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It would be one thing if Samaritan’s Purse refused to treat a gay man. Or mocked a trans-identified individual. Or discriminated against a lesbian needing medical care. But none of that has happened.
Instead, this massive Christian humanitarian organization which serves each person alike is getting blasted by the Left for one reason only. Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian organization that employs Christian workers and believes in the historic teachings of the Bible.
The Crime of Being Christian
That alone is their crime. That alone is their fault. And for that unthinkable transgression, for that monstrous evil, for the crime of being Christian, they are protested by the Left.
It was bad enough that Franklin Graham’s evangelistic ministry in the U.K. was opposed because of his pro-Bible comments regarding sexuality and marriage. These days, that is the price for taking a stand for Biblical truth and opposing radical LGBTQ revisionism.
But it’s far worse when Graham’s humanitarian arm, Samaritan’s Purse, which selflessly serves the sick and hurting worldwide, is opposed because their statement of faith is Christian. What on earth has happened to our society?
As noted in National Review, “the volunteers for Samaritan’s Purse put themselves in harm’s way, acting as backstops for a municipal hospital system at risk of being overrun with coronavirus patients. The group’s evangelical Christian volunteers expose themselves to infection and disease at no charge to patients, treating the sick without regard to race, religion, sexual orientation or any of the other identity groups under putative ‘siege’ in the United States.”
Protesting a statement of faith
Yet on April 15, NBC News reported that “a group of LGBTQ activists stood several yards away from the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital on the East Meadow lawn and blasted city and state officials and Mount Sinai Hospital for partnering with the evangelical humanitarian relief organization treating overflow patients suffering from the coronavirus.”
As expressed by Jay W. Walker, an activist with the Reclaim Pride Coalition, “How was this group ever considered to bring their hatred and their vitriol into our city at a time of crisis when our people are fighting a pandemic?”
It is true, NBC News noted, that “The hospital is staffed with Christian doctors and nurses experienced in treating infectious diseases.”
And these Christians donate their services to help strangers, putting their own lives at risk in a living demonstration of “love your neighbor as yourself.”
“But,” the report continues, “Samaritan’s Purse’s policies require most contractors and some full-time volunteers to sign a statement of faith that includes a declaration that ‘we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.’”
In the Name of the Lord Jesus
Oh, the horror! Oh, the hatred! How dare this Christian organization, led by the son of the Reverend Billy Graham, uphold Biblical values. How dare they affirm marriage as it has been affirmed by the church and synagogue for two millennia. How dare they refuse to bow the knee at the altar of political correctness.
Writing in the New York Post on April 3, Bob McManus pointed out that Samaritan’s Purse makes its mission and message loud and clear: “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.’”
And yet that is where the problem lies: They are Christians coming to serve in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Values of New York City
Somehow, Mayor Bill de Blasio was surprised to hear that Franklin Graham’s organization was actually Christian. And so he commented, “I said immediately to my team that we had to find out exactly what was happening. Was there going to be an approach that was truly consistent with the values [of] New York City?”
Ah yes, the values of New York City, the city that aborts more African-American babies than it sees born every year. By far. And the city that says: If you hold to Christian beliefs and values, you cannot serve our citizens. Not at your own expense. Not at the risk of your own lives. Not if you do it as Christians.
Better to let the COVID-19 victims pass away in their misery. We will not have true Christianity in our midst.
Time to Wake Up
That is how far we have fallen, and we dare not ignore the handwriting on the wall. After all, if a Christian humanitarian organization can be protested during a pandemic for affirming Biblical values, what will happen to churches and ministries during times of health and prosperity?
Fifteen years ago, I was mocked for saying that those who came out of the closet wanted to put us—Bible-believing Christians—in the closet.
That now seems like a lifetime ago. For those who are still slumbering, it is well past time to wake up. ©2020 Michael Brown
Adapted by permission from an article originally published at Stream.org.
Michael L. Brown is the founder and president of Fire School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina, and host of the daily syndicated radio show “The Line of Fire.”
Above: A sign protesting the Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital in New York’s Central Park, which treated patients from April 1 to May 5.
Photo: Gabriele Holtermann-Gorde/Sipa USA/AP
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