Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has been a continual target for evangelist hate-monger Franklin Graham, and now he’s at it again. But Graham is departing from his usual tactics of attacking Buttigieg for being gay. This time he’s criticizing the South Bend, Indiana mayor for being pro-choice.
Or at least he’s pretending to do that, anyway.
Graham’s not attacking any of the other Democratic presidential candidates. Not former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, or Amy Klobuchar, notes David Badash, writing for The New Civil Rights Movement. Nor is he attacking Andrew Yang, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, or former housing secretary Julián Castro. And Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D), seems to have escaped his purview. Gabbard says she takes a “Libertarian” view of abortion and is also pro-choice but believes abortions should not be performed during the last three months of pregnancy unless the mother’s life is at risk. So, with a few vacillations here and there, all have publicly stated they are pro-choice.
And Buttigieg’s policy positions pretty much mirror those of the other Democratic candidates. So what Graham is doing here is being a colossal hypocrite.
Badash notes:
“Franklin Graham is attacking Pete Buttigieg because Pete Buttigieg supports same-sex marriage and a woman’s right to choose an abortion.”
Graham is either fooling himself or trying to dupe people by complaining about Buttigieg’s support for abortion and a woman’s right to choose then slides right in with an attack on Buttigieg’s marriage and his faith.
“Mayor Pete Buttigieg has been speaking openly about his support for abortion, which he says is a woman’s right to choose,” Graham wrote on his Facebook page. “That’s a crock.”
“No one has a right to choose murder,” he added.
Then he segues right into attacking Buttigieg by referencing his husband Chasten.
“Pastor Rhyan Glezman, who is the brother of the man Mayor Pete is married to said, ‘I feel a sense of responsibility and stewardship of my faith to stand up and say something, to say, ‘No, that’s not true.'”
As you can read in the post below, he continues on in a homophobic rant, and the weird thing is that although he won’t acknowledge Buttigieg’s marriage he acknowledges Glezman as a brother-in-law. Graham is so wrapped up in his homophobia that he loses his own focus.
And he’s assailed Buttigieg in the recent past as well, saying he’ll face “eternal damnation” if he doesn’t “repent” being gay. So it’s no wonder that The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin is calling him a “homophobic hatemonger.” Rubin is a conservative writer but she deftly calls out Graham for his support of President Donald Trump who has a well-publicized history of infidelity and racism, lies and who continues to promote a cruel immigration policy. And when Graham posted the cruel tweet below, she noted that Buttigieg showed “restraint and class” by not responding “to this hate-filled attack.”
Mayor Buttigieg says he’s a gay Christian. As a Christian I believe the Bible which defines homosexuality as sin, something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized. The Bible says marriage is between a man & a woman—not two men, not two women. 2/3
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) April 24, 2019
Buttigieg has acted with grace. Graham could learn from this but he’s tone-deaf and so full of hate that kindness and rationality bounce off him like a rubber ball bounces off a brick wall.
The video below is from earlier this year but it’s very insightful into Graham’s hypocritical behavior.
Featured image by MSNBC via YouTube
