Blessed be the Peacemaker: Both Sides Could Have Done Better

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Franklin Graham Says He Is Being Harassed Over Central Park Hospital

The evangelical leader’s relief group has been criticized for requiring workers at its field hospital to say they oppose same-sex marriage.

The Rev. Franklin Graham’s medical group, Samaritan’s Purse, teamed up with Mount Sinai Health Systems to operate a field hospital for coronavirus patients in Central Park. Credit...Rozette Rago for The New York Times

By Liam Stack

Updated April 15, 2020, 10:45 a.m. ET

The Rev. Franklin Graham on Tuesday accused elected officials and others in New York of harassment over their criticism of his medical organization, which is operating a field hospital in Central Park for coronavirus patients that requires workers to sign a pledge that they are Christians who oppose same-sex marriage.

Mr. Graham posted his accusation on Facebook hours before Mount Sinai Health Systems, which teamed up with his organization, Samaritan’s Purse, last month, informed state lawmakers that it would begin requiring those who work for the group to sign a second pledge vowing not to discriminate against patients.

Mr. Graham said Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical organization that often works in developing countries, had never discriminated against a patient. But he said that the group had a right to “lawfully hire staff who share our Christian beliefs” because it is a religious charity.

“It seems tone-deaf to be attacking our religious conviction about marriage at the very moment thousands of New Yorkers are fighting for their lives and dozens of Samaritan’s Purse workers are placing their lives at risk to provide critical medical care,” he wrote.

Samaritan’s Purse has treated 130 patients in the 68-bed Central Park hospital since it opened on April 1, the group said on Tuesday. But its role in the response to the virus in New York has been criticized because of its position on L.G.B.T. issues and the past statements and political activities of Mr. Graham, a vocal supporter of President Trump.

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Franklin Graham Says His Field Hospital ‘Lawfully’ Requires Workers to Say They’re Against Same-Sex Marriage
Jerry Lambe

Rev. Franklin Graham’s 68-bed field hospital in New York City is being criticized for forcing all of its employees to sign a “Statement of Faith” in which they vow to oppose same-sex marriage.

 

Graham, who’s said he and his charity Samaritan’s Purse have become targets for harassment due to his Christian faith, defended the decision to use the pledge on his Facebook page, writing, “while we lawfully hire staff who share our Christian beliefs, we do not discriminate in who we serve.”Samaritan Purse’s Statement of Faith reads as follows:

“We believe God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman as unique biological persons made to complete each other. God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”

Graham’s charity teamed up with Mount Sinai Health Systems to set up the field hospital in Central Park.

While New York City has some of the strongest legal protections for the LGTBQ community, Graham’s charity is a religious organization and is therefore exempt from such hiring laws.

However, lawmakers still have unanswered questions about genesis of the field hospital.  a three-page letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Mt. Sinai Health Systems CEO Kenneth Davis, New York Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn Maloney, and Adriano Espaillat, wrote that they were “concerned that as a result of potentially facing discrimination and cultural incompetence, LGTBQIA+ individuals may not seek needed medical attention at Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital.”

“Now more than ever, New York City must uphold its values and ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in seeking medical attention,” the lawmakers wrote.

Graham has continued to defend Samaritan Purse’s perspective as a “statement of faith,” and exercise in “freedom of speech and religion,” but the decision appears to be impeding planned expansion of his charity’s work.

The New York Times on Monday reported that “a plan to turn the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, into a virus hospital was abruptly shelved after tension between the diocese, which promotes a more inclusive form of Christianity, and Samaritan’s Purse, whose workers were set to staff the facility.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/franklin-graham-says-his-field-hospital-lawfully-requires-workers-to-say-theyre-against-same-sex-marriage/ar-BB12FZC1

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FRANKLIN GRAHAM FACEBOOK POST

MY STATEMENT REGARDING OBJECTIONS TO SAMARITAN’S PURSE EMERGENCY FIELD HOSPITAL SERVING COVID-19 PATIENTS IN NEW YORK CITY

Sunday, Christians worldwide celebrated Easter, commemorating the historic resurrection of Jesus. Tragically, this was also the day New York surpassed a death toll of 10,000 people succumbing to the worldwide pandemic known as COVID-19.

In recent weeks Americans have watched New York closely as the epicenter of this health crisis, accounting for nearly half of the country’s Coronavirus cases and deaths—more than 190,000 and 10,000 respectively.

We have watched daily press briefings by Governor Cuomo and others pleading for help and on April 1, in partnership with Mount Sinai Health System and in response to urgent calls for hospital beds, medical equipment and staff, Samaritan’s Purse erected a 14-tent, 68-bed emergency field hospital in Central Park, staffed by a team of more than 70 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel and relief specialists. This respiratory care unit, which includes 10 ICU beds equipped with ventilators has admitted 119 patients during our first two weeks of operation.

While so many have expressed their appreciation and support, sadly some New York officials and a special interest group have expressed concerns or outright opposition to the presence of Samaritan’s Purse and our field hospital in Central Park. They include:

• Eight Democratic members of New York’s Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.
• New York City Commission on Human Rights
• Reclaim Pride Coalition

These groups share a common objection to the Statement of Faith which Samaritan’s Purse requires its employees to sign and generally asks its volunteers to support. While our Scriptural belief in marriage between a man and a woman seems particularly offensive to representatives of these three groups, we don’t believe this is the time or place to wage this debate. Samaritan’s Purse is a decidedly Christian private relief organization, funded almost entirely by individuals around the world who share our passion for providing aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine and persecution—and doing so in Jesus’ Name. It seems tone-deaf to be attacking our religious conviction about marriage at the very moment thousands of New Yorkers are fighting for their lives and dozens of Samaritan’s Purse workers are placing their lives at risk to provide critical medical care.

It’s true, for 50 years, we have asked our paid staff to subscribe to a Statement of Faith—but we have never asked any of the millions of people we have served to subscribe to anything. In other words, as a religious charity, while we lawfully hire staff who share our Christian beliefs, we do not discriminate in who we serve. We have provided billions of dollars of medical care and supplies, food and water, and emergency shelter without any conditions whatsoever. Our Christian faith compels us—like the biblical Good Samaritan—to love and serve everyone in need, regardless of their faith or background.

In a country that cherishes freedom of speech and religion we don’t object to opposition or criticism of our beliefs as a Christian organization. What we do object to is being harassed into diverting precious resources of time and energy and personnel away from serving COVID-19 patients in New York City in order to respond to demands for documents and other information from eight Democratic members of Congress, the Human Rights Commission and the Reclaim Pride Coalition—all while the death toll in New York continues to climb. If any of these groups had funded and erected their own emergency field hospitals to serve COVID-19 patients in Central Park, we would join what we believe would be most New Yorkers—and Americans—in applauding and praying for them, not harassing them.

================================Rep. Jerry Nadler of Manhattan tweet with images of letters:

Samaritan Purse has a long history of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. While we desperately need medical assistance, we can never abandon our values. Hate has no place in NY. That's why I wrote a letter seeking answers about how they're running their Central Park field hospital.

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Statement of Faith

Samaritan’s Purse bases its ministry on the following statement of faith:

1. We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God revealing the love of God to the world.
1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; John 3:16.

2. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Matthew 28:19; John 10:30; Ephesians 4:4-6.

3. We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood on the cross, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
Matthew 1:23; John 1:1-4 and 1:29; Acts 1:11 and 2:22-24; Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:1-4 and 4:15.

4. We believe that all men everywhere are lost and face the judgment of God, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ results in regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we believe that God will reward the righteous with eternal life in heaven, and that He will banish the unrighteous to everlasting punishment in hell.
Luke 24:46-47; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 3:23; 2 Corinthians 5:10-11; Ephesians 1:7 and 2:8-9; Titus 3:4-7.

5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit, whose indwelling enables the Christian to live a godly life.
John 3:5-8; Acts 1:8 and 4:31; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Galatians 5:16-18; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:6-10.

6. We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; the saved unto the resurrection of eternal life and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation and eternal punishment.
1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Revelation 20:11-15.

7. We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and that all true believers are members of His body, the Church.
1 Corinthians 12:12, 27; Ephesians 1:22-23.

8. We believe that the ministry of evangelism (sharing and proclaiming the message of salvation only possible by grace through faith in Jesus Christ) and discipleship (helping followers of Christ grow up into maturity in Christ) is a responsibility of all followers of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Romans 10:9-15; 1 Peter 3:15.

9. We believe God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman as unique biological persons made to complete each other. God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.
Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:6-9; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9.

10. We believe that we must dedicate ourselves to prayer, to the service of our Lord, to His authority over our lives, and to the ministry of evangelism.
Matthew 9:35-38; 22:37-39, and 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Romans 10:9-15 and 12:20-21; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 2:6-10; 1 Peter 3:15.

11. We believe that human life is sacred from conception to its natural end; and that we must have concern for the physical and spiritual needs of our fellowmen.
 Psalm 139:13; Isaiah 49:1; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 22:37-39; Romans 12:20-21; Galatians 6:10.

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Plan for Cathedral Hospital Stalls Amid Concern Over Evangelical Role

Leaders of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan were upset by the involvement of Samaritan’s Purse, led by the Rev. Franklin Graham.

Hospital beds were set up in a chapel in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Wednesday.Credit...Mike Segar/Reuters

By Liam Stack April 9, 2020

Plans to turn the Cathedral of St. John the Divine into a vast coronavirus field hospital were abruptly shelved on Thursday, with public health officials saying that a leveling off in virus-related hospitalizations in New York City had made them reassess the need for the project.

But behind the scenes, Episcopal leaders said they were upset by the role played in the project by Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical humanitarian organization whose approach to L.G.B.T. issues runs counter to that of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, which is based out of the cathedral.

Samaritan’s Purse is led by the Rev. Franklin Graham, who has been criticized for anti-Muslim and anti-L.G.B.T.Q. rhetoric and whose organization is based on a statement of faith that includes a belief that “marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.”

The Episcopal Church did not realize that Samaritan’s Purse would be involved in the project when it offered the use of the cathedral to Mount Sinai Health System last month, and the slowing rate of hospitalizations might have created an opportunity for all parties to step back from a fraught situation, officials said.

The project was intended to turn the church, which describes itself as the largest cathedral in the world, into a 200-bed medical facility. If the need for hospital space increases, those plans may be reactivated, but Dean Clifton Daniel III, the cathedral’s leader, said he thought Samaritan’s Purse would not be back.