People have been twisting Franklin Graham’s boycott of Wells-Fargo, suggesting that he just switched from one ‘gay-friendly’ bank to another ‘gay-friendly’ bank. And subsequent mocking has ensued.
But that’s not what he said originally. To those of us who actually read his comments on Facebook, it was clear that he was boycotting Wells-Fargo because of advocacy for same-sex marriage in their advertising, not because they were ‘gay-friendly’.
He explains this below to his dumb critics:
USA TODAY – Being gay-friendly is not optional; it is a commandment from Jesus. But being an advocate for the gay lifestyle contradicts God’s word.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association did not decide to move our ministry bank accounts from Wells Fargo simply because the San Francisco-based bank is “gay-friendly.” Indeed, the bank we transferred our accounts to — BB&T based in Winston-Salem, N.C. — is also widely considered gay-friendly. In fact, it may surprise some to learn that I think every business should be gay-friendly. By that I mean businesses — like individuals — should be friendly to gay customers and citizens. We should be friendly to everyone, even if or when we disagree with them.
Both of these national banks rank highly on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index — the organization’s ranking of businesses according to workplace equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. So why did we move from one bank to the other? Because, in our view, Wells Fargo went beyond being gay-friendly to being a public advocate — through a national TV advertising campaign — for a lifestyle we, as a Christian organization, believe to be biblically wrong. (The ad featured a lesbian couple with their adopted child.)