Evangelist Franklin Graham warned Christian broadcasters of a “coming storm” of demonic criticism that could cancel their cloud data storage and bank accounts, key elements of business and ministry in the digital age.
In recent years, sudden closures of bank accounts and terminations of other critical services have plagued some conservative organizations, both secular and religious.
For example, the National Committee for Religious Freedom, founded by a former Kansas senator and governor, Sam Brownback, had its Chase bank accounts shut down without explanation last year.
Graham, who heads the international relief charity Samaritan’s Purse, said he’s had to take steps to avoid being “cancelled” on short notice.
Graham told the broadcasters a rising tide of “wokeness” could sweep over evangelical ministries that broadcast the Gospel message and call out sinful behaviors.
He said, “I believe there’s a coming storm that we’re all going to [have to] be ready for. It’s not going to be good. The world is deteriorating so quickly. It seems like every demon in Hell has been turned loose.”
When Graham started working at Samaritan’s Purse donor records were kept on file cards, then on a small computer system. Now ministry data resides in the cloud.
But large corporations such as Amazon “own the cloud” and can cancel service abruptly. When he asked how many organizations at the convention use Amazon Web Services, hands shot up throughout the crowd.
He said, “If you can’t store your data and you can’t retrieve your data, your organization is not going to last much longer.”