Christian conservative Franklin Graham
has criticized Pope Francis' endorsement of civil unions for gay and
lesbian couples.
Francis, the spiritual leader of 1.2
billion Roman Catholics, made the comments in Francesco, a
documentary on Pope Francis that premiered Wednesday at the Rome Film
Festival.
“Homosexuals have a right to be a
part of the family,” Pope Francis said. “They're children of God
and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made
miserable because of it.”
“What we have to create is a civil
union law. That way they are legally covered,” he added.
Graham, a vocal opponent of LGBT rights
and a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, wrote in a Facebook
post that Francis was attempting to “normalize homosexuality” and
that gay people face “eternal death.”
“For Pope Francis to attempt to
normalize homosexuality is to say that Holy Scriptures are false,
that our sins really don’t matter, and that we can continue living
in them,” Graham wrote. “If that were true, then Jesus Christ’s
death, burial, and resurrection wouldn’t have been needed. No one
has the right or the authority to trivialize Christ’s sacrifice on
our behalf.”
“Yes, God makes it clear that He
loves us and does want us to be part of His family, but He also tells
us how that can happen. The Bible says, 'Repent therefore and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord' (Acts 3:19).”
“The consequence of an unrepentant,
unbelieving heart is also clear in the Word of God – eternal
death.”
(Related: Franklin
Graham denies he's homophobic: “I don't bash homosexuals.”)
“Unless we repent and receive His
offer of forgiveness, surrendering our lives to Him, we will spend
eternity a part of a different family when we leave this earth –
the family of the condemned,” he added.
In 2010, Francis vehemently opposed
passage of an equal marriage bill in his native Argentina.