A mayor in New Jersey has caused a national uproar after he spoke out against a state law that would require students to learn about LGBTQ history.
Alfonso Cirulli, the mayor of Barnegat Township, called the mandate “an affront to Almighty God.”
One of the mayor’s most prominent defenders is Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. Graham was a guest on The Todd Starnes Radio Show.
TODD: You defended the mayor and I was wondering why you did that.
GRAHAM: Well, first of all the mayor is absolutely right. He said this is an affront to God and he was very clear to say that he wasn’t speaking for the committee. These were his personal feelings but he’s correct. This is an affront to God. And I don’t believe that these schools have the right to teach our children something that is an affront to God.
And so the mayor is absolutely right. I back him 100 percent. You know God made us and created us. He made us male and female so that we could carry on the population – that we have children and that we would increase. And homosexuality goes against God’s plan for for the human race. And so the mayor is correct.
I’m not against gay people. I’m not fighting them or anything like that. So if you’re gay and you’re listening I want you know that I do care about you and I love you. But at the same time I love you enough to tell you the truth that homosexuality is a sin against God. I’m not your judge. God is but you will have to stand before him one day and give an account for how you have lived your life. All of us do. And I just want to warn you that God is going to judge all sin but he’s willing to forgive sin if we’re willing to repent and that means to turn from our sin and by faith believe on his son Jesus Christ who came to this earth to take our sins and die on the cross and shed his blood for each and every one of us.
And so the mayor is right. I take my hat off to him. We need pastors to speak out and we need them to in New Jersey and these states where this legislation is being passed. Pastors need to speak out. And if you don’t take the lead and I’m thinking especially about African-American pastors they need to. They need to come out and speak against this. And if they do you may be it’ll turn New Jersey around you may be turn Illinois and California around. If the pastors were to speak out and get their congregations to speak out so I would encourage the churches to take a stand because this is wrong you know it’s wrong. And then let’s fight it.
TODD: You know a lot of schools around the country are dealing with this right now. And so many parents and we hear from a lot of them on the radio program they don’t know what to do. They know they need guidance. You know they want their kids opted out of these classes. But in some cases like in New Jersey these would be mandatory. What advice do you give Christian moms and dads I mean do they pull their kids out of public school or do they homeschool, private school? What should they do?
GRAHAM: Oh absolutely. I’d pull them out of public school and put them in private school. But we can fight. And what I mean by fight is by by writing in your legislators letting you know how you feel. Organizing a march on your state capital and that gets the attention of these legislators when when you show up with 10,000 people at the state capital that makes a difference.
And if the churches would just get behind this and begin to speak out it would make a big difference. But what’s happening is we’re being silent. We’re being quiet and just because we are the majority and we’re having the minority push something down our throats that we don’t accept. And we need to speak out and fight against this because that we are the majority of those who oppose this legislate I believe are the vast majority not just in New Jersey but across this country.