Over the past two weekends, more than 15,000 people heard the Good News of Jesus Christ in two major cities in the United Kingdom.
But it almost never happened.
Back in 2020, Franklin Graham was originally scheduled to preach in eight cities across the U.K., but seven of the events were canceled by the venues when the tour faced opposition.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) brought legal challenges to those cancelations based on religious discrimination—with the goal of preserving the opportunity for all Christians to preach the Gospel in the public square. Now, several years later, all of the legal disputes have been resolved favorably.
Thanks to the rulings, BGEA has been able to reschedule these events, many in the same original venues. And while money was never a motivating factor, BGEA received nearly $650,000 from all of its legal cases in the U.K.—including one that challenged the unlawful removal of its bus ads for a previous evangelistic event in 2018.
On Saturday, Franklin Graham announced the creation of the Billy Graham Defense Fund, designed to “encourage Christians across the U.K. to keep living out and sharing their faith freely and boldly,” Graham said.
“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. This is a victory, not just for us, but for all Christians and churches across the U.K.”
>>See how God moved through this month’s outreaches in England and Scotland.
“There are so many problems in our society and people are looking for hope,” he said. “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.”
