Philip "Flip" Benham (born April 16, 1948) is an Evangelical Christian minister and the national leader of Concord, North Carolina-based Operation Save America, a pro-life group that evolved from another pro-life organization, Operation Rescue.
Video Flip Benham
Pro-life ministry
Since 1980, Benham has been an ordained minister of the Free Methodist Church. He founded a Free Methodist congregation in Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, which he led until 1992.
Benham has been active in the anti-abortion movement since the early 1980s, and he founded Operation Rescue's chapter in the Metroplex in 1988. He succeeded Randall Terry as national director of Operation Rescue in 1994, and renamed it Operation Save America in 1999.
Maps Flip Benham
Hurricane relief efforts
Benham and his organization volunteered their time to provide food and supplies in Mississippi after that area was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Although other organizations accepted funding from the government for their efforts, Benham stated that his organization would never accept money from the government.
Recent activities
Benham gained attention commenting on the execution of Paul Jennings Hill and the murder of George Tiller, and for participating in the vigil outside of Judge Roy Moore's courthouse in which stood a Ten Commandments monument. He also demonstrated for Terri Schiavo.
Benham stated of Troy Newman, "There have been three directors of Operation Rescue - Troy Newman is not one."
Benham has spoken out against hate crime legislation that would include extra legal protections for victims of anti-gay bias crimes asserting the legislation "expressly forbids any language that might be perceived as 'hate' by the homosexual community. This makes illegal every word in the Bible."
On August 6, 2010, Flip Benham organized a protest at a Bridgeport, Connecticut mosque. About a dozen protesters angrily confronted worshippers outside the mosque. The protesters screamed "Jesus hates Muslims" and "Islam is a lie". One protester shoved a placard at a group of young children leaving the mosque. "Murderers," he shouted. Flip Benham was also yelling at the worshipers with a bullhorn. "This is a war in America and we are taking it to the mosques around the country," he said.
On July 1, 2011, a Charlotte, North Carolina jury found Benham guilty of stalking a Charlotte area abortion doctor. Prosecutors charged that Benham and his supporters took pictures of the doctor, his house, and the interior of his clinic, and later distributed photographs of the doctor captioned with "Wanted ... By Christ, to Stop Killing Babies". Benham was sentenced to 18 months probation and ordered to stay at least 500 feet from the doctor. Responding to the sentencing, Benham said, "They've stolen from innocent babies a voice that has spoken for them."
On October 13, 2014, Benham staged a protest in Charlotte, North Carolina, outside the office of the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds, where some of the first marriage licenses for same-sex couples were being issued, and while some of those couples were in the midst of wedding ceremonies nearby.
On November 20, 2017, days after appearing onstage with Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, Benham defended Moore from allegations that he dated and sexually molested teenage girls as young as 14 when he was in his 30s. Speaking on WAPI 99.5 FM, Benham said, "there is something about a purity of a young woman, there is something that is good, that's true, that's straight and he looked for that."
References
External links
- Flip Benham baptizes Norma McCorvey on national television on YouTube, aired August 10, 1995 - ABC News Nightline
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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