Thursday, January 30, 2020

U.S. evangelical preacher Franklin Graham writes open letter after organizers canceled his event in the United Kingdom over “incompatible views” on gay “marriage”


U.S. evangelical preacher Franklin Graham writes open letter after organizers canceled his event in the United Kingdom over “incompatible views” on gay “marriage”

By Julio Severo
A famous American evangelical preacher has written an open letter after organizers decided to cancel his event in the United Kingdom following pressure and complaints from LGBT activists.
Franklin Graham was due to visit Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool, Cardiff, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and London later in 2020.
But the ACC Liverpool conference center has decided to cancel the 67-year-old’s show after branding his views “incompatible” with their values, adding, “We can longer reconcile the balance between freedom of speech and the divisive impact this event is having in our city.”
The decision to cancel the show came after a petition was started by the Liverpool Labour LGBT Network.
Graham was labeled a “homophobic hate preacher” by the Liverpool Labour LGBT Network, which wrote in a letter that they fear “Graham’s appearance may incite hateful mobilization and risk the security of our LGBTQ+ community.”
Graham, who is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and the son of the late international evangelist Billy Graham, has previously described gay “marriage” as a sin and has defended children against homosexual indoctrination in the schools.
LGBT activists in several British cities he was due to visit also pressured government officials and political leaders to stop him from speaking.
Sheffield Mayor Dan Jarvis has criticized the American preacher, and said in a statement: “Sheffield is a city of sanctuary [for homosexuals and Muslims]. We welcome people from all backgrounds, irrespective of race, religion, belief or their sexuality. As a city and as a region, we are proud to stand for equality, diversity, respect and compassion. I believe in free speech and of the right to freedom of expression, within the parameters of the law. But I also believe in people’s rights to disagree with extreme beliefs such as those preached by Franklin Graham. Intolerance cannot be welcomed here in South Yorkshire.”
Representative Heather Paterson said: “Franklin Graham has repeatedly publicly promoted his homophobic beliefs, including but not limited to branding homosexuality a sin. We believe that these statements far exceed freedom of speech and are direct hate speech and incitement to violence against LGBTQ+ communities and individuals, which should not be welcomed in our city or anywhere else.”
Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of Glasgow Cathedral, said on Twitter: “Have just heard that Franklin Graham is coming to the SSE Hydro in Glasgow next year. Very surprised to hear that @SSE would want to be associated with him. #homophobia.”
Peter Nimmo, minister of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in Inverness, fumed: “Franklin Graham tour includes Glasgow. I trust Scottish churches give him the cold shoulder, too.”
Graham is facing protests in the United Kingdom because of his stance against gay “marriage” and because he has said that homosexual behavior is sin. When laws support homosexual behavior, people who do not support it are persecuted.
In a report titled “Hateful Homophobe Franklin Graham Canceled by U.K. City,” The Advocate, the largest gay magazine in the U.S. and in the world, explained Graham’s “homophobia”:
Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, founded by his late father, has a long history of anti-LGBTQ statements. In one of the most recent, he tweeted that Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, who is both gay and Christian, should repent of the “sin” of homosexuality. In 2018, in response to the circulation of an old quote from former President Jimmy Carter saying Jesus Christ would have no problem with same-sex marriage, he said Carter was “absolutely wrong” and that God had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because they embraced homosexuality. (That Bible passage is open to other interpretations.)
In 2016, he defended House Bill 2, legislation passed by his home state of North Carolina to prevent transgender people from using restrooms and changing rooms that match their gender identity. It “protects the safety and privacy of women and children and preserves the human rights of millions of faith-based citizens of this state,” Graham said at the time, implying that transgender people are a threat. That remark got him banned from Facebook for a brief time two years later.
He has also praised Russia’s ban on so-called gay propaganda, which prohibits any positive mention of LGBTQ identity that could be heard or viewed by minors. “I very much appreciate that President Putin is protecting Russian young people against homosexual propaganda,” Graham told a Russian newspaper in 2015. “If only to give them the opportunity to grow up and make a decision for themselves. Again, homosexuals cannot have children, they can take other people’s children.”
In addition to LGBTQ people, targets of Graham’s ire have included Planned Parenthood [the largest abortion network in the U.S.], which he has described as “Hitleristic,” and Islam, which he has called “evil.”
Graham is a major defender, however, of Donald Trump.
Yet, it is not only Graham who defends Trump. When I and several U.S. evangelical leaders criticized in 2019 Trump’s effort to legalize homosexuality around the world, what did The Advocate did? It criticized me and these other evangelical leaders and, incredibly, defended Trump against us evangelicals.
Franklin Graham has been silent about Trump’s homosexualist effort. Even though the U.S. president is very fond of Graham and has even invited him for his personal meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump has been also silent about the LGBTQ campaign against Graham in the United Kingdom.
Even being a spiritual adviser to Trump, Graham is not getting any presidential help. Trump, who uses to intervene in many international issues involving Americans, has said nothing about the homosexualist persecution against Graham, who is always voicing public support for Trump.
Graham has been a passionate defender of Trump. He has defended him in everything. For example, when Christianity Today, the largest liberal evangelical magazine in the U.S., criticized Trump on December 2019 saying that he deserved to be impeached and suggesting that evangelicals should not support him, Graham made a very strong defense of Trump against Christianity Today.
Why Trump’s silence now? To defend Christians or even to defend an American citizen who is a victim of homosexual bullying is less important than defending an effort of the U.S. government to legalize homosexuality around the world? The Trump administration has not been silent about criticizing Christian nations that reject homosexuality, but it has been silent about Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, executing homosexuals.
With no support from Trump, Graham addressed LGBTQ activists in the United Kingdom. In his “A letter to the LGBTQ community in the UK,” Graham explained that he has no hatred of homosexuals. He said:
It is said by some that I am coming to the UK to bring hateful speech to your community. This is just not true. I am coming to share the Gospel, which is the Good News that God loves the people of the UK, and that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us from our sins.
The rub, I think, comes in whether God defines homosexuality as sin. The answer is yes. But God goes even further than that, to say that we are all sinners—myself included. The Bible says that every human being is guilty of sin and in need of forgiveness and cleansing. The penalty of sin is spiritual death—separation from God for eternity.
That’s why Jesus Christ came. He became sin for us. He didn’t come to condemn the world, He came to save the world by giving His life on the Cross as a sacrifice for our sins. And if we’re willing to accept Him by faith and turn away from our sins, He will forgive us and give us new life—eternal life—in Him.
My message to all people is that they can be forgiven and they can have a right relationship with God. That’s Good News. That is the hope people on every continent around the world are searching for. In the UK as well as in the United States, we have religious freedom and freedom of speech. I’m not coming to the UK to speak against anybody, I’m coming to speak for everybody. The Gospel is inclusive. I'm not coming out of hate, I’m coming out of love.
I invite everyone in the LGBTQ community to come and hear for yourselves the Gospel messages that I will be bringing from God’s Word, the Bible. You are absolutely welcome.
Another challenge Graham faces in the United Kingdom is Islam. This once Protestant nation is now fast succumbing to Islam, and Graham reportedly described Islam an “evil and very wicked religion.”
Christians are living in hard times. If Franklin Graham, who is one of the most powerful evangelical leaders in the United States, can suffer harassment and bullying for preaching the Gospel in a nation with a strong Christian history, what will happen to many other Christians who voice the Bible message on homosexuality?
These are easy times for coward and silent Christians. But the time will come when even cowards will be targeted by the same fanatics who persecute courageous Christians today, because fanatics will sooner or later require not only silence, but also total conversion to their fanaticism, whether homosexual or Islamic.
With information from the DailyMail, The Advocate and FoxNews.
Recommended Reading on Franklin Graham:
Recommended Reading on Trump and homosexuality:

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