Free Republic

Samaritan’s Purse has confirmed that $19 million in frozen USAID funds has been released to the ministry. Payments to the North Carolina-based evangelical aid organization had been stalled since January, when President Trump ordered a 90-day pause on all federal foreign aid. News of the release follows the Supreme Court’s March 5 ruling that the Trump administration must unfreeze nearly $2 billion for foreign humanitarian work already completed at the government’s behest. “The funding grants that Samaritan’s Purse has with USAID are reimbursement agreements,” said Samaritan’s Purse President and CEO Franklin Graham in a statement to MinistryWatch. “We pay for...

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.'” That is one of President Ronald Reagan’s most famous quotes — a declaration of war on the bloated bureaucracy of the Great Society. Conservatives are used to hearing that quote cited as the ultimate example of what we believe, or are meant to believe: that the government is responsible for our problems, crushing individual initiative and traditional values. I had reason to reconsider that quote this week, when Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Scott Turner visited the Pacific Palisades...

Evangelist Franklin Graham has commented on whether God is “judging” Hollywood as catastrophic wildfires continue to ravage Los Angeles, destroying entire communities. Speaking about the situation, Graham, the CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, stated, “People have lost everything. A lot of people are asking ‘Why?’ and that’s a hard question to answer.” He added, “We want to reassure them of God’s love — that He cares for them and that He hasn’t turned His back on them.” The fires have claimed at least 24 lives and burned through 40,000 acres in the Greater Los Angeles...

Nearly two months after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, the controversies surrounding FEMA’s botched response could have been avoided if the federal agency had apolitical managers overseeing operations and had not diverted funds for illegal aliens. With winter looming over the Appalachian region, at least a thousand people—some of them children—are still living in temporary housing, such as tents. “Attention Joe Biden or whoever is running this country its 24/7 all hands on deck this week for Helene ravaged areas to make sure people are sheltered properly for the coming cold. The blundering so far has been inexcusable, You...

To the shock of the state of North Carolina, where my wife Nancy and I have lived since 2003, Hurricane Helene wreaked massive devastation, taking at least 118 lives with at least 92 still missing. No one saw this coming, and it has brought unimaginable suffering to whole communities living in the mountains of our state, where horrific, unprecedented flooding wiped out little towns and destroyed countless homes, businesses, and roads. To this moment, many residents remain without power, and it is almost impossible to access some of the hardest hit areas.

Hurricane Beryl, a Category 3 storm with winds of 120 mph, is wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands, having already impacted Jamaica and Grenada and resulting in at least 10 fatalities. In response, the North Carolina-based evangelical relief organization Samaritan’s Purse has airlifted over 24 tons of emergency supplies and a team of specialists to the affected regions. On Wednesday, Hurricane Beryl unleashed its most intense winds along Jamaica’s southern coast, while relentless heavy rain and fierce winds battered a broader region, CNN reported early Thursday. From 1 p.m. on Wednesday to 1 a.m. on Thursday, Kingston...

Israel is a nation in trauma. Shockwaves reverberated throughout the world when Hamas attacked civilian communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, slaughtering people of all ages and taking more than 200 hostages. Entire villages now lie empty as the survivors have been forced to flee their homes. With the growing threat of violence in the north, many more have fled. Hundreds of thousands of people are now internally displaced, having lost everything. One kibbutz that is now abandoned is Be’eri. Hamas terrorists breached the “Iron Wall” fence that separates Israel and Gaza, and overran the small agricultural neighborhood at...

As concerns grow over the Biden administration's ability to evacuate Americans ahead of the planned military withdrawal from Afghanistan, nonprofit organizations are working to assist U.S. citizens and Afghans seeking to flee the nation that's been overrun by the Taliban. With less than a week until the Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal of remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the federal government is working to evacuate American citizens and Afghans who risk being tortured and executed by the Taliban, a terrorist organization.The State Department reported Wednesday that no more than 1,500 American citizens seeking to leave Afghanistan remain there. Efforts to...

The Christian non-profit Samaritan’s Purse is joining with other groups to EVACUATE Americans and others from Afghanistan amid the Biden administration’s failed military withdrawal. .@SamaritansPurse is partnering with organizations to get men, women, and children out of #Afghanistan. Read more about our response in the country and join us in praying for the thousands of innocent people affected by this crisis: https://t.co/EGvmQqUs3m — Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 24, 2021 Graham had earlier issued a call to prayer for the people of Afghanistan and Americans trapped in the nation. #PrayForAfghanistan pic.twitter.com/zXlFSS94s7 — Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 22, 2021 “There is no...

In C. S. Lewis’s book, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," he describes a beautiful place (Narnia) under the spell of an evil character (the White Witch) – who symbolizes the Devil. Lewis writes of her that it was she who has made it "always winter, but never Christmas.""Always winter, but never Christmas" – what a great phrase to describe this world, without the loving, powerful, and positive influence of Jesus Christ.Could you imagine life in such an intolerable state where we had to endure the brutal conditions of the winter season – but never having Christmas to look...

The Rev. Franklin Graham reacted to a Kansas middle school’s decision to sever ties with his charity project, Operation Christmas Child, and expressed doubt that “our country will ever come together.”“We don’t solicit necessarily from schools,” Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Friday. “Anybody can participate and what this is, this is just children there at the school that did this on their own and got their school involved." The atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation had sent a complaint letter dated Nov. 3, to Superintendent Tony Helfrich, urging the district to take "immediate...

Friday on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle” during a segment about the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s legal complaint demanding that a Kansas middle school cease participation in Operation Christmas Child, a program supported by Samaritan’s Purse that provides Christmas gifts for underprivileged children, Samaritan’s Purse president Rev. Franklin Graham discussed that and other attacks on Christianity. Graham told host Laura Ingraham he saw the country as being in “moral freefall” but vowed not to back down. “I think we are in a moral freefall in this country,” he said. “And the only hope for our country, I believe, is God. And...

On Saturday, in the throes of America’s turbulent 2020 election, thousands of Christians gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the inaugural National Day of Prayer and Return, a calling to repentance and prayer for healing. Dueling rallies and worship services on either side of the Washington Monument attracted crowds of thousands. Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham held one rally with Vice President Mike Pence in front of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday afternoon, while Jonathan Chan and Kevin Jessup held “The Return” rally starting Friday night and continuing throughout Saturday in front of the U.S. Capitol building. The...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will travel to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a meeting with President Trump to discuss economic revival efforts. The governor said during a news conference on Tuesday that he hoped to discuss how infrastructure projects could be leveraged to kickstart the economy, which has cratered due to the coronavirus pandemic. "You want to restart the economy, you want to reopen the economy, let’s do something creative, let’s do it fast, let’s put Americans back to work, and let’s make America better," Cuomo said. "It is common sense." "You have an infrastructure that’s crumbling, you...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is asking Samaritan’s Purse to pay state taxes after the Christian humanitarian organization discharged its last patient this week — one of the over 300 COVID-19 patients it treated at a temporary hospital in New York City’s Central Park while facing a backlash due to its statement of faith. “We’re not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit,” Cuomo said at a daily press briefing this week, Fox News reported Friday. According to a New York state law, anyone working in the state for more than 14 days...

Now, Franklin Graham, CEO of the worldwide Christian ministry Samaritan's Purse, which is providing a mobile hospital to treat patients in New York City, warns that the restrictions on constitutional rights might not be temporary.

Samaritan’s Purse has no expectation of receiving a single penny for the weeks of work they did in Central Park to combat the coronavirus. But now New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is asking them to pay up. Earlier this week, the Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the nonprofit organization, told Faithwire, “They’re the ones who called us originally,” referring to officials with the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. “We didn’t call them; they called us,” he continued. “And we agreed to go and we have not charged them one penny. All of our services have been...

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, they say, though when Mayor Bill de Blasio is on hand, the other end of the animal is usually involved. Gotham’s chief executive this week might have accepted with some grace an offer of assistance from a crisis-tested, and devoutly Christian, emergency-relief organization — but he gave it the fisheye instead. It seems that in Blasville, evangelical Christians armed with tons of the sophisticated medical equipment so sorely lacking in the city right now, plus the expertise to use it, are presumptively suspect. And are perhaps to be expelled. Thus it was...

Reacts to Ocasio-Cortez calling on Americans to not return to work Franklin Graham, the CEO of Samaritan's Purse, the Christian ministry that provided an emergency hospital in New York City to treat coronavirus patients, is urging Americans to pray for the president as he deals with "stupid thinking" in Congress. He referred to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., telling workers to just say "no" to returning to work. The freshman congresswoman said: "Only in America, when the president tweets about liberation, does he mean go back to work. When we have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a...

Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. will halt monetary contributions to the World Health Organization while the administration reviews the mistakes it made managing the pandemic. Now, president Trump has announced where the funds will be going instead — to two organizations fighting the coronavirus: Samaritan’s Purse and the Red Cross.