Samaritan's Purse is led by the Rev. Franklin Graham, who has been criticized for anti-Muslim and anti-L.G.B.T.Q. rhetoric and whose organization is based on a statement of faith that includes a belief that "marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female."

The Episcopal Church did not realize that Samaritan's Purse would be involved in the project when it offered the use of the cathedral to Mount Sinai Health System last month, and the slowing rate of hospitalizations might have created an opportunity for all parties to step back from a fraught situation, officials said.

The project was intended to turn the church, which describes itself as the largest cathedral in the world, into a 200-bed medical facility. If the need for hospital space increases, those plans may be reactivated, but Dean Clifton Daniel III, the cathedral's leader, said he thought Samaritan's Purse would not be back.

The "oops, it's not needed" is clearly a face-saving story for the cathedral leadership. These liberal Episcopalians would rather not treat terribly sick people than defile their cathedral by welcoming conservative Evangelicals there to aid with the nursing.

What appalling, appalling people, these latte-liberal Episcopalians. They are willing to force sick people to wait for a place to rest than to defile their cathedral with the presence of Franklin Graham. I get that they really do not like conservative Evangelicalism. But can't they put that aside temporarily for the sake of treating the very sick? Conservative Evangelicals aren't particularly fond of liberal Episcopalians either, but that's not the most important thing at this moment, is it?

Consider: in 1993, that same cathedral hosted a "Gaia Mass" in which its priests and congregation chanted praises to Egyptian gods. Terry Mattingly, who was then an Episcopalian, and who was present for this ceremony, recalled:

But, for me, the most symbolic moment of the service came at the offertory. Before the bread and wine were brought to the altar, the musicians offered a rhythmic chant that soared into the cathedral vault:

OBA ye Oba yo Yemanja

Oba ye Oba yo O Yemanja

Oby ye Oba yo O O Ausar

Oba ye Oba yo O Ra Ausar

Praises to Obatala, ruler of the Heavens

Praises to Obatala, ruler of the Heavens

Praises to Yemenja, ruler of the waters of life

Praises to Yemenja, ruler of the waters of life

Praises to Ausar, ruler of Amenta, the realm of the ancestors

Praises to Ra and Ausar, rulers of the light and the resurrected soul.

-- From the printed worship booklet for "Liturgy and Sermon, Earth Mass -- Missa Gaia," distributed on Oct. 3, 1993, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Then the congregation joined in and everyone sang "Let all mortal flesh keep silence."

Yemanja and Obatala are Yoruba gods who are also worshiped in voodoo. Ausar and Ra are ancient Egyptian deities.

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is a place where pagan gods have been praised in worship, but which will withhold participation in medical care if it has to welcome conservative Evangelical Christians under its eaves. Think about that. I don't know what they are, but these Divine people are not Christians. There is no grace in them.

END