Dear Franklin Graham,

Recently you tweeted about Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, writing that the Mayor “says he’s a gay Christian.” You then immediately implied that he isn’t—as if his sexuality somehow disqualifies him.

I know that you’ve been sequestered within in the gilded gated community of your privilege and guarded by sycophants and yes-men for so long that you’re unaware of your catastrophic hubris here, so let me help you:

You’re wrong.

Pete Buttigieg is a Christian because he has chosen to follow Jesus. Full stop.

His sexual orientation is irrelevant to the matter—as is your evaluation of him because he is a gay man.

He doesn’t need your permission, doesn’t require your blessing, and isn’t waiting for your approval.

No gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, gender fluid, or non-binary human being is beholden to you or bound by your prejudices or in your debt—and their personal faith convictions aren’t any of your business.

You and the misguided zealots who share your heart aren’t the gatekeepers of the kingdom, no matter often you tell yourselves that or how many Bible verses you drop into your increasingly toxic Twitter feeds and incendiary Sunday sermons.

Someone else’s devotion to Jesus and the veracity of their faith confession are above your pay grade.

I understand that this news likely comes as a surprise to you. The Pharisees and Sadducees of the Scriptures suffered from the same afflictive arrogance currently plaguing you.

They too imagined themselves qualified to established people’s moral worth and believed they were arbiters of other’s righteousness.

Just like you, they missed God’s Spirit moving in their midst when it showed up in the lives of beautiful human beings who they chose to judge instead of love; people they dispensed damnation upon instead of sharing a table with.

Just like you, they made the mistake of believing they had a right to stand between God and God’s people—when no such permission was given to them and no request made of them.

And just like you, these misguided, power-intoxicated religious leaders did the greatest damage to the spiritual movement around them, because they had old wineskin minds that weren’t pliable enough to think outside the brittle boxes they’d created for God.

The Scriptures say that those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved; not those who conform to your preferences or acquiesce to your fears or bow to your bigotry. The saving and the life-giving and the movement of the Spirit aren’t within your control or defined by your desires.

I know these words will likely fall on deaf ears, but I need to say them anyway:

LGBTQ people who chose to follow Jesus don’t need you—they have Jesus.

Your sanctimony and your callous contempt and your condescending air quotes around their Christianity does nothing to dilute its authenticity or soften its passion or declare in invalid.

Pete Buttigieg is one of millions upon millions of people whose Christianity exists perfectly alongside their gender identity and sexual orientation. It’s really that simple. Your Jurassic understanding of human sexuality and your gross misapplication of 4000-year old verses can’t change that reality.

The sooner you and the rest of your brethren understand this, the sooner you’ll be able to develop the soft, compassionate heart of the Jesus you claim to speak for. Once you find yourself in that necessary and still elusive place of deep humility, your agenda won’t be to fix or change or save or renovate people—it will be to love them: not as you say, but as they do.

And when you are a posture where you can attend to the plank in your own eye, you’ll repent for ever having imagined that anyone needed your permission to follow Jesus.

I hope for you and for a world that is starved for kindness and goodness—that day comes soon.

Here are some LGBTQ Christians whose voices you may want to listen to and learn from:

Brandan Robertson

Matthew Vines

Amber Cortona

Jeff Chu

Kevin Garcia

Q Christian Fellowship

Austen Harke

The Naming Project

Believe Out Loud

The Reformation Project

GayChurch

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