Evangelical leader and consistent Trump apologist Franklin Graham is still steaming over some U.S. embassies’ choices to fly the LGBT Pride flag last month. In an op-ed for his website published late last month, Graham praised President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for issuing a directive to embassies to not to fly the Pride flag, and slammed the embassies that found a “workaround” to fly the “gay flag” anyway.

“The notion that such immoral behavior clearly condemned by Scripture is now flaunted here at home and abroad reveals the deepening depravity that now vexes our country,” Graham wrote. “What has happened to our great nation, whose Founding Fathers were men of uncommon character, virtually all of whom possessed a deep reverence for Almighty God and a firm belief in the hand of divine Providence?”

“The America that I knew as a young boy growing up in the mountains of North Carolina has changed so radically,” he added, apparently not realizing that life in the North Carolina mountains in the mid-20th Century probably isn’t conducive to the lifestyle of most Americans today.

Graham then turned his focus to the Equality Act, which is a piece of legislation designed to create federal protections for LGBT people against discrimination on the basis of “sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity” when it comes to housing, employment and access to public accommodations. According to Graham, the “atrocious” bill presents a “clear and present danger to our basic religious liberties and freedoms.”

“This legislation will have catastrophic consequences for competitive sports, along with churches and faith-based nonprofits who would lose all protections to hire people who adhere to their Biblical statements of faith. Christians will be persecuted for their sincerely held beliefs as never before,” Graham wrote. “The clear teachings of the Bible on the sins of homosexuality and abortion will no doubt be considered “hate speech.” It will be a nightmare from which this nation may never recover.”

According to Graham, only Christian people relying steadfastly on their faith can prevent the travesty of LGBT people being protected under the law from becoming a reality.

“May it be men and women of faith today—faith in the awesome, sovereign power of God—who will stand fast on the Word of God and refuse to bend their knee to the false gods and idols of this present age.”

When the prospect of America becoming a more LGBT-friendly place causes a guy like Graham to expend so many calories fighting for that not to happen, one can’t help but wonder if he has a little Freddie Mercury in him.

Featured image via screen grab/Fox News