangelicals have attempted to diminish Buttigieg, an Episcopal, for holding what they feel are conflicting morals.
Vice President Mike Pence — former governor of Indiana, where Buttigieg is the mayor of a midsize town — and Buttigieg have engaged in similar sparring matches over Pence’s conservative religious beliefs and his record on LGBT issues. Buttigieg spoke to Pence directly during a speech at the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s National Champagne Breakfast earlier this month.
“That’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: That if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me,” he said. “Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
Pence in turn scolded Buttigieg for picking a fight when “he knows better. … he knows me.”
In recent weeks, Buttigieg has been forced to defend his own Christian beliefs against an onslaught from evangelicals like Pence who are thrown off by the perceived dissonance of being Christian and being gay.
