Franklin Graham, an evangelical Christian preacher and son of Billy Graham, has called for a new boycott on gay-friendly businesses–and he’s just getting started.
After banking giant Wells Fargo ran a TV ad featuring a lesbian couple and their adopted daughter, Graham announced that he’d move all of the bank accounts for his two ministries–Billy Graham Evangelistic Associate and Samaritan’s Purse–out of the bank. He plans to have the accounts, which total a whopping $460 million in assets, closed within the next 30 days.
“This is the only way we as Christians can speak out–we have the power of choice,” Graham said, on a Facebook post. “Let’s just stop doing business with those who promote sin and stand against Almighty God’s laws and His standards.”
He added: “Maybe if enough of us do this, it will get their attention.”
And just like that, Graham’s boycott was born.
Graham’s not targeting companies that hire or serve gay or lesbians–that would be virtually impossible, considering practically every nationwide brand has done so.
But he plans to make sure his money (and his ministries’ money) doesn’t go to companies that actively promote “a godless lifestyle,” as he puts it. He adds that companies “should not be trying to get into a moral debate and take sides.”
Overall, Graham’s plan seems to be to mobilize Christians into boycotting these businesses–just enough to make sure they stop airing offensive ads like the ones Wells Fargo did, which Graham considers to be against Christian teachings.
With the boycott just beginning, it’s hard to know exactly how many Christians Graham can rally against nationwide companies that are pro-gay marriage—but Christians remain a large majority of Americans, so it’s possible that this could have a sizeable impact.
However, he faces an uphill climb in mobilizing many of those Christians: in a recent poll, apparently 7 in 10 Americans feel the gay marriage fight is already lost–admitting that it’s “inevitable” that gay marriage will eventually be legal in all 50 states.
But Graham–and the Christians in his ministries–aren’t going down without a fight. Only time will tell whether or not they can make enough of an impact to stem the tide.
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