By in
Rhode Island’s Future
Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, is coming to the south steps of the Rhode Island
State House on August 31 at noon, to preach his message of anti-LGBTQ, anti-Islam,
pro-theocracy intolerance. Graham is visiting Rhode Island as part of a
50-state tour.
“I’m going to every state in our country,” says
Graham on his website, “to challenge Christians to live out their faith
at home, in public and at the ballot box—and I will share the Gospel.”
Graham’s gospel
includes the demonization of those who don’t subscribe to his narrow, biblical
world view. Graham “and his pals,” writes Rob Boston,
director of communications at Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, “lost the marriage equality case at the U.S.
Supreme Court, but they didn’t let that slow them down. Almost immediately,
they started attacking the transgender community.”
Graham’s tour is timed
to have maximum impact on the coming presidential election, even as he tries to
pretend that his message somehow transcends politics.
“I am running a
campaign, but I am running a campaign for God,” says Graham on his 50-state
tour website. His message isn’t one of unity and peace, it’s one built on the
familiar right-wing tropes of hate and fear.
“The secularists, the progressives, many of these people, most of them are people that would be atheistic, and we have taken God out of our country,” said Graham during his Facebook live prayer event, scheduled before the start of the Republican National Convention,
“We have taken Him out of our nation; we have taken Him out of our government. We have taken Him out of the education system, and our country is beginning to implode. We’re on the precipice of anarchy.”
Graham reserves his
most vile verbal venom for members of the LGBTQ community.
“I want the school
boards of America in the hands of evangelical Christians within the next four
to six years,” said Graham to Fox News’ Todd Starnes,
“And it can happen and that will have a huge impact because so many school
districts now are controlled by wicked, evil people, and the gays and lesbians,
and I keep bringing their name up, but they are at the forefront of this attack
against Christianity in America.”
Franklin went to Russia in 2015 to praise “President Vladimir Putin’s protection of ‘traditional Christianity,’
including the passage of the 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law that effectively
criminalizes pro-gay-rights speech and advocacy.”
While in Russia,
Graham didn’t miss his chance to put down the country of his birth.
“[T]he situation in the US regarding religion is in decline. Secularism, which is almost no different from communism, is an atheistic movement. Our country is becoming more and more secular, more atheist, taking God out of government, taking God out of schools. We are witnessing America losing many religious freedoms. In your country over the past 30 years, we have seen positive changes. But over this same period of time in the US, the changes have been negative.”
If you’re not
convinced that Franklin Graham is a monster, consider that he called the
“first national monument to the gay rights movement near the site of the Stonewall protests in New York City” an “Unbelievable…
monument to sin,” adding, “It’s no surprise that the three officials who
represent the area and support the monument are all openly gay.”
Consider that Graham told a capacity
crowd in Alabama that the idea of separating church and state
is “just a lie that the enemy uses to try to keep your mouth shut.”
Consider that he lead the effort to
boycott Girl Scout cookies
because of the group’s acceptance of lesbian, bisexual, queer and transgender
youth, saying, he “won’t be buying any Girl Scout cookies this year.”
Then there’s Graham’s
anti-Islam rants, a featured part of his public comments and sermons since 9/11. In the aftermath of the attacks, writes William Alberts in Counterpunch, Graham called Islam a
“very wicked and evil religion.” In the same Counterpunch piece Alberts wrote:
Rev. Graham’s glorification of his brand of Christianity depends on him condemning Islam as a “violent form of faith,” which led him to do violence to Islam with this glaring lie: “‘Nowhere in its history gives proof of peace (italics added).’” He continued, “‘Islam itself has not changed at all in 1500 years . . . It is the same. It is a religion of war.’” He cited the Islamic State, the Taliban and Boko Haram, and concluded, “This is Islam. It has not been hijacked by radicals. This is the faith, this is the religion. It is what it is. It speaks for itself.”
In Rhode Island, the
LGBTQ and Muslim communities have united against hate and violence, especially in the wake of the Orlando shootings.
When a mosque was vandalized in North Kingstown, members of the LGBTQ community attended an interfaith
vigil in support.
Franklin Graham is
visiting a state that was founded on principles diametrically opposed to his
brand of intolerance, fear and stupidity. I am confident he will not find
fertile ground for his bigotry in the state founded by Roger Williams.
Steve Ahlquist is an award-winning journalist,
writer, artist and founding member of the Humanists of Rhode Island, a
non-profit group dedicated to reason, compassion, optimism, courage and action.
The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of any organization
of which he is a member. atomicsteve@gmail.com
and Twitter: @SteveAhlquist