I don’t care WHAT your religion, your profession, politics or your proclivities are when I need a doctor or health care. I just want the very best care possible.
Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse are helping New Yorkers and have put up a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park staffed by 60 to 70 medical professionals to care for patients battling the Chinese coronavirus.
But not everyone wants their help.
LGBT groups such as Accountable for Equality have even suggested that because Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian organization their volunteers will “turn away” gays and lesbians infected with the virus, “leaving them on their own to find care elsewhere.”
NBC News ran with this headline: “Group behind Central Park’s COVID-19 field hospital run by antigay evangelist.”
The LGBT lobby is attacking Christian pastor Franklin Graham, accusing him of “putting New Yorkers’ lives on the line.” How exactly? By recruiting Christian volunteers who believe natural marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
This begs the question: is it wrong for volunteers working for Samaritan’s Purse or any Christian-based church or organization to adhere to a statement of biblical principles? We’re talking about the same traditional views on marriage held by a majority of Americans and the rest of the Western world – until about 2015.
Franklin Graham has never been one to discriminate – or back down. He stated:
“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.”
People are free to disagree with Graham, but to portray him as a hater or that he would refuse to treat someone is malicious. He could have stayed out of New York and just asked his followers and subscribers to pray for the people there.
But instead, he recruited 72 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel from Samaritan’s Purse to work in partnership with the Mount Sinai Health System which features 10 ventilators at the site.
Graham further said their organization does not make distinctions about an individual’s religion, race, sexual orientation, or economic status.
There is zero evidence that any of his ministries discriminate against anyone, anywhere in the world. So how did NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio react to the idea of Christians helping treat coronavirus victims? He sent people over to Central Park to monitor the operation, and added:
“I said immediately to my team that we had to find out exactly what was happening,” the mayor said. “Was there going to be an approach that was truly consistent with the values and the laws in New York City, that everyone would be served and served equally?”
Well, we certainly know the liberal values of NYC, but they act as if there are no Bible-believing Christian doctors, nurses, and workers in any New York hospital or clinic.
Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League called the New York mayor ‘delinquent’ and said de Blasio seems worried that someone might catch a “Christian virus” if treated by one of Samaritan’s Purse medical professionals. Is he paranoid, progressive, or just a bigot?
Always remaining calm and sane, Franklin Graham encouraged people to pray and ask God for help. He said this COVID 19 pandemic is a result of a fallen world full of sickness, disease, and sin; a world that has turned its back on God.
It’s also Resurrection week (which really is all year long!) on top of all this, and we have a very real hope in a very real Savior, Jesus Christ. You can trust the one true God with your life and health and especially, with your eternity.
If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. There’s no better time than now to put your faith in the Creator of all things and only living God.
Happy Easter! God bless you and keep speaking the truth about things that matter.
