Earlier this year, Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson explained on Twitter that BGEA was unwelcome in that city because of Franklin’s vocal opposition to gay rights. “We can not allow hatred and intolerance to go unchallenged by anyone,” he said.
Evangelicals from across the UK also wrote an open letter saying: “At this time when the political polarisation in the UK is intense… we fear that [Franklin Graham’s] activities in the UK will widen divides in churches and communities.”
After the venues cancelled the bookings, Franklin Graham said: “As Americans, we should be concerned about the rise of secularism and the suppression of religious freedom and freedom of speech in the UK… What happens there often makes its way to the United States.”
Free speech and gay cakes
BGEA has previously opposed hate speech laws in Europe, claiming that “secular progressive activists… are running amok”. It has also quoted a senior lawyer from the global wing of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the US Christian Right ‘legal army’, warning: “Europe’s free speech situation grows worse by the year.”
ADF’s global wing has spent at least $12 million in Europe since 2007 – and particularly since 2015, the year that same-sex marriage was legalised nationwide in the US. Since then it has intervened in numerous cases at European courts, often pitting religious freedom against sexual and reproductive rights.
An ADF lawyer said: “there is a real possibility that these venues are acting unlawfully by cancelling the bookings on the basis of Graham’s beliefs… [they] are free to clarify that they do not endorse the views or beliefs of those hosting events, but they cannot legally say that someone’s religious beliefs disqualify them from using the venue.”
Both ADF and BGEA have been accused of supporting discrimination themselves in other cases. In 2018, after the British Supreme Court ruled in favour of Christian bakers in Northern Ireland who refused to decorate a cake with the message “Support Gay Marriage”, Franklin Graham celebrated: “This is a huge win for religious liberty and free speech!”
ADF’s international wing intervened in this case through its London office with legal arguments on the side of the bakers. At the same time, it was defending Christian bakers in a similar case at the US Supreme Court. In both cases the bakers’ lawyers presented freedom-of-speech arguments and the courts sided with them.
At the time a spokesperson for the LGBTIQ rights group Stonewall called the UK ruling “a backward step for equality” that could be used “to justify even more discrimination at a time when LGBT people still face exclusion, abuse and discrimination every day”.
Boycotts and bans
Graham previously said he would boycott companies that promote LGBT rights. He also called for a boycott of Disney over its planned inclusion of a gay character in a film.
The BGEA is one of 28 US Christian Right groups, many with links to the Trump administration, that openDemocracy has found have spent at least $270 million around the world since 2007 – and more in Europe (almost $90 million) than anywhere else outside the US, followed by Africa, Asia and Latin America.
In 2015 BGEA re-registered as a ‘church association’ in the US and has not been required to disclose information about its spending since.
Franklin Graham is an outspoken supporter of Trump’s administration. Recently, he was among the audience at the White House Rose Garden event where Trump announced his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
In 2017, BGEA organised an invite-only World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC (costing it $400,000) where Trump’s vice-president Mike Pence was among the speakers.
BGEA has intervened in numerous US court cases, including with ‘friend of the court’ amicus briefs in favour of a florist who refused to sell customers flowers for a same-sex wedding and bed-and-breakfast owners who refused to let a lesbian couple stay with them.
This year, Graham compared LGBT medical workers to drunks and drug users, defending requirements that workers at a field hospital run by Samaritan’s Purse, another organisation he runs, sign an anti-LGBT statement of faith.
Religious impunity
Neil Datta at the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights said the amount of US Christian Right spending internationally that openDemocracy has documented is “staggering” and cause for serious concern.
In the UK, he said, “BGEA is not just asserting its religious freedom, it is in fact demanding religious impunity for their hate-filled words… Thankfully, no such right to impunity exists and they should be judged by the words their leaders speak while others may have the right to decide whether the BGEA is welcome in their community.”
John Mann in the British House of Lords said: “The help that we need in Europe from people within the US is help in combating prejudice and upholding rights and freedoms, not encouragement for those seeking to diminish them.”
Lindsay Ackers from the SEC venue in Glasgow said: “As a business we remain impartial to the individual beliefs of both our clients and visitors.” In this case, she said it was “aware of the recent adverse publicity surrounding this tour” and after “a request from our principal shareholder… a decision made that we should not host this event”.
In response to openDemocracy’s questions, BGEA said the cancellation of its venue bookings in the UK “were the result of pressure on the venues by groups with a bias against Christians who hold traditional, historical Biblical views.”
“Although we have continually sought constructive resolution of our concerns, in some cases we are being forced to pursue legal remedies. To do otherwise would suggest that Christians who hold traditional Biblical beliefs do not enjoy the same protections against discrimination, or the same rights of free speech and religious free exercise, as those with other views. BGEA supports freedom of speech and religion for everyone, and we hope the courts in the UK will recognise the inequities present in our cases.”
The Graham Tour UK was scheduled to take place in eight cities: Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Milton Keynes, Newcastle and Sheffield.
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Claire Provost Nandini Archer | Radio Free (2020-10-27T07:00:55+00:00) US Christian anti-LGBT ‘hate group’ spent more than $20m in Europe. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/10/27/us-christian-anti-lgbt-hate-group-spent-more-than-20m-in-europe/
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