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Homophobic Evangelical Group Samaritan's Purse To Leave Central Park In Two Weeks
By
Sophia Chang
Published May 2, 2020
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By
Sophia Chang
Published May 2, 2020
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The Central Park field hospital set up by evangelical Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse is winding down. Starting Monday, no new patients will be admitted, and over the next two weeks, the remaining patients will be treated and the tents will be broken down.
Mount Sinai Health System coordinated the temporary 68-bed hospital with Samaritan’s Purse—the group founded by fundamentalist preacher Franklin Graham—as a facility to handle overflow COVID-19 cases. The two organizations released a joint statement Saturday about the pending closure.
"Since April 1st, this partnership has resulted in high-quality medical care for 315 patients infected with the virus. We are grateful for this opportunity to work together to save lives and reduce suffering," the statement said. “Now that the surge in COVID hospital admissions is reaching manageable levels, we will stop admitting new patients to the Central Park field hospital as of May 4."
The statement added that "it will take approximately two weeks to treat these last patients and subsequently decontaminate and remove the tents," and that Samaritan’s Purse staff will also begin drawing down their support at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital downtown over the same time period.
"While this crisis is far from over, this marks a significant turning point in the coronavirus outbreak in New York that gives us assurance that we are returning towards normalcy," the statement said.
Some of the city’s other ad-hoc medical facilities also closed this week—the USNS Comfort departed Thursday and the Javits Center’s 1,000-bed facility shut down Friday.
But the field hospital’s closure follows criticism over Samaritan’s Purse’s explicitly homophobic stance, which included asking their employees to sign a pledge denouncing gay marriage. Graham has previously said that homosexuals will burn in the "flames of hell," described Islam as "wicked and evil," and railed against the "transgender lie."
The presence of Samaritan’s Purse in the city drew increasing controversy over the past few weeks —as officials denounced the group's politics, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine backed out of an agreement to allow the group operate an overflow facility inside the church. Progressive activist Billy Talen—AKA Reverend Billy -- was arrested for planting a rainbow flag near the facility.
NBC New York’s Melissa Russo tweeted “Source tells me a decision was made to sever ties after controversy over the group’s religious views on the LGBTQ community caused concerns in NY. They treated 315 patients and were down to 8 by Friday.”
A request for comment from Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in North Carolina was not immediately answered Saturday. (Update: After this story was published, a representative of Samaritan's Purse said the Mount Sinai statement was a joint statement from them as well.)
The organization posted a press release on its website April 14th defending its beliefs from the criticisms of “some New York officials and a special interest group."
“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,” the release said. “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.”
The organization also used their Central Park field hospital for promotional videos.
The Village Sun reported that Mount Sinai initially invited some of the Samaritan’s Purse medical staff to stay on at Beth Israel Hospital to continue working: “40 Christian medical personnel from Samaritan’s Purse will take up residence in the Gramercy hospital, where they will treat critically ill patients, presumably those with COVID-19. They’ll sport their Samaritan’s Purse scrubs, complete with the group’s logo.”
The invitation enraged State Senator Brad Hoylman, who represents the district where Beth Israel is located. Hoylman is the only openly gay member of the State Senate.
“Now that the USNS Comfort has set sail and the temporary hospital at the Javits Center is closing its doors shortly, Franklin Graham should pack up his medical tents and leave New York City for good,” Hoylman said in a press release Friday. “It was bad enough that Donald Trump’s failure to prepare the nation for this pandemic forced New York to accept charity from a bigot like Franklin Graham. Inviting Graham to stay on longer is an insult to LGBTQ New Yorkers and sends the dangerous message that homophobia and transphobia are acceptable.”
“I fully support the heroic efforts of the doctors, nurses and medical personnel on the front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s a real shame that Mount Sinai still clings to the argument that the only way to help our healthcare heroes is to allow bigots and homophobes to lend a hand," Hoylman said. “On behalf of the LGBTQ community I represent, I demand they end their association with Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse, or risk further reputational harm with LGBTQ New Yorkers and the wider public.”
Mount Sinai’s statement said the staff working at Beth Israel will also wind down over the next two weeks.
“It is time for Samaritan's Purse to leave NYC,” City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said on Twitter Friday.
“This group, led by the notoriously bigoted, hate-spewing Franklin Graham, came at a time when our city couldn't in good conscience turn away any offer of help. That time has passed,” Johnson continued in a series of tweets.
He added, “Hate has no place in our beautiful city.”
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samaritan's purse
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Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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