Scottish Court Gives Glasgow Company 7 Days to Answer 'Why' It Canceled Franklin Graham's Event
A Scottish court has told Glasgow's Scottish Events Campus (SEC) it must file an answer by Thursday as to why it canceled its legal contract with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).
The Glasgow Times reports the BGEA asked the Glasgow Sheriff Court to grant an interim order requiring the company to host the May 30 event. As CBN News reported last month, the company dropped Graham's booking at the order of its principal shareholder, the Glasgow City Council.
"I want to encourage the Scottish Event Campus to meet with us and discuss options for a way forward. Let's work toward a resolution," Graham, president, and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association told CBN News in a statement. "This is ultimately about whether the Scottish Event Campus will discriminate against the religious beliefs of Christians. More than 330 churches in the Glasgow area alone support this evangelistic outreach and their voices are being silenced. This case has wide-reaching ramifications for religious freedom and democracy in the UK and Europe."
In addition to Glasgow, the UK cities of Sheffield and Liverpool have also canceled their contracts with Graham. The BGEA told CBN News a Liverpool outreach will still take place at a different venue that's still to be determined.
Other cities included on the tour are Newcastle, Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Birmingham, and London. Click here for more information on the tour.
Earlier this month, a BGEA spokesman told CBN News the organization had decided to fight in court for their religious rights there.
"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 Gospel always faces opposition, so we will prayerfully and boldly continue to press forward so that the Good News of God's love and forgiveness will be proclaimed in all of the cities we have planned to visit," the BGEA spokesman said.
As the BGEA awaits a response from the SEC, it reports support from UK churches continues to grow. More than 2,000 churches of various denominations have joined in the evangelistic effort.
Graham's first evangelistic event was in 1989, and since then he has held 190 evangelistic festivals in 52 countries. He also leads the international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan's Purse, which helps meet the needs of refugees, victims of war and natural disasters, the sick, the poor, and the suffering in more than 100 countries around the world.
