Bill de Blasio to 'monitor' Christian Group Operating Field Hospital: 'No discrimination whatsoever'

 


By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday he plans to monitor a field hospital in Central Park being operated by Franklin Graham’s evangelical humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse so that he can ensure there is no discrimination going on amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. de Blasio said he found it “very troubling” to learn of Mr. Graham’s past statements condemning homosexuality and Islam and said he reached out to the CEO of the Mount Sinai system, Dr. Ken Davis, who “assured” him they had a written agreement with Samaritan’s Purse that “there’s going to be no discrimination whatsoever.”

“I said immediately to my team that we had to find out exactly what was happening,” the mayor said, the New York Post reported. “Was there going to be an approach that was truly consistent with the values and the laws in New York City, that everyone would be served and served equally?

“We’ve received those assurances from the organization,” he said.

Mr. de Blasio added that he would be sending staff over to “monitor” the park facility.

“I am very concerned that this is done right. But if it is done right, we need all the help we can get,” he said.

Samaritan’s Purse is preparing to open the makeshift COVID-19 ward in Central Park, which has 60 beds in tarp-wrapped tents that will function as a respiratory unit servicing overflow patients from Mount Sinai Hospital, the Daily Beast reported.

The group has come under fire from the LGBTQ+ community because of its unapologetic support for traditional marriage. A statement on its website reads, “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.”

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024