CaptainKudzu: Bill De Blasio

Showing posts with label Bill De Blasio. Show all posts

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Bill De Blasio ‘Very Concerned’ About Samaritan’s Purse Help At Emergency Hospital

The Mayor of New York is reportedly very concerned about an emergency hospital being built in Central Park by Samaritan’s Purse. The Gothamist, a New York website, ran an article on March 30 claiming that the Christian group “asks volunteers to support anti-gay agenda.”

The text of the article, however, fails to present any evidence that Samaritan’s Purse is asking its volunteers to take action against gays. The claim is totally dependent on a statement on the group’s website that says that all volunteers ” 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.'” In other words, a Christian group asks that its volunteers agree with traditional Christian theology and morality.

In a followup piece, Gothamist presented a tweet from the speaker of the New York City Council, who asked for “assurances” that the “LGBTQ community will not be discriminated against in any way.”

The second article quotes De Blasio as saying, “We’re going to send people over from the Mayor’s Office to monitor. I am very concerned that this is done right. But if it is done right, we need all the help we can get.”

The tent hospital in Central Park, which will handle overflow patients from Mt. Sinai Hospital, will be staffed by volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse. The group’s website reported that the facility consists of 14 tents and 68 respiratory care beds. The tent hospital opened on April 1.

Per the Gothamist report, “a spokesperson for Samaritan’s Purse would not say whether they would work with medical personnel who are not Christian or those who decline to affirm the faith statement.”

De Blasio said that the CEO of Mt. Sinai had assured him that Samaritan’s Purse had signed a pledge to treat all patients equally. Samaritan’s Purse will operate the hospital in a manner “truly consistent with the values and the laws of New York City.” De Blasio said.

Franklin Graham, the founder of Samaritan’s Purse and the son of the late evangelist, Billy Graham, denied any discrimination on “The Sean Hannity Show.”

“We’re going to give the best health care we can to all New Yorkers, it doesn’t matter who they are or what they are,” Graham said. “We’re going to give them the best medical care that we possibly can in Jesus’ name.”

Graham echoed the message to Sean Spicer on Newsmax, saying, “Of course we don’t discriminate.”

While it is easy to blame New Yorkers for slapping the hand that reaches out to help them, Graham’s hyper-political persona is probably at least partly to blame. Unlike Billy Graham, who avoided partisan politics, Franklin Graham has embraced them as a strong supporter of President Trump. It is saddening but hardly surprising when people on the other side of the political spectrum question his motives. The Central Park hospital brouhaha is a logical consequence of politicizing Christianity.

The bottom line is that New York needs hospital beds and Samaritan’s Purse is there to provide them. Christian medical professionals want to serve and the people of New York need them. Where Christian doctrine conflicts with liberal beliefs there will always be tension, but hopefully, both sides can put aside their suspicion and disagreements in a time of crisis.

Whatever New Yorkers think of Graham and Samaritan’s Purse, the group is following in the footsteps of other Christians down through history who have risked their own lives to minister to the sick and dying in other epidemics. Maybe the Coronavirus pandemic will serve as a bridge to bring conservative evangelicals and progressive New Yorkers closer together for the common good as well as the furtherance of God’s Gospel.

After all, I doubt that those dying of COVID-19 care about the politics of the doctors and nurses who are treating them.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Monday, March 30, 2020

De Blasio’s Church Threat Is Unconstitutional

There have been accusations of First Amendment violations in orders that prohibited church gatherings due to Coronavirus. Some have claimed that those orders violated religious freedoms because they included churches. Those people were wrong, but now New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has gone a step beyond what the law allows.

In a televised address, De Blasio told New Yorkers, “A small number of religious communities, specific churches and specific synagogues, are unfortunately not paying attention to this guidance even though it’s so widespread. I want to say to all those who are preparing for the potential of religious services this weekend: If you go to your synagogue, if you go to your church and attempt to hold services after having been told so often not to, our enforcement agents will have no choice but to shut down those services.”

De Blasio then said that law enforcement had been instructed “if they see worship services going on they will go to the officials of that congregation and they will inform them that they need to stop the services and disperse. If that does not happen, they will take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently.”

To be clear, quarantines and orders limiting public gatherings are both legal and constitutional. The understanding of the need for quarantines goes back beyond the understanding of germ theory. The CDC notes on its site that the word “quarantine” dates back to the Middle Ages and literally means “40 days,” which coincidentally, is about how long it’s going to take to slow the spread of COVID-19.

In early American history, quarantines were instituted by both the colonial governments and the fledgling government of the United States. Federal action today is justifiable under the Interstate Commerce Clause, the General Welfare Clause and the Public Health Service Act. Though modern Americans have not had to deal with a situation like the Coronavirus pandemic, quarantines and other restrictions were common in our history as our forefathers fought diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever.

In the past, however, many quarantine actions were undertaken by state and local governments. In the current health crisis, we see a similar pattern as governors and city leaders take the lead on restricting movements to slow the infection. In fact, states have much broader quarantine powers than the federal government. Vox has a good explanation of quarantine law and a rundown on various state laws here.

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio is one of these local leaders. To be clear, De Blasio is within his authority and is doing the right thing to ban public gatherings. As David French and Sarah Isgur discussed on the Advisory Opinions podcast two weeks ago, if the government issues a blanket ban on public gatherings in an emergency that includes but does not single out religious gatherings, it is not a violation of the First Amendment or religious freedom.

A popular meme going around the internet says that quarantines only apply to sick people. This is also incorrect. Quarantines apply to people who might be infected. Sickness is not required.

Where De Blasio crosses the line is with his threat to permanently close churches and synagogues. Once the emergency is over, the city would have no authority to keep houses of worship open. If the City of New York tried to enforce such an unconstitutional order, it would lose.

Until the outbreak is stopped, however, De Blasio does have the authority to shut down religious services and fine those who flout the order. I hope that he does use these powers because the situation in New York is beyond the pale. Christians should have more consideration for their fellow man than to risk the deaths of thousands simply because they insist on meeting in person.

That does not mean that the faithful can’t continue to worship in small or virtual groups. Online services have become the norm around the country over the past few weeks as Chris Queen wrote two weeks ago.

When the plague has subsided, many Americans will rejoice and thank God in churches around the country. There will be more Americans alive to do so if churches and businesses don’t act stupidly in the meantime.

Originally published on The Resurgent