Pro-Trump evangelical leader Franklin Graham has said people in the UK are “truthophobic” after his tour there was cancelled due to his anti-LGBT+ comments.
Graham hit out at people who campaigned to have him banned from preaching in venues across the UK in a Facebook post.
“Opposition to the Gospel shouldn’t really surprise us,” Graham wrote on Facebook. “Jesus warned that it would come.
“As you may know, my eight-city evangelistic tour across the UK has been met with resistance by LGBTQ activists who inaccurately claim that I am homophobic, Islamophobic, and say that I speak hate.”
Franklin Graham believes the people of the UK are ‘truthophobic’ and ‘free-speech-ophobic.’
He continued: “Anyone who knows me or has heard me speak knows that this really isn’t true – but, I DO preach the TRUTH of the Gospel. Could it be, rather, that these folks are truthophobic or free-speech-ophobic?”
He added: “This is really a fight for truth, and the Gospel is what is really being ‘banned’ from these venues. It really boils down to the fact that they disagree with the message.”
Could it be, rather, that these folks are truthophobic or free-speech-ophobic?
Graham’s tour,which was scheduled to feature a series of messages form the Bible and concerts that impart biblical principles, was set to begin in May.
But convention centres dotting the UK pulled out the evangelist’s from its calendars, with many of the events set to overlap with the nation’s Pride Month celebrations.
One venue cited the Christian’s views as “incompatible” in a statement.
Venues in the UK pulled out over his past anti-LGBT+ remarks.
The Utilita Arena in Newcastle was the final venue to announce it had axed the preacher, following the lead of venues in Birmingham, Newport, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Liverpool.
A London date, also planned, never even secured a venue.
The religious leader previously preached to millions across US stadiums in events called crusades.
In the scheduled tour, he invited the queer community to attend for spiritual guidance, but enforced his stance that homosexuality is a sin.
Since then, Graham has sought to play down his long record of anti-LGBT+ hatred as he prepares to head to the UK for a controversial trip during Pride Month, claiming that he preaches “love” in a letter to the LGBT+ community.
However, it didn’t take long for the mask to slip – and Graham is already back to praising claims that gay weddings will lead to homelessness and “fatherless children.”