Some faith leaders are pushing back against famed evangelist Franklin Graham after he wrote a Facebook post addressed to “blacks, whites, Latinos, and everybody else,” in which he proclaimed that “most police shootings can be avoided,” and that teaching “respect for authority and obedience” is essential.
Writer and faith leader Lisa Sharon Harper, among others, subsequently dismissed Graham’s post as “short” and “patronizing,” noting that pastors and the faithful who are opposed to its sentiment came together to write an open letter rebuking the faith leader.
“We didn’t know if our words would resonate. We only knew the truth that we must speak in response to Graham’s outsized influence coupled with apparent ignorance,” Harper wrote in an op-ed describing the letter. “In the end, a broad representation of national evangelical leaders agreed to sign this letter to Graham as principal signatories.”