Franklin Graham’s Charlotte-based chaplains head to Minneapolis in Floyd case

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Charlotte Observer) - Chaplains with Franklin Graham’s Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association arrived in Minneapolis Friday to offer emotional and spiritual care after the death of a handcuffed black man in police custody.

The police officer who knelt on victim George Floyd’s neck was charged with third-degree murder, The Associated Press reported Friday. Video showed Floyd pleading that he could not breathe, according to the AP.

To his 8.6 million Facebook followers, Graham reacted with anger to Floyd’s death.

“For the third night in a row we saw protests across the country and anger pouring out of the streets,” Graham posted. “I’m angry too. What these police officers did was horrific, evil, inexcusable—no ifs, ands, or buts.”

Graham is president and CEO of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Its Billy Graham Rapid Response team sent crisis chaplains to Minneapolis on Thursday, Jack Munday, international director of the Rapid Response team, said in a news release on BillyGraham.org.

Minneapolis was home to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for 50 years before it moved to Charlotte, Billy Graham’s birthplace.

“Our chaplains have specialized training and experience and are coming from across the United States to share God’s hope,” Munday said in the release.

“We are praying for the entire community, and along with supporting those who are hurting, our chaplains will encourage local churches and pastors to be involved and provide prayer support,” he said.

A team of crisis-trained chaplains left the association’s headquarters Thursday for the 18-hour drive.

“They prayed together on Facebook Live before leaving with the Mobile Ministry Center, a large vehicle that will serve as a safe haven for conversations and prayer,” he said.

Kevin Williams, the team’s emergency response logistics manager, was part of the team that offered emotional and spiritual care in Ferguson, Mo., and the team’s coronavirus response in New York City this year.

Controversy erupted on the New York visit when gay rights advocates criticized Graham and his Samaritan’s Purse organization for asking coronavirus medical workers to agree that “marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”

Of the Minneapolis response, Williams said on BillyGraham.org: “My prayer is in the battle of darkness and light in Minneapolis, that souls would turn to the light. It keeps coming back to this resounding message: That God so loved the world that He sent His only Son,” Williams said, quoting the New Testament verse in John 3:16-19.