Obits For Evangelist Billy Graham Fail To Mention Opposition To Gay Rights

Evangelist Billy Graham died Wednesday at his home in Montreat, North Carolina. He was 99.

According to a spokesman for the family, Graham died in his sleep.

The Southern Baptist minister has been called one of the most influential preachers of the 20^th century. The son of a dairy farmer, Graham hosted an annual evangelistic campaign, the Billy Graham Crusades, from 1947 to 2005, and a popular radio show, the Hour of Decision, from 1950 to 1954. He reached millions through television and radio.

Graham provided spiritual counsel for every U.S. president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama. President Donald Trump was one of the more than 800 guests who attended Graham's 95^th birthday celebration in 2013.

Graham is often described as a moderate preacher who refused to pass judgment on people. Most of his obituaries praise Graham's record on civil rights – he invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to join him on one of his crusades – but fail to mention he opposed LGBT rights.

“My calling is to preach the love of God and the forgiveness of God,” Graham told Larry King in 2005. “In my earlier ministry, I did the same [as other fundamentalists preachers], but as I got older I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.”

Graham was deeply opposed to same-sex relationships. He once told a woman who wrote to him that her “misdirected” affection for another woman “will be judged by God's holy standards,” the HuffPost reported. He also told the woman that Christ could “heal” her of her same-sex attraction.

Graham, in 1993, asked whether AIDS is “a judgment of God” during a rally in Columbus, Ohio. “I could not be sure, but I think so,” he told the crowd. He later told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he “immediately regretted” the remark. “To say that God has judged people with AIDS would be very wrong and cruel,” he said. “I would like to say that I am very sorry for what I said.”

In 2012, Graham also backed passage of a North Carolina constitutional amendment which would define marriage as a heterosexual union. His endorsement came in a full-page ad which appeared in several newspapers. “The Bible is clear – God's definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote FOR the marriage amendment on Tuesday, May 8.” Voters approved the amendment.

But by the 1990s, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) was being run by Graham's son, Franklin Graham, a vocal opponent of LGBT rights. Some suspect that the younger Graham was behind placement of the ad and that his father, who was 93 at the time and in poor health, was not involved.

Franklin Graham, who took part in Trump's inauguration, has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin's opposition to LGBT rights, has warned that marriage equality will lead to the “disintegration of our culture,” has criticized President Barack Obama's support for same-sex marriage, has called for the repeal of local LGBT protections, has called for a boycott of Disney over its inclusion of LGBT characters, has called homosexuality a “sin,” and has said that he is not afraid to have his head “chopped off” for opposing LGBT rights.