US evangelical preacher Franklin Graham should be banned from entering UK, critics say

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

US evangelical preacher should be banned from entering UK, critics say

Opposition grows to visit by Franklin Graham, who is accused of ‘hate speech’ for remarks about Islam and gay people

Harriet Sherwood Religion correspondent
Thursday 7 December 2017 16.22 GMT

Opposition is mounting to a planned visit to the UK by a leading American conservative evangelical Christian who has made Islamophobic and anti-gay statements, with critics saying it will promote prejudice and damage interfaith relations.

Several MPs, including a government minister, have urged the home secretary to consider refusing UK entry to Franklin Graham, with some suggesting his comments contravene British laws on hate speech. A petition against Graham being granted a visa has gathered more than 4,600 signatures.

Nina Parker, the pastor of Liberty church in Blackpool and the organiser of the petition, said: “As a Christian and as a leader of a church that particularly welcomes LGBT people, I’m horrified that other local churches are inviting someone with this record of hate speech.”

She said Graham’s visit had triggered an “enormous amount of protest from Christians in the north-west” of England, and his presence would be “extremely destructive in the area”.

Graham, 65, the son of the evangelical preacher Billy Graham, is to be the main speaker at the Lancashire festival of hope at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens in September 2018.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/07/us-evangelical-preacher-franklin-graham-uk-critics

[Dawson Leery]

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