Franklin Graham has said that an upcoming preaching tour due to take place in the UK this spring has been postponed indefinitely while the legal issues relating to his cancelled venue bookings are resolved.
Earlier this year, all eight venues that were due to host Rev Graham on his gospel crusade pulled their bookings, citing concern from the LGBT community.
However, despite the setbacks, Graham insisted that a tour will still go ahead and that he "will not compromise" on his Biblical message.
"A tour is still on the radar," Graham explained to Premier, "[but] we have to deal with the venues that cancelled our contracts... we had legal contracts."
Graham added that his evangelistic organisation did "nothing to violate those contracts," but that the venues cancelled after coming "under a lot of pressure from one segment of the community that were opposed to us."
"They were opposed to our religious views and to what we believe the Bible teaches," he added. "So we're having to work our way through the legal system there in the UK."
In a statement on the postponement released through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Franklin said he was "dedicated to pursuing a legal resolution with the venues that were scheduled to host the Tour."
He added: "They broke their legally-binding contracts with us because we preach a message of God's love, stand uncompromisingly on traditional Biblical beliefs about human sexuality, and share with all people that Jesus Christ is the only way they can be forgiven of sin and have a right relationship with God. Since the legal process takes time, we have prayerfully decided to postpone the Tour until the issues are resolved and the venues become available again."
Speaking to Premier, Rev Graham also argued that he must take a stand against the detractors in order to help protect the values of religious freedom.
"If they're able to stop us from preaching what we believe the Bible teaches, then they'll be able to shut down every Christian event from her on," he warned.
"I think it's important that we defend our rights, and that we stand up for what we believe and not compromise what I believe the Bible teaches."
"We are planning to come [to the UK], no question about it," he concluded. "We're not gonna back off."
