Launched in October 2024, Franklin Graham’s fight for free speech fund is now widening its reach.
Originally intended to assist UK Christians targeted by LGBTQ+ lawfare, the Billy Graham Defence Fund (BGDF) will be expanded to include the European church.
Dubbed a war chest, the judicial defence initiative came about after cancel culture came for all eight of Graham’s Good News UK events in 2020.
Venues capitulated to a false LGBTQ+ narrative after activists said the boss of global disaster response charity Samaritan’s Purse was a “security risk.”
Smearing Graham, Liverpool Labour [Party] LGBT Network accused Graham of “inciting hate.” The network also implied that the Billy Graham Evangelical Association (BGEA) event would present a significant threat to LGBTQ+ lives.
Convinced by the LGBT that BGEA was worse for the UK than its imported Islamification, Bureaucrats banned the Christian outreach.
Then Liverpool Mayor, Joe Anderson, said at the time, “It’s right we have banned Franklin Graham from the M&S Arena. #Love conquers hatred always.”
Somewhat comically, as it just so happened to turn out, Anderson ended up being the real risk to public safety.
The former mayor of Liverpool has recently been charged with “bribery, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.”
He is currently awaiting trial.
Decision magazine, when recounting the BGEA bans, said, “attempts to shut them down began in 2018.”
First, with bus advertising, and then the event cancellations in 2020.
Challenging the cancellations as discrimination, BGEA scored a significant court win. They recouped all of their legal costs, sent a strong message of resilience, and set a precedent.
Case GLW-CA26-20 saw BGEA go on the offensive against activists.
Ruling in favour of BGEA, the court determined there was no basis for the bans.
In fact, Graham had done everything he could to reassure both the community, government, and venues.
Citing a January 2020 letter posted by Graham on Facebook, the court recalled him stating,
“It is said by some that I am coming to the UK to bring hateful speech to your community. This is just not true.”
“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.”
He finished by inviting his haters to come and hear him share the Gospel at each event.
The decision to cancel Graham, particularly in Glasgow, the court said, “stemmed from a mischaracterisation of the event, its purpose and what would be said.”
Police weren’t consulted about security concerns associated with such a large event, and no security concerns were presented to BGEA.
“The event was cancelled,” the court ruled, “because of how Graham’s religious or philosophical beliefs were viewed.”
By cancelling Graham, those involved “directly discriminated against him by treating him less favourably than they would have treated others.”
Seeing the writing on the wall, BGEA directed money from the win into the new free speech and religious liberty protection project.
The Billy Graham Defence Fund, Franklin said in 2022, is “designed to encourage Christians across the U.K. to keep living out and sharing their faith freely and boldly.”
“We’re going to use these funds that came from this battle against cancel culture to help other Christians who may be threatened into silence.”
“There are so many problems in our society, and people are looking for hope,” Graham concluded.
“We know that true hope can only be found in Jesus Christ, so we need to support one another in getting the Good News of Jesus Christ out, whatever it takes.”
