Graham family responds to global crackdown on Christians with $1.3M defense fund and urgent call to action

Graham family established a defense fund as Christians worldwide face mounting legal threats for expressing faith.

Following those victories, BGEA created the Billy Graham Defense Fund, seeded with £500,000 (approximately $678,000) from court settlements. Samaritan’s Purse, which Graham also leads, contributed an additional £500,000, bringing the total to £1 million, or about $1.3 million."We took the damages that we won through BGEA’s court cases in the U.K., and put those funds into the Billy Graham Defense Fund — a new ‘war chest’ to help other Christians in Europe who are threatened or intimidated into silence and not expressing their faith," Graham said. Jasmine is a writer at Fox News Digital and a military spouse. Stories can be sent to jasmine.baehr@fox.com or to @JasmineSBaehr via X. 

But the issue, he added, is not confined to other countries. "The silencing of Christians isn’t just happening in other countries," he said. "BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse have also been involved in many different legal cases that affect the freedom of believers to live out their faith here in the U.S."

Between 2017 and 2024, BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse filed 20 amicus briefs in religious liberty cases, including Coach Joe Kennedy, Jack Phillips, and Baronelle Stutzman, all of which were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court."We want Americans who are standing up for biblical beliefs in court to know that we are with them — they are not alone in this fight," Graham said. "We must work to preserve the right to proclaim the Gospel here in the U.S. and in the U.K., so that we can continue to share the hope of Jesus Christ around the world. There is no human liberty more precious and important than the freedom of speech and religion."