Franklin Graham banned in Britain!

Franklin Graham (Wikimedia Commons)

All seven of the venues in the United Kingdom scheduled to host Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, have been canceled because of the evangelist's biblically based views on human sexuality and marriage.

"Pastor Graham peddles controversial, repulsive views about LGBT people which are in direct conflict with the values we hold dear in Newcastle," Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes told the local Chronicle Live after the city's Utilita Arena became the latest venue to cancel.

Previously, Graham events were canceled in Birmingham, Newport, Glasgow, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Liverpool, according to a Pink News report cited by Breitbart News.

Graham said he still intends to tour the U.K.

"I'm looking forward to preaching the Gospel across the UK in late May & June. Hundreds of churches are praying & planning to be a part of these evangelistic outreaches," he wrote on Twitter. "People everywhere are searching for something to fill the void in their lives. Jesus Christ is the answer."

'Together, we can stop him'

Breitbart reported nearly 9,000 people signed a petition by the activist group All Out to bar Graham from appearing in London at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena.

The petition states:

Anti LGBT+ preacher, Franklin Graham, wants to spread hatred and division at the massive O2 stadium in London. Together, we can stop him!

US preacher Franklin Graham travels around the world telling tens of thousands of people that Satan runs the LGBT+ movement.

He persuades audiences that LGBT+ people don't deserve to have families.

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He stands on stages in huge arenas warning people of the consequences of being gay, threatening impressionable young people with the "flames of hell".

In short, he spends a lot of time and money telling the world that our love is a sin and encouraging those who want to hurt us.

AND NOW HE IS COMING TO THE UK.

Graham responded to the resistance by recalling the opposition to his father's historic meetings in the London borough of Harringay in 1954.

He noted there was a petition at the time circulated by many churches demanding that his father not be allowed in the country.

"Throughout history, the Gospel has consistently faced opposition," Franklin Graham said.

Legal action

CBN News reported the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for which Franklin Graham serves as president and CEO, plans to take legal action.

"Since the original venues have broken our legal contract with them, we are pursuing appropriate actions based on grounds of religious discrimination and freedom of speech," the organization said in a statement.

A BGEA spokesman told CBN the "planned Graham Tour is going ahead and is certainly not canceled in any of the cities as some press reports have indicated."

"The momentum for the Tour is growing throughout the UK by the day. We are continuing to finalize sites for the Tour to determine where the events will take place. In the meantime, all of the preparation events and training programs are continuing as planned," the spokesman said.

'We are all sinners'

Graham issued an open letter to Britain's LGBTQ community on his Facebook page, denying accusations of hate speech:

It is said by some that I am coming to the UK to bring hateful speech to your community. This is just not true. I am coming to share the Gospel, which is the Good News that God loves the people of the UK, and that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us from our sins.

The rub, I think, comes in whether God defines homosexuality as sin. The answer is yes. But God goes even further than that, to say that we are all sinners—myself included. The Bible says that every human being is guilty of sin and in need of forgiveness and cleansing. The penalty of sin is spiritual death—separation from God for eternity.

I invite everyone in the LGBTQ community to come and hear for yourselves the Gospel messages that I will be bringing from God’s Word, the Bible. You are absolutely welcome.