Renowned evangelist Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the fourth child of Billy Graham, defended a former Atlanta fire chief and claimed the gay and lesbian community wants to ignite fear in Christians.
"The LGBT community wants us to be afraid of expressing our Christian beliefs. They want us to cower in the face of their threats to the livelihoods of believers. But we shouldn't back down!" the famous minister wrote in an opinion piece published for Charisma News.
Graham's comments came from the firing of Kelvin Cochran, former chief of the Atlanta Fire Department. Cochran was fired for writing a book that mentions conservative Christian beliefs against homosexuality and marriage. Cochran was fired by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
"The book on biblical morality simply restates God's position put forth in His Word, the Bible. From Cochran's book: 'Uncleanness—whatever is opposite of purity; including sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism, pederasty, bestiality, all other forms of sexual perversion,'" Graham said.
The North Carolina-based pastor has not been one to shy away from stating strong opinions. He has received attention as well as criticisms in the past for making comments such as "True Islam cannot be practiced in this country", which he said to a CNN reporter, and Time reported how Graham once claimed he thinks Islam "is a religion of hatred. It's a religion of war."
The minister is openly against homosexual unions and supported the North Carolina Amendment 1, an amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage which successfully passed in 2012.
Other church leaders came to Cochran's defense as well. Dr. Craig L. Oliver Sr., senior pastor of Cochran's church Elizabeth Baptist Church, criticized Atlanta Mayor Reed: "Just because you sign my paycheck doesn't mean you can control what I think or say."
Speaking about the mayor's decision to fire Cochran, Oliver added, "All Christians in Georgia and the nation should be greatly concerned."