Justin Arnot, general counsel for the Billy Graham Evangelical Association (BGEA), says Graham had scheduled an evangelistic outreach in Glasgow, Scotland for May of 2020.
"In January, we started getting cancellation letters from venues that followed what has become kind of a familiar pattern and a predictable pattern, unfortunately," Arnot details. "In the U.K., they call it a Twitter pile-on."
He explains that they essentially took comments from the past and used them out of context to "characterize Franklin as some sort of hate preacher" who hates Muslims, homosexuals, and women.
Arnot says the hatred stems from Graham's steadfastness on biblical truths and his unwavering focus on preaching the gospel.
BGEA sued and has now received a resounding victory from the Scottish court.
Sheriff John McCormick declared Monday in his 280-page ruling he saw no evidence to back the claims used to cancel the event and wrote the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), which is Scotland's largest event space, had violated the U.K. 2010 Equality Act when it trumpeted protestors' views and ignored Graham's supporters, who wanted to see the event unfold.
While protesting is permitted, he wrote there is no right to "silence" or "stop religious assemblies."
"They get told, 'You cannot discriminate against Franklin Graham or anybody else based on religious belief, and that's whether you agree with our religious beliefs, whether you have different religious beliefs, or no religious beliefs,'" the attorney reports. "You can't be discriminated against on that basis."
BGEA is now looking to reschedule the evangelistic outreach.
