Rev. Franklin Graham, son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is encouraging Christians to boycott Wells Fargo after the bank featured a lesbian couple in an advertisement. He has also announced that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is moving their accounts to another bank.
"Have you ever asked yourself - how can we fight the tide of moral decay that is being crammed down our throats by big business, the media, and the gay & lesbian community?" Graham wrote in a recent post on his Facebook page.
"Every day it is something else! Tiffany's started advertising wedding rings for gay couples. Wells Fargo bank is using a same-sex couple in their advertising. And there are more," he said, adding, "But it has dawned on me that we don't have to do business with them."
Graham explained that because of this, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association will be moving their accounts from Wells Fargo to another bank.
"And guess what - we don't have to shop at Tiffany & Co., there are plenty of other jewelry stores," Graham wrote, saying this is one way Christians can speak out against "those who promote sin and stand against Almighty God's laws and His standards," as "we have the power of choice."
Graham, who is also the president of Samaritan's Purse, often expresses his opposition to gay marriage. In an earlier Facebook post, he said that freedom of speech, press, and religion "have suffered greatly" in Canada since it began federally mandating same-sex marriage in 2005.
"[In Canada] If you say or write anything questioning same-sex marriage, you could face discipline, termination of employment, or prosecution by the government!" Graham wrote, warning that the U.S. "will be in the same boat" if the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage.
"Will the next step be to ban us from speaking God's truth from His Word about this issue?" he asked.
Later this summer, the Supreme Court is expected to decide whether the Constitution requires all 50 states make the practice of same-sex marriage legal, or requires a state (where gay marriage isn't legal) to recognize a marriage between two same-sex people when their marriage was legally performed in one of the 37 states currently allowing gay marriage.
When arguments were made in late April, there appeared to be no clear direction as to how the court was going to rule on the issue.
In his May 2014 column for Decision magazine, Graham charged that "true followers" of Jesus "cannot endorse same-sex marriage" regardless of what President Barack Obama, the Congress, the Supreme Court, or the media say about the issue. He emphasized that marriage was "settled by God Himself" and cannot be modified by man.
"True followers of Jesus Christ, whose salvation is based entirely upon God's Word, cannot endorse same-sex marriage, regardless of what our President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the media or the latest Gallup poll says about the matter," he wrote.
"This moral issue has been settled by God Himself and is not subject to man-made revisions or modifications," he said. "In the end, I would rather be on the wrong side of public opinion than on the wrong side of Almighty God who established the standard of living for the world He created. Marriage is a biblically moral issue, not a political or theological one."
