Central Park Hospital Group Accuses NY Officials Of Harassment

CENTRAL PARK, NY — The reverend behind the evangelical group operating a field hospital inside Central Park released a statement claiming that New York officials and activists are harassing him and his staff members.

Franklin Graham — the son of late evangelist Billy Graham — described criticism of the anti-LGBTQ stances supported by Samaritan's Purse as "tone-deaf" amid the group's efforts to treat coronavirus patients at its 68-bed field hospital in Central Park's East Meadow. The hospital, located across Fifth Avenue from Mount Sinai Hospital, has treated 119 patients since opening in late March, Graham said in a statement on his personal Facebook page.

"These groups share a common objection to the Statement of Faith which Samaritan’s Purse requires its employees to sign and generally asks its volunteers to support. While our Scriptural belief in marriage between a man and a woman seems particularly offensive to representatives of these three groups, we don’t believe this is the time or place to wage this debate," Graham wrote in the statement.

The reverend claimed that his group "is being harassed into diverting precious resources of time and energy and personnel away from serving COVID-19 patients in New York City in order to respond to demands for documents and other information," from groups such as the city Commission on Human Rights. Graham's letter referenced "eight Democratic members" of New York's Congressional delegation, the city commission and an advocacy group called the Reclaim Pride Coalition as its antagonists.

The LGBTQ advocacy group Reclaim Pride Coalition held a rally this week to demand a city Commission on Human Rights investigation into Samaritan's Purse after the group denied volunteers who would not sign its 11-point "Statement of Faith," which includes the points that "marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female" and that those who are "unrighteous" will face "everlasting punishment in hell."

Timothy Lunceford-Stevens told Patch that his application to volunteer at the field hospital was denied when he didn't sign the agreement.

"I told them that I was eager to do the work, even though I knew we had disagreements, but that I could not sign a 'Statement of Faith,'" said Lunceford-Stevens. They then rejected my application, with no further communication."

New York State Senator Brad Hoylman was one of the first officials to sound the alarm on Graham's group in March. The state lawmaker called on the group to make a public declaration that the group will not discriminate against LGBTQ New Yorkers at its Central Park facility, citing Graham's past statements describing LGBTQ people as "immoral" and "detestable."

In his statement, Graham wrote that Samaritan's Purse stands by its decision to require staff to subscribe to its "Statement of Faith," but does not ask anything of its patients.

Patch's Anna Quinn contributed to this report.