Rev. Franklin Graham on Gay Marriage Ruling: ‘There is a Storm That’s Coming’

Evangelical preacher Franklin Graham warned Americans that “a storm” is coming when he joined nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity on a Friday broadcast to discuss the moral and societal implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalizing gay marriage.

Rev. Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse and the son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, said that America has been “slipping away” from the nation’s Christian foundations. He warned listeners that “God takes sin very seriously,” and encouraged them “to repent...and be willing to accept Christ by faith into our hearts, into our lives.”

Rev. Graham also acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s ruling poses a serious threat to traditional marriage, because “the gay and lesbian community...will want to keep coming and taking away the freedoms that we have.”

“There is a storm that’s coming,” Rev. Graham said.

Here is a transcript:  

Hannity: “What is your take on this?”

Graham: “Well, Sean, of course I’m disappointed, but at the same time, I’m not surprised. Our country has been slipping every year further and further away from the God of the Bible -- the foundation that our nation was built on. We’re slipping away from that. And I believe that we need to do everything we can to warn people of the consequences of sin.

“Homosexuality is sin. Same-sex marriage is a sin against God. Now, people who don’t believe in God don’t care about that, but at the same time, Sean, God is going to judge sinners, so I love them enough to warn them of the consequences of sin.

“And I want everyone who’s listening -- I’m not here to throw stones at you because you want to marry someone of the same sex -- I just want to warn you, and I do this in love, that God will judge sin. God takes sin very seriously. God cannot tolerate sin in his presence. Lying is a sin, stealing is a sin, committing adultery [is a] sin. We’re all sinners, Sean, and Franklin Graham is a sinner.”

Hannity: “By the way, premarital sex is a sin, adultery is a sin.”

Graham: “No question. Bearing false witness is a sin. And so we’re all sinners, but yet God loves us, and God sent His Son from heaven to this earth to take our sins.

“When Jesus Christ died on that cross, Sean, and He shed his blood on the cross, and suffered on that cross, He was buried for our sins, and God raised Him to life and on the third day -- and God will come into any heart, and He’s willing to forgive our sins, but we have to repent, and repent means to turn, Sean. We have to turn and leave the sins, and be willing to accept Christ by faith into our hearts, into our lives.

“So I want everyone to know God will forgive your sins, regardless of what they are, he will forgive them if you are willing to come to him through faith in his son, Jesus Christ.”

Hannity: “I want to go back to the majority opinion, and I want to go back to Justice Scalia’s analysis of this. And he talks about the majority questioning, he calls it their ‘high-handed invalidation of a presumptively valid statute is to act’ -- and the majority he is saying is doing this in this decision, and that those that passed the Defense of Marriage Act, those that support traditional marriage...the majority is saying that it was passed ‘with the purpose to ‘disparage,’ ‘injure,’ ‘degrade,’ ‘demean,’ ‘humiliate’ our fellow human beings, our fellow citizens, who are homosexual.

“All that, simply for supporting [the Defense of Marriage] Act that did no more than codify an aspect of marriage that had been unquestioned in our society for most of its existence -- indeed, had been unquestioned in virtually all societies for virtually all of human history’...

“If they [the Supreme Court majority] are saying this is disparaging, injuring, degrading, demeaning, humiliating, etc., what does this mean for churches, such as your faith, which is the Christian faith, that believes that, as you just stated, homosexuality is a sin?

“Do you worry at some point that the Supreme Court will rule your faith invalid? Because, in their words, it does all of those things: disparages, injures, degrades, demeans, humiliates.”

Graham: “Well, they did address -- I think it’s in paragraph 627 -- where it says that ‘Finally, it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered.’

“So, we’ve got some protection in that, but no question, I believe the gay and lesbian community -- they will want to keep coming and taking away the freedoms that we have.”

Hannity: “So, in other words...you anticipate a collision course here, between this rights movement and religious rights and their ability to discern or practice their faith, even if, as you believe, that this is a sin.”

Graham: “I do believe were gonna have more battles as we go down the road. And we just have to be prepared, Sean, and be ready for it. There is a storm that’s coming.”

“And there’s less than 2 percent, according to the CDC, of Americans that participate or practice homosexuality -- less than 2 percent. Yet, this whole country is being divided and ripped apart because of just 2 percent.

“And I don’t understand it, Sean, why the Republicans and the Democrats are bending over backwards to appease 2 percent.”