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Franklin Graham postpones UK tour
Wed 25 Mar 2020 by Ruth Sax
American evangelist and preacher Franklin Graham has announced he is postponing his UK tour.
The son of Billy Graham was due to visit eight locations around the UK; Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and London later this year.
All eight venues cancelled bookings with the preacher earlier this year following a string of complaints from the LGBT community; who claimed he was preaching hate, because of his views on homosexuality.
Members of the LGBT community in several of the cities he was due to visit petitioned venues and local political leaders to stop him from speaking.
But in an open letter to the 'UK LGBTQ community', Graham has said 'we are all sinners' and denied he was bringing hate speech to Britain.
Posting a statement on the Franklin Graham tour website, it states the tour is being postponed until a legal resolution is found with the venues who cancelled their bookings.
"During this time of uncertainty, people need a message of hope, and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association remains committed to sharing the Good News of the Gospel with people across the UK.
"The Lord has placed a burden on my heart to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ across the UK, and that sense of purpose and evangelistic passion continues to grow," said Franklin Graham.
"We are dedicated to pursuing a legal resolution with the venues that were scheduled to host the tour.
"They broke their legally-binding contracts with us because we preach a message of God's love, stand uncompromisingly on traditional Biblical beliefs about human sexuality, and share with all people that Jesus Christ is the only way they can be forgiven of sin and have a right relationship with God.
"Since the legal process takes time, we have prayerfully decided to postpone the tour until the issues are resolved and the venues become available again."
Article by Ruth Sax
Ruth Sax is a multimedia journalist for Premier.