Franklin Graham: Support Gay Marriage? Don't Apply to Work in Central Park Health Facility

It's still not clear if gay medical personnel can or cannot help out at a COVID-19 tent run by a religious group that makes volunteers sign off on a "faith statement" that slams LGTBQ people and their families.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says discrimination isn't permitted, just as it's not allowed at the hospital; but the Charlotte Observer reports that Franklin Graham - the head of Samaritan's Purse, the group that has set up a tent in New York City's Central Park to help Mt. Sinai Hospital deal with the pandemic - doesn't want non-heterosexual or non-cisgender doctors and nurses, just as he doesn't want medical personnel with drinking problems, drug habits, or an inability to stop chasing after sex.

Graham made the comments in an Easter message that had been pre-recorded and was broadcast on Easter Sunday by Fox News, the Observer reported.

As previously reported at EDGE, the good work the group has been doing has been overshadowed by its stated prejudices toward LGTBQ people.

Those prejudices are reflected in a "statement of faith" that Samaritan's Purse requires its volunteers to sign - a statement that arguably bears false witness against committed same-sex families and consigns non-heterosexuals to a mythical realm of eternal torments.

Reported New York news source 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."

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 purporting to help combat a pandemic.

Graham offered this rationale in his Easter message:

"Of course, I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. That's part of who we are. So we have a long list of things we want people to understand and agree with before we take them to work with us. I don't want a person who is going to be on the job and drinks; that's not a good witness. I don't want a person who's going to be using drugs to be part of our team. I don't want someone who's going to be swearing to be part of our team. I don't want someone who is trying to pick up girls, and using this as an opportunity to do those kinds of things.

"So, we try to screen the people that work with us. And we want men and women who believe the way we do and have the same core values that we have."

Various media sources noted that the group has been criticized in the past over claims that it provides medial assistance but also proselytizes to those in need of medical care.

Criticized by some - including New York State Sen. New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman, who tweeted that "It's a shame that the federal government has left New York with no other choice but to accept charity from bigots" - the group has drawn the distinction (true but beside the point) that they do not discriminate when it comes to treating sick people.

Still, that they will not accept the service and skills of qualified LGBTQ medical personnel sits wrong with some providers. "On the one hand, this is absolutely an all hands on deck situation," city resident Amy Martin, a former nursing assistant, told Gothamist. "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."