Franklin Graham Calls for 'God's Army' to Stop Equality Act

Evangelical leader and avid Trump supporter Franklin Graham has issued an apocalyptic call to arms; as usual, he's warning his followers about LGBTQ people and claiming religious liberty is about to disappear.

Graham took to Facebook on Dec. 28 to urge voters in Georgia to cast their ballots for the Republican nominees in a pair of runoff elections, claiming that "God's army" must work to defeat the possibility of a Democratically-controlled Senate. Resorting to a well-worn trope from his playbook - the idea that rights for LGBTQ Americans automatically mean a loss of liberties for people of faith - Graham invoked the specter of the Equality Act, a long-proposed bill that would put anti-discrimination protections in place for LGBTQ Americans at the federal level.

"Please encourage your family, your friends, your community to pray and to vote," Graham urged in the post. "If conservatives lose control of the Senate, there is nothing to stop the radical agenda of the left."

Graham went on to declare, "The control of the U.S. Senate is at stake. The Senate is the last line of defense to block the radical, wicked agenda that is trying to take control of our nation. These two seats will determine whether liberal socialist-leaning progressives OR conservative lawmakers have a majority."

Graham honed his message from there, zeroing in on the ever-reliable bogeyman of gay rights.

"Liberal, so called progressives, immediately want to pass The Equality Act which is anything but equal," the evangelical leader fretted, going on to call the bill "an attempt to rid our country of religious freedom protections.

"Progressives could pass this easily and quickly with control of the Senate," Graham added, before dialing up the usual predictions of liberty-ending consequences: "This would change our nation at its very foundation–and yes, it would also greatly change your everyday life."

Warned Graham: "It will vastly alter the America that we leave for our children and grandchildren."

The Equality Act passed the House in 2019 and has languished in the Senate since then. Advocates say that the bill, which adds protections specific to LGBTQs to existing civil rights legislation, would provide needed protections for marginalized Americans on a national level.

But opponents of protections for LGBTQs consistently frame such laws as an attack on religious liberty, claiming that they would be forced to violate their conscience by serving people of differing sexual orientations and gender identities along with the rest of the general public.

Republicans will retain a slim majority in the Senate - and therefore control of the chamber - unless they win both runoff elections, which will take place Jan. 5.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will make passage of the Equality Act a priority during his first 100 days in office, but that will be a difficult - if not impossible - promise to keep unless Democrats win both races.