Vinny UngroSamaritan’ Purse – the Christian relief service that has helped communities in need from all over the globe – has been asked to leave Central Park where they set up a field hospital to help with the overflow of patients from Mt. Sinai Hospital.
The pressure to remove them was spearheaded by Councilman Corey Johnson (D) alongside New York’s Reclaim Pride Coalition, and The New York City Commission on Human Rights – all hardline LGBT activists.
“It is time for Samaritan’s Purse to leave NYC. 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 tweeted Saturday.
Translation: we don’t like you and we don’t want you here, but we need you so you can stay. After we are done using you, we’ll continue to bad mouth you on the way out.
My statement on Samaritan's Purse:
It is time for Samaritan's Purse to leave NYC. 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. 1/
— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) May 1, 2020
Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped those who have been impacted by war, poverty, famine, and natural disasters.
Whether it would be treating Ebola patients in West Africa, Syrian refugees in Iraq, earthquake victims in Ecuador, tornado victims in Tennessee, or Italians facing the coronavirus.
When asked why, the reply never changes.
“Why did you come? ” asks its website. “The answer is always the same: ‘We have come to help you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ'”.
The organization has been scrutinized by the LGBTQ community for their belief in the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and their support for President Trump.
It was obvious that the ultra progressive NYC wouldn’t welcome them with open arms.
Even Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, who led the team, said in an interview with the NY Post: “This is honestly the most improbable place we’ve ever been… I never would have guessed we’d come to New York City with something like this. But New York never thought it would be dealing with a pandemic, either.”
Despite the hurdles they would have to overcome, they took care of business and set up shop armed with a team of 70 health care workers from around the country and four trailers full of necessities including tents, beds, personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators for the most seriously ill patients.
Even with a record of never turning away a person in need, they were made to sign a waiver that they wouldn’t exclude anybody at the insistence of Democratic NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio.
According to Graham: “…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”.
“Our Christian faith compels us — like the biblical Good Samaritan — to love and serve everyone in need, regardless of their faith or background.”
You would think volunteers who came to the epicenter of the virus, putting themselves in harms way, risking their lives in the process, all to help their fellow man would be appreciated and not condemned.
But it wasn’t to be.
Instead they were protested and slandered, causing Graham to question the obvious: “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.”
As tone deaf it was as it didn’t stop activists like Jay W. Walker of the Reclaim Pride Coalition to express his confusion on the matter.
“How was this group ever considered to bring their hatred and their vitriol into our city‘?”
Perhaps if Mr.Walker wants to see “hatred” and “vitriol”, he should take a look in the mirror.
