Billy Graham org launches legal fund to defend European Christians under attack

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) wants to raise money in legal support of Christians in Europe facing discrimination for public expressing their faith.

BGEA announced the creation of a legal fund following court victories in the United Kingdom after several events sponsored by the Christian ministry were canceled following pressure from individuals and groups.

Harassment against BGEA came to the forefront in 2018, when the U.K. city of Blackpool removed BGEA’s “God Loves you!” advertisements from city buses following complaints about the faith message. That action was resolved three years later when a U.K. judge ruled that BGEA had been unlawfully discriminated against, and the city was required to pay compensation to the ministry.

Subsequently, the “Billy Graham Defense Fund” was established after BGEA events scheduled for 2019 and 2020 in Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle, and other U.K. locations were abruptly canceled.

“BGEA responded with legal action, arguing that the cancellations violated U.K. laws protecting religious belief and expression,” reported the Christian Daily International. “All of those disputes were resolved favorably, with BGEA securing new contracts for rescheduled events.”

The financial settlements BGEA received from those and other suits, along with an influx of cash from Samaritan’s Purse, the international humanitarian outreach also headed by Franklin Graham, has resulted in a legal fund of more than $1.25 million, earmarked to help Christians in Europe forced to defend their faith in court.

“Considering what is happening in wider Europe, it seemed appropriate to make this assistance available to Christians across the continent,” BGEA general counsel Justin Arnot told Christianity Today.

“We preach a message of God’s love, but when a small group of activists in the U.K. called it hate – we were cancelled,” Franklin Graham said of the attacks on BGEA. “Our advertisements were removed from buses and venues dropped our events. We stood our ground and challenged the decisions in court. Though it took seven years, all nine legal disputes were resolved in our favor.”

Graham said that the legal victories formed the basis for what he calls a “War chest” – a defense fund “to help other Christians in Europe who are threatened or intimidated into silence and not expressing their faith.”

In addition to BGEA, other Christians have scored high-profile legal victories in European courts. In 2022, a court in Germany acquitted Olaf Latzel, a German pastor, of hate speech charges over his comments on homosexuality during a church marriage seminar.

And as reported by Christianity Today, also in 2022, a conservative politician and a church leader won a legal victory in Finland “when a court ruled that the things they said about homosexuality were ‘offensive, but not hate speech.’ The judges found that parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and Juhana Pohjola, a bishop with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, were not trying to incite hatred, but attempting to explain their views of Scripture” – actions that are allowed under Finnish and European law, “even if people feel denigrated by the particular biblical interpretation,” reported the Christian news site.

Meanwhile, Franklin Graham told Fox News, “The silencing of Christians isn’t just happening in other countries. BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse have also been involved in many different legal cases that affect the freedom of believers to live out their faith here in the U.S.”

Between 2017 and 2024, BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse filed 20 amicus briefs in religious liberty cases, including such high profile cases as those of Joe Kennedy, the Washington State high school football coach who was fired for taking a knee and offering a brief prayer after football games; Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who refused to provide a cake celebrating a couple’s same-sex marriage; and Barronelle Stutzman, a Washington State florist who would not create floral arrangements to celebrate a same-sex ceremony. All three cases were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We want Americans who are standing up for biblical beliefs in court to know that we are with them – they are not alone in this fight,” Graham told Fox News. “We must work to preserve the right to proclaim the gospel here in the U.S. and in the U.K., so that we can continue to share the hope of Jesus Christ around the world. There is no human liberty more precious and important than the freedom of speech and religion.”