Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist
Billy Graham, on Thursday said he was prepared to get his head
“chopped off” for opposing gay rights.
Speaking at the Family Research
Council's (FRC) Watchmen on the Walls conference, Graham told the
assembled pastors that they need to be willing to have their heads
chopped off for speaking “the truth” about gays.
“Are we going to be cowards because
we're afraid?” he
rhetorically asked the crowd. “Could we get our heads chopped
off? We could, maybe one day. So what? Chop it off!”
“But we don't want to be called a
homophobic? And I tell people, 'Listen I'm not afraid of
homosexuals, as a matter of fact I love 'em.' I love them enough to
care to warn them that if they want to continue living like this,
it's the flames of hell for you.”
Graham went on to say that people
should not get mad at him, because he did not write the rule book.
“Almighty God wrote it. And it's a
sin against him,” Graham said. (The video is embedded on this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Of course, there are many Christian
denominations that disagree with Graham's views on such issues. For
instance, the
United Church of Christ has filed a lawsuit in federal court
arguing that North Carolina's ban on gay marriage infringes on their
religious rights to marry gay and lesbian couples.