Franklin Graham urges boycott of companies that promote same-sex relationships in ads, is pulling bank accounts out of Wells Fargo (+ video)

Franklin Graham is calling on Christians to boycott corporations that feature same-sex relationships in their commercials. And he says he’ll do his part by moving all the bank accounts for the two organizations he heads out of Wells Fargo because of its ad featuring a lesbian couple.

“This is one way we as Christians can speak out – we have the power of choice,” Graham wrote on Facebook over the weekend. “Let’s just stop doing business with those who promote sin and stand against Almighty God’s laws and His standards. Maybe if enough of us do this, it will get their attention.”

During an interview Monday, Graham – the CEO of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte and Samaritan’s Purse in Boone – said he was not targeting companies that hire or serve gay and lesbian customers.

Instead, he said he’s urging Christians to stop giving their money to businesses, like Wells Fargo and Tiffany jewelers, “that use shareholders’ advertising dollars to promote homosexuality. It’s promoting a Godless lifestyle. ... A bank should be promoting the best interest rates they’re going to give me and what they can do for me as a business. But they should not be trying to get into a moral debate.”

Graham specifically objected to a Wells Fargo TV and online ad that features a lesbian couple learning sign language for their adopted daughter. “Hello, beautiful,” the couple in the ad tell the little girl in sign language. “We’re going to be your new mommies.”

Reached Monday, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo said the bank has proudly supported the LGBT community for a long time – a commitment echoed by the ad.

“At Wells Fargo, serving every customer is core to our vision and values,” said Christina Kolbjornsen. “Diversity and inclusion are foundational to who we are as a company. Our advertising content reflects our company’s values and represents the diversity of the communities we serve.”

Wells Fargo is a San Francisco-based bank that has its largest employee base in the Charlotte area.

Graham said in the interview that “we’ve decided” which bank will get the accounts the BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse is moving from Wells Fargo.

Askjed whether he would identify the bank he’s chosen, Graham said: “Not today because I haven’t talked to that bank and I’m not sure they want to be part of your story.”

Is it Charlotte-based Bank of America?

“I ain’t saying nothing.”

Bank of America has not yet made commercials featuring same-sex couples, but it has run same-sex ads in programs for some events as well as in LGBT publications.

Would that be enough to rule them out for the bank accounts leaving Wells Fargo?

“I’m not going to answer that question,” Graham said.

For now, Graham said, the closing ot the Wells Fargo accounts is “in the works. To close of these accounts, it may take 30 days.”

In addition to heading the BGEA, which spreads the Gospel via worldwide crusades and Charlotte’s Billy Graham Library, Graham also leads Boone-based Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian charity that helps people cope with natural disasters.

Leaders of Charlotte's big banks played a visible role in the late 1990s on issues involving sexual orientation.

Ed Crutchfield's First Union, now Wachovia, and Hugh McColl's NationsBank, now Bank of America, amended their policies to state that no employee will be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. At that time, many other large companies in the area didn't use such specific language.

Also, after announcing in 1998 its merger with San Francisco's BankAmerica, which had domestic partner benefits, NationsBank agreed to offer the benefits to its employees.

Corporate America has increasingly come to the defense of gays and lesbians. Republican governors and legislatures in red states such as Indiana and Arkansas retreated this year from “religious liberty” legislation after corporations in those states opposed the measures as discriminatory against the LGBT community. In North Carolina, a similar bill went nowhere after it was opposed by GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders in Raleigh.

In his Facebook post, Graham singled out another company – Tiffany & Co., which sells jewelry – for advertising wedding rings for gay couples.

“There are plenty of other jewelry stores,” Graham wrote.

It’s too early to determine whether Graham’s call for a boycott will have much impact.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 93,000 people had approved of Graham’s Facebook message by clicking “Like.” More than 41,000 people had shared his message with their own Facebook friends.

But Graham’s call to “fight the moral decay that is being crammed down our throats by big business” also brought negative reactions on Facebook.

“In my opinion, moral decay is using the pulpit to spread bigotry and hate,” wrote one Facebook commenter, who then alluded to Jesus’s teachings in the New Testament. “Perhaps you should take some time and chip away at that block of wood sticking out of your own eye.”

On Twitter, where Graham also announced that “we’re moving all the @BGEA bank accounts from @WellsFargo to another bank,” he got some supportive tweets.

“Yes, I have moved mine to another bank,” wrote @garystreet1. “Not a lot but it will add up. It’s time to move in unison!”

Corporate America has increasingly come to the defense of gays and lesbians. Republican governors and legislatures in red states such as Indiana and Arkansas retreated this year from “religious liberty” legislation after corporations in those states opposed the measures as discriminatory against the LGBT community. In North Carolina, a similar bill went nowhere after it was opposed by GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders in Raleigh.

In recent weeks, Graham has been using Facebook and Twitter to urge mass action against same-sex marriage. He called, for example, for Christians to pray for the U.S. Supreme Court justices – whose nine members are Jewish and Catholic – to make what Graham considers the right decision in what could become a landmark case involving the rights of gays and lesbians to marry their partners.

This story was originally published June 8, 2015 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Franklin Graham urges boycott of companies that promote same-sex relationships in ads, is pulling bank accounts out of Wells Fargo (+ video)."