Televangelist Franklin Graham—the eldest son of the late televangelist Billy Graham, and heir to the family business—spent Labor Day paying tribute to America’s workers by declaring that the millions of people who are unemployed during the pandemic are lazy, God-ignoring money-grubbers.
In a Twitter thread posted on Monday afternoon, Graham — who serves as president and CEO of both Samaritan’s Purse charity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association — had a lot of thoughts to air about the state of employment in America and how the financial incentives that many have received amidst the COVID pandemic have impacted the country’s workforce:
Today we celebrate the American worker—the entrepreneurs w/ their dreams & the workers w/their skills who built this nation. But it’s troubling to see the disregard we now see for hard work. Almost every business is trying to hire people, but so many don’t want to work. #LaborDay
With @POTUS45 Trump, the US had the strongest economy, some say since Eisenhower, & we had more people working than at any time in our history—but it’s evaporating. COVID had an impact, but political mismanagement has dealt a debilitating blow.
Repeated stimulus payments & giveaway packages have encouraged people not to go to work. The Republicans seem to know how to get people to work and the Democrats seem to know how to tax your money and give it to people as an incentive not to work.
God created us to work. On this Labor Day, join me in thanking Him for His hand of blessing on this nation through the years. And pray for America and our leaders to turn to God and ask for His forgiveness, His mercy, and His continued blessings. That is what we need most.
God created us to work. On this Labor Day, join me in thanking Him for His hand of blessing on this nation through the years. And pray for America and our leaders to turn to God and ask for His forgiveness, His mercy, and His continued blessings. That is what we need most.
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) September 6, 2021
It’s been a while since I’ve read the Good Book, but praising Donald Trump while eviscerating hard-working Americans who are not paid a living wage and mentioning COVID as a sort of afterthought as to why so many people have been out of work doesn’t sound like the most Christian of things to say. Of course, it didn’t take long for people to react to Graham’s post.
Some people schooled him on the details of the Bible:
You are mistaken. In Gen. 1 & 2 God created the heavens & earth & created mankind in His own image. He also took the man Adam, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Gen.2:15). So work was good. It wasn’t until after the Fall (Gen.3) that work was toilsome
— Sue Reber (@SueReberRealtor) September 6, 2021
God did not create humans to work.
Actually it was the exact opposite.Adam & Eve were given *everything* and only had to work once they defied God and were cast out of the Garden.
Pick up a Bible sometime 🤡.
— Mr. Bunch (@darinbunch) September 7, 2021
Some people likened Graham’s message to the slogan of Nazi concentration camps:
https://twitter.com/happyjax/status/1435073969871282176?s=20
Many laughed at the irony of Graham, who reportedly rakes in a salary of about $900,000 per year, would know the first thing about working hard.
And how did you get your money? I must have missed that part of your bio where you actually worked, sir.
— Deb Beasley (@DebBeasley2) September 6, 2021
“My daddy gave me a tax-free church & I was getting paid nearly $900,000 a year back in 2015 – you just know I gave myself a raise since then. Work harder, peons, it what Jesus wants from you but not me”
– franklin graham, probably pic.twitter.com/kz5bPRS5Gi
— Ned Pyle (@NerdPyle) September 6, 2021
You’ve got it all twisted. Last time I checked, Labor Day was to support & remember the work of people who fought & struggled to insure working people could earn a decent living & get fair treatment from employers. It’s not to encourage people to work hard to line your pocket!!
— Melyssa Rodriguez ✍️#HandMarkedPaperBallots (@Dixiechicken16) September 7, 2021
Still others just went straight for the most obvious fact that Graham was leaving out: The abusive and unfair conditions so many people work under without even earning a living wage in order to line the pockets of fat cats (which is basically what Graham is, just under the guise of being a God-fearing do-gooder):
So your argument is God created these people to work 18+ hour days in the hot sun so Kroger execs could sit in AC and become millionaires? pic.twitter.com/RxYkeSXYgT
— Good Troublemaker (@juliefryer) September 6, 2021
https://twitter.com/SterlingRose62/status/1435040009006977028?s=20
Your move, Frank.