{"id":26132,"date":"2025-01-17T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=26132"},"modified":"2025-01-17T09:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T14:10:12","slug":"does-franklin-graham-believe-the-la-fires-are-gods-judgment-on-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/01\/does-franklin-graham-believe-the-la-fires-are-gods-judgment-on-hollywood","title":{"rendered":"Does Franklin Graham Believe the LA Fires are \u201cGod\u2019s judgment\u201d on Hollywood?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_26117\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26117\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/01\/franklin-graham-fires_credit-Adobe-Stock_Insetcouncil.gov_.ru-wikimedia-commons.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26117\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/01\/franklin-graham-fires_credit-Adobe-Stock_Insetcouncil.gov_.ru-wikimedia-commons.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26117\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock | Inset: council.gov.ru \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As fires continue to rage in LA into their second week, Franklin Graham weighed in on whether he thought the fires were a result of God \u201cjudging\u201d Hollywood. Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan\u2019s Purse, discussed the devastation. \u201cPeople have lost everything,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/premierchristian.news\/en\/news\/article\/it-s-not-god-s-judgement-franklin-graham-weighs-in-on-devastating-hollywood-wildfires\">he said<\/a>. \u201cA lot of people are asking \u2018Why?\u2019, and that\u2019s a hard question to answer. We want to reassure them of God\u2019s love \u2013 that He cares for them and that He hasn\u2019t turned His back on them.\u201d He noted that images of pain and suffering have become more prevalent due to technology like TVs and smart phones.\u00a0 \u201cThe reality is we&#8217;re going to have more storms like this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt&#8217;s not going to get less and the most important thing that we as Christians can do is make sure everyone understands that God loves them. And that when storms like this come, it&#8217;s not God&#8217;s judgement. I don&#8217;t believe that for a second. We know that God loves us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Graham began to speculate about the possibility of why the Hollywood area, which has often been at odds with a Christian worldview, was facing a particularly devastating fire. &#8220;Could God be judging Hollywood? I don&#8217;t know, but I don&#8217;t think so,\u201d he said. Graham stressed that the most important thing was to have the assurance that should catastrophe happen, people are prepared to meet Jesus. \u201cWe can have that assurance, knowing that whatever storms come our way in life, we&#8217;ll be prepared to stand before God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Graham\u2019s Samaritan\u2019s Purse, as well as other Christian disaster response programs have been gearing up to head to LA once the fires are contained enough. Groups such as Convoy of Hope and World Help are also working to send aid. A group of four from Samaritan\u2019s North Carolina support team has already landed in LA. \u201cSamaritan&#8217;s Purse has an assessment team on the ground for the fires as we speak,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wxii12.com\/article\/samaritans-purse-volunteers-from-north-carolina-respond-to-wildfires-in-california\/63435487\">said<\/a> Samaritan Purse&#8217;s Jason Kimak. There are plans to send more volunteers to the area. The team remains on standby until the fire can be safely contained. \u201cWe&#8217;re just trying to help families look through ashes and find personal belongings like heirlooms, jewelry, coins. Or things that will bring back memories,\u201d said Kimak. \u201cAs soon as we get clearance from emergency management and local officials on the ground, we will start bringing in volunteers to work in the burn zones. We want those impacted to know there is hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As fires continue to rage in LA into their second week, Franklin Graham weighed in on whether he thought the fires were a result of God \u201cjudging\u201d Hollywood. Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan\u2019s Purse, discussed the devastation. \u201cPeople have lost everything,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people are asking \u2018Why?\u2019,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":26117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,723],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-billy-graham"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Does Franklin Graham Believe the LA Fires are \u201cGod\u2019s judgment\u201d on Hollywood?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/01\/does-franklin-graham-believe-the-la-fires-are-gods-judgment-on-hollywood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does Franklin Graham Believe the LA Fires are \u201cGod\u2019s judgment\u201d on Hollywood?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As fires continue to rage in LA into their second week, Franklin Graham weighed in on whether he thought the fires were a result of God \u201cjudging\u201d Hollywood. Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan\u2019s Purse, discussed the devastation. \u201cPeople have lost everything,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people are asking \u2018Why?\u2019,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/01\/does-franklin-graham-believe-the-la-fires-are-gods-judgment-on-hollywood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-17T14:10:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/01\/franklin-graham-fires_credit-Adobe-Stock_Insetcouncil.gov_.ru-wikimedia-commons.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does Franklin Graham Believe the LA Fires are \u201cGod\u2019s judgment\u201d on Hollywood?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/01\/does-franklin-graham-believe-the-la-fires-are-gods-judgment-on-hollywood","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does Franklin Graham Believe the LA Fires are \u201cGod\u2019s judgment\u201d on Hollywood?","og_description":"As fires continue to rage in LA into their second week, Franklin Graham weighed in on whether he thought the fires were a result of God \u201cjudging\u201d Hollywood. Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan\u2019s Purse, discussed the devastation. \u201cPeople have lost everything,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of people are asking \u2018Why?\u2019,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/01\/does-franklin-graham-believe-the-la-fires-are-gods-judgment-on-hollywood","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-01-17T14:10:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/01\/franklin-graham-fires_credit-Adobe-Stock_Insetcouncil.gov_.ru-wikimedia-commons.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia 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