Recently, Local Government Propaganda arm Wales Online published an article about Revd Franklin Graham. Mr Graham is currently touring the UK on the “God Loves You Tour” and on Sunday 21st May was scheduled to speak at the ICC Arena in Newport. The article by Tales Online titled “We confronted the controversial preacher who thinks gay marriage is a sin in Wales” featured comments from the First Minister Of Wales Mark Drakeford.

Mark Drakeford told Tales Online that he “Regrets that a hate preacher will be able to perform in Wales” and despite the Welsh Government having a 50% stake in the International Convention Centre in Newport, it does not have any say who appears there.

On Revd Graham’s Facebook page he posted “We are under attack from Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the US until the threat with Islam has been settled”. “Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalised and they do their killing to honour their religion and Muhammad. During World War Two, we didn’t allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now?”

We are all seeing across the UK the decline in churches and the vast increase of churches converted into mosques. Across the UK there have been undercover videos from inside many mosques which show actual hate preachers coming to UK mosques, funded by Saudi.

Voice Of Wales reached out to Revd Graham regarding the recent article by Wales Online and the comments made by Mark Drakeford and they were happy to release the following statement.

STATEMENT FROM REVD FRANKLIN GRAHAM, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION
“Those who falsely accuse me of sharing hate have obviously never heard me preach. I’m not coming to Wales to speak against anyone, I’m coming to share a message of God’s love. Jesus Christ didn’t come to condemn the world, He came to save the world. This is the Good News that I’m going to proclaim from God’s Word to the people of Wales. We welcome everyone to come hear this message of hope.

While I certainly respect the rights of others to disagree with our religious beliefs, it is deeply concerning that public officials who are elected to represent their entire community would describe the traditional views that Christians have held for over a thousand years in Wales as ‘hate’ and actually use their office to speak against us and discriminate against our religious beliefs.

This is particularly troubling in view of a clear ruling in 2021 stemming from similar circumstances in Blackpool where city councillors discriminated against another one of our evangelistic events. A judge observed that the approach taken by the Blackpool Borough Council was ‘the antithesis of how a public authority should behave in a democratic society.’ What’s more – the judge ruled that Christians who hold traditional Biblical views are not extremists and must be treated fairly.

I would hope and expect that public officials in Wales will take note of this case and do their jobs reasonably and impartially and welcome people of all religious beliefs. The God Loves You Tour is supported by Christians from 375 churches across Wales, and we have the same rights as everyone else to freely express our long-held religious beliefs.”

With Wales now being a self declared “Nation Of Sanctuary”, Voice Of Wales suggest that Tales Online and Mr Drakeford divert their attention to the more immediate danger in Wales such as unpunished Female Genital Mutilation starting with the babies under two years old and the child grooming happening here in Wales.

Voice Of Wales stand by and respects our Christian Values. We are free in society to criticise & question religions. We believe that our government and media hate our culture and are set to destroy it.