March 31, 2020

Franklin Graham-Led Group Seeks Volunteers for COVID-19 Effort... Anti-LGBTQ Volunteers, That Is

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.

As COVID-19 continues it spread across the globe, Americans from coast to coast are coming down sick with the virus and in some places hospitals are overburdened. In such times as these, it's natural for people of goodwill to want to step up and help - only, you might want to read the fine print before you sign on with any group offering aid, lest you find yourself required to endorse a virulently anti-LGBTQ worldview.

One such group, Samaritan's Purse, is coming to the aid of New Yorkers, setting up a tent hospital in Central Park, reports local news site Gothamist.

But despite the charitable work Samaritan's Purse is doing, the prejudicial views of its leader, Franklin Graham - an ardent Trump supporter and intractable foe of LGBTQ equality - are reflected in a "statement of faith" that the organization requires its volunteers to sign - an statement that arguably bears false witness against committed same-sex families and consigns non-heterosexuals to a mythical realm of eternal torments.

Reports Gothamist:

Graham, the son of prominent minister Billy Graham, has specifically sought to recruit Christian medical staff to the Central Park facility. According to the group's website, all volunteers, including health care workers, should read and adhere to a statement of faith, in which marriage is defined as "exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female" and the unrighteous are sentenced to "everlasting punishment in hell."

The "statement of faith" presents an array of eleven points that it sets out as dogmatic and requires volunteers to pledge themselves to. The points purport to be biblically-based. The next-to-last point reads, in its entirely:

"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.

Despite the Bible's utter lack of scientific grounding, and its complete silence on the subject of genetics (the science of which seems to support the argument that sexuality of biologically determined, and not - as some evangelicals claim - "chosen" by non-heterosexuals), this plank of the statement purports to derive from "Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:6-9; Romans 1:26-27; [and] 1 Corinthians 6:9."

Graham himself underscored the purportedly "Christian" element of the otherwise-charitable relief effort in a Twitter post in which he sent out the call for fellow believers to staff the relief effort.

Unclear is why, exactly, the group might not welcome the services of a qualified, but non-Christian medical professional - or, for that matter, a Christian doctor or nurse who happens to be LGBTQ as well as devout.

Equally unclear is why any group providing public health services would give more weight to a statement with little or no bearing on actual science or medical factuality than it would to the professional qualifications of medical personnel when combatting a pandemic.

The makeshift hospital and its volunteers are working under the auspices of Mt. Sinai hospital, reported Gothamist. The hospital has anti-discrimination policies in place.

While city officials appeared to shrug off the worrisome contradiction of an anti-gay group operating with a genuine medical provider, at least one LGBTQ medial professional expressed doubt and concern about the group, given the unscientific and discriminatory "statement of faith" that volunteers must sign and at least pretend to agree with.

"On the one hand, this is absolutely an all hands on deck situation," city resident Amy Martin, a former nursing assistant, told the news outlet. "On the other hand, as an LGBT New Yorker, I would be hesitant to make that my first choice of care.

"I'd much rather be seen anywhere else."

The group's involvement caught the attention of gay, married State Sen. Brad Hoylman, who stated the obvious:

"It's unacceptable that a New Yorker infected with COVID-19 could be subjected to discriminatory treatment from an organization whose leader calls us 'immoral' and 'detestable.' "

Gothamist offered a quick overview of Graham's vituperative anti-LGBTQ record, noting that he had:

praised Vladimir Putin for "protecting children from any homosexual agenda"; and railed against the "transgender lie"

by Kilian Melloy , EDGE Staff Reporter

Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.

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