Graham: Gay comic hero will 'indoctrinate' youth

Even if pizza is served at the Iceman's wedding, the Rev. Franklin Graham will apparently not attend.

Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, took to Facebook this week to express his outrage that the Marvel Comics character Iceman will come out as gay in a new issue of the popular comic series.

According to Graham, the cartoon character's coming out is part of an ongoing effort to brainwash our youth into accepting a "destructive lifestyle" full of sin.

"Today the Marvel comic character Iceman, from the 'X-Men' series, is coming out as gay," Graham wrote on his Facebook page this week. "This is another attempt to indoctrinate our young people to accept this destructive lifestyle."

Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, has been a vocal opponent of the LGBT "lifestyle," making headlines for years with his extreme views on the issue. Graham recently praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for criminalizing speech that is perceived as pro-gay "propaganda" directed at young people.

But the renewed concern over a cartoon character's sexual orientation surprised even some of Graham's most devout followers on his page.

"God's Word says homosexuality is a sin, and we are to be on guard against all sin," Graham said in the post, though apparently "all sin" doesn't cover the occasional superhero death match.

"God calls us to repent, turn from our sins," he wrote, "and put our trust in His Son Jesus Christ who died and rose again to pay the penalty for sin."

The post drew more than 80,000 "likes" and more than 20,000 shares by Friday morning. The comments on the thread were surprisingly critical, given that a majority of those who would have seen the post have "liked" Graham's Facebook page.

Of course some agreed with Graham's lament, saying Marvel's move was troubling.

"Praise God, the more we see these things going on the closer we know Jesus is getting ready to come through the Eastern sky to gather his bride," one commenter posted. "Amen!" another said. "If this isn't Satan's true work, what is?"

But an overwhelming majority took issue with Graham's stance, some more gently than others.

"Stop taking God's job. He is the only one to judge. Live and let live. Be kind to others no matter what the choice may be," one comment read.

"Being a hateful, spiteful, self-righteous, ignorant bigot is the real lifestyle choice and it involves much more indoctrination," another said.

"The only sin here is Franklin soiling the legacy of his father," another posted. "He preached love. You preach hate."

Billy Graham has never taken the fervent stance his son has, though the elder Graham urged North Carolina voters in 2012 to support an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage, calling the "lifestyle" a sin.

Franklin Graham's views here aren't breaking news, nor are they even remotely exclusive to him. But the culture war he's waging and the battles he continues to choose — digging in on a fictitious character's sexual identity, for example — are an increasingly puzzling strategy in an age when even civil anti-LGBT discourse is just bad business at best.

Given that Graham's organization takes in $422 million a year for victims of war, natural disasters, disease and famine in more than 100 countries, his base and donors have a right to demand that he choose those battles wisely.

This is the opinion of Casey Blake. Email her at cblake@citizen-times.com and follow her on twitter at @CaseyBlakeACT.