{"id":1309,"date":"2019-04-29T13:51:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T13:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2019-04-29T13:51:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T13:51:27","slug":"is-franklin-graham-a-bigot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html","title":{"rendered":"Is My Brother a Bigot?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An opinion writer at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, wrote an opinion criticizing my brother, Franklin Graham, for saying that Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg&#8217;s homosexual lifestyle is a sin. <\/p>\n<p>She quotes a Robert Jones from the People&#8217;s Religious Research Institute, \u201cWhile Franklin Graham has not changed his tune on LGBT rights in decades, the American public has. Graham\u2019s recent comments about Pete Buttigieg are strongly out of step not only with the country as a whole but with most Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As believing Christians, we do not get our convictions from the most recent polling data. That changes from day-to-day, year to year. Our convictions do not have to be in step with the American public. Our convictions are based on the Word of God.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Rubin writes:&#8221;Graham\u2019s generation may be the last that condemns gay marriage. The PRRI report found that 53 percent of young white evangelical Protestants (ages 18 to 29) favor the legality of same-sex marriage, compared to just 25 percent of white evangelical seniors. Nearly 6 in 10 young Republicans (ages 18 to 29) favor the legality of same-sex marriage, compared to only 28 percent of Republican seniors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Have we lost biblical convictions to political correctness and our own standards? Is there no higher authority? Are our standards based on polling? Popularity? Feelings? Our own opinions? I fear so.<\/p>\n<p>I once asked a young UVA student what her world view was. She said she just wanted to be kind to everyone. There was no acknowledgement of an absolute power and higher authority than herself. This is how our young people are making decisions. Is that the right way?<\/p>\n<p>In the book of Judges in the Bible, it says over and over again that &#8220;everyman did what was right in their own eyes.&#8221;(Judges 17:6) That is where we are. We are doing what is right in our own eyes &#8211; from same-sex marriage to post-birth abortion. We are calling good evil and evil good.<\/p>\n<p>My convictions, and my brother&#8217;s are based on what God says in the Bible. Franklin wasn&#8217;t just stating his opinion &#8211; I don&#8217;t much care what his &#8220;opinion&#8221; might be &#8217;cause it could change. But Franklin was quoting what God says. Ms. Rubin&#8217;s argument isn&#8217;t with my brother but with God Himself.<\/p>\n<p>God says homosexuality is a sin &#8211; as is adultery, murder, lying &#8211; a sin that can be forgiven. <\/p>\n<p>But God will hold us accountable for our sins as a nation and as individuals when we thumb our noses at His absolute truth as revealed in His Word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An opinion writer at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, wrote an opinion criticizing my brother, Franklin Graham, for saying that Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg&#8217;s homosexual lifestyle is a sin. She quotes a Robert Jones from the People&#8217;s Religious Research Institute, \u201cWhile Franklin Graham has not changed his tune on LGBT rights in decades, the American&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,373],"tags":[375,377,378,374,376],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-franklin-graham","category-political-correctness","tag-convictions","tag-homosexuality","tag-out-of-step","tag-pete-butigieg","tag-political-correctness"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is My Brother a Bigot? - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/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\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is My Brother a Bigot? - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An opinion writer at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, wrote an opinion criticizing my brother, Franklin Graham, for saying that Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg&#8217;s homosexual lifestyle is a sin. She quotes a Robert Jones from the People&#8217;s Religious Research Institute, \u201cWhile Franklin Graham has not changed his tune on LGBT rights in decades, the American&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-29T13:51:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is My Brother a Bigot? - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","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\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is My Brother a Bigot? - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"An opinion writer at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, wrote an opinion criticizing my brother, Franklin Graham, for saying that Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg&#8217;s homosexual lifestyle is a sin. She quotes a Robert Jones from the People&#8217;s Religious Research Institute, \u201cWhile Franklin Graham has not changed his tune on LGBT rights in decades, the American&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html","og_site_name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","article_published_time":"2019-04-29T13:51:27+00:00","author":"Ruth Graham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html","name":"Is My Brother a Bigot? - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-04-29T13:51:27+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-29T13:51:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2019\/04\/is-franklin-graham-a-bigot.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is My Brother a Bigot?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/","name":"Safe Place with Ruth Graham","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Ruth Graham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/#\/schema\/person\/76d20e190c3b83823997a9f422b86975","name":"Ruth Graham","description":"\u201cTransparent\u201d is the word most people use to describe Ruth Graham. No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her life Bible verse is John 1:16.","sameAs":["http:\/\/ruthgrahamministries.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/author\/rgraham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1313,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions\/1313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}