The daughter of evangelical pastor Billy Graham has suggested that God let 9/11 happen because he’s too upset about transgender people.

Anne Graham Lotz is the sister of Franklin Graham, the head of the Samaritan’s Purse charity which operates the annual shoebox appeal.

Speaking to right-wing radio pundit Steve Deace, the preacher suggested that God has abandoned the United States because of transgender rights.

They said: “What I see in the nation of America right now, just the chaos on every level.

“There is silliness, there is craziness, there’s the most illogical rulings. The one in North Carolina on HB2, which is to protect our children in bathrooms and locker rooms, has become something where the justice department is suing us for something that’s just common sense.

“To me it’s evidence that God has backed away.”

She went on to suggest that God let terrorists win because of the “craziness” in the US.

The preacher said: “In our nation, one of the things we pray for is that some of this craziness would settle down… [but] our nation seems to be shaking its fist in God’s face, we’re abandoning God as a nation.

“What happens then is God abandons us and backs away, he he takes his favour and blessing away from us.

“[If we repent] I think he would begin to reveal the plots of terrorists before they are carried out, even the weather patterns he can control and protect us from violent storms.

“I think that’s why God allows bad things to happen. I think that’d why he would allow 9/11 to happen, or the dreadful attack in San Bernardino. To show us we need him.”

Her brother Franklin Graham has previously accused Obama of spreading ‘immorality’ and ‘sin’, while praising Russia’s Vladimir Putin for instituting a ban on ‘gay propaganda’.

In a recent interview with a Russian newspaper, Graham praised Vladimir Putin’s support for anti-gay laws – and claimed that homosexuals “take people’s children”.

Repeating disturbing rhetoric often used by anti-LGBT vigilantes in Russia, he said: “Homosexuals cannot have children, they can take other people’s children.”