Just a couple of days ago we learnt of the death of controversial US preacher Billy Graham. Now, Aussie supergroup Empire Of The Sun have become embroiled in controversy following a controversial message of support posted on social media.
As Stereogum noted, Empire Of The Sun posted an image of Billy Graham to their Instagram and Facebook accounts, captioned with the phrase “God bless the great Billy Graham.”
It’s obviously satire, right? After all, Graham had a track record of rather intolerant views when it came Muslims, Jews, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, so it’s unlikely that tributes would be shared, right? Well, not quite, because Empire Of The Sun’s Nick Littlemore soon commented on the Instagram post with his personal account, stating “Not all of us are interested in celebrating a life of a bigot #fyi 😐”.
Fans soon took the band to task, commenting messages of disappointment on the Facebook post. “Great? He was a terrible human being who used the word of God to preach hate and misinformation,” wrote one user, while another explained “Graham was a racist and homophobe that cared more about his own wealth than any type of religious message. Really bummed to see you guys support this hateful person.”
Some others though shared in the sentiment of the post, writing “Some very nasty comments from people here professing to be Christians. Whatever happened to “love thy neighbor” or for that matter, “let whoever is without sin cast the first stone”,” and “Billy was a sinner like us all. Difference is he had a relationship w/Christ. It didn’t make him perfect bc he was human. But that’s the great thing about Christianity. Perfection is not possible , we only hope to be more God- like.”
When asked by a fan why this was posted, Littlemore wrote back by confirming “I don’t run this account! I was quite upset to see this post.” As triple j notes, Empire Of The Sun’s record label stated that the band handle their social media accounts “themselves most of the time,” meaning that if this was posted by a member of the band, it would likely be Luke Steele.
While this is undoubtedly a contentious issue, the band haven’t released a formal statement addressing this tribute, so we’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out.
Check out Empire Of The Sun’s ‘On Our Way Home’:
