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Where is the love?

Under the banner of ‘God Loves You’ and co-opting the more open reputation of his late father, Billy Graham, homophobic evangelist Franklin Graham is leading an impending series of crusade meetings in New Zealand.

USA based "Faithful America" recommends boycotting such meetings, given Graham has called LGBTQ Americans "evil and rebellious" and has been "fanning the flames of right wing violence in the wake of the FBI’s Constitutional search of Donald Trump's Florida home."

Here in Christchurch, even Te Raranga, a group of leaders from a cross section of churches, including Pentecostals, have refused to endorse Franklin Graham's meeting.

How ironic that an evangelistic outreach stressing "God loves you" excludes LGBTQ + people from that love and acceptance.

Brian Turner, Christchurch

A contradiction

Gary Clover is seriously misinformed if he believes the Presbyterian and Episcopal (Anglican) churches in the US "have swallowed whole, without fair, detailed analyses ... (their)... depiction of Israel as an apartheid state". (Touchstone, Sept).

If that were true, why has Amnesty International, the US based 'Human Rights Watch' and Israel's own B'Tselem human rights agency reached the same conclusion that Israel is a country practising apartheid against its Palestinian population?

Gary acknowledges this by saying, "Yes, there are numerous government regulations and informal discriminations against her (Israel's) Arab (Palestinian) citizens,” but then goes on to contradict this by saying "Arab Israelis are not barred from full participation in Israeli politics or society".

Brian Turner, Christchurch

This is the final letter on this subject. Editor.