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Samaritan's Purse

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Organization

The Resume

    (1970- )
    Founded by Bob Pierce
    Headquartered in Boone, North Carolina
    Faith-based international humanitarian aid organization
    Specializes in crisis relief and housing development
    Franklin Graham became president following Pierce's death (1979)
    Probably best known for their Operation Christmas Child program, started in 1990 by Dave Cooke
    Other notable programs include World Medical Mission, Children's Heart Project, and Turn on the Tap
    Operating revenue is estimated at $300 million (as of June 2016)
    Missionary work extends to more than than 100 countries globally, including Haiti, South Sudan, Kosovo, Afghanistan, El Salvador,Somalia, Indonesia,, and Iraq

Why they might be annoying:

    People keep mistakenly calling them 'The Good Samaritan's Purse' (which actually sounds better, honestly).
    The Council on American-Islamic Relations accused the group of 'using their position of power to try to persuade people to leave their faith.'
    They were accused of ‘blurring the line between church and state’ by distributing publicly funded aid to El Salvadoran earthquake victims (March, 2001).
    Aid recipients from villages have complained about having to sit through half-hour prayer meetings before receiving assistance.
    They have been criticized for standing by their president after he repeatedly denounced Islam as ‘a very evil and wicked religion’ (on specific occasions, in 2003 and 2010).
    Graham has also attracted scrutiny for drawing a full-time salary from his father’s Evangelistic Association, while at the same time he drew a salary from Samaritan’s Purse (2009).
    They were the defendant in a lawsuit from a female mission worker, Alex Wagner, who was kidnapped while doing work for them in Sudan, along with two locals, who were held hostage for up to three months (2010).
    Wagner charged the organization with ‘failing to train its security personnel adequately and of willfully ignoring warning signs that abductions were a threat to foreigners.’ (They settled out of court in March, 2012).
    They threatened legal action against the posters of online comments on the discussion forum, 'Am I Being Unreasonable,' for a British website called Mumsnet (2014).

Why they might not be annoying:

    They derive their name from the famous Parable from the New Testament (Matthew 5:43-48).
    The complaints about them evangelizing aren't exactly unique among faith-based groups offering local/international relief.
    They oversaw disaster relief following in the aftermaths of Hurricane Mitch (1998), the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), and Hurricane Katrina (2005).
    They chartered emergency airlifts to Indonesia/Pakistan in 2005, North Korea in 2007, and Myanmar and China in 2008.
    Despite their president's vocal opposition to the religion of Islam, spokespeople pointed out the group's long history of interfaith co-operation and charity work in places throughout Africa & the Middle East.
    There's still a better chance of donations being put to better use by them than some of the larger conglomerate charities (like World Vision, which Bob Pierce also founded).
    Case in point, they received high marks on Transparency and Finances from Charity Navigator (100% and 98% respectively - not bad for such a high-profile entity).
    Their medical mission in Liberia was one of only two medical NGOs active at the start of the Ebola outbreak (2014).
    In fact, Dr. Kent Brantly, the first known U.S. Citizen to contract Ebola while treating it, was working for them at the time (he spent three weeks in isolation at an Atlanta hospital).
    As part of Operation Christmas Child, they oversee the delivery of close to 125 million packages to impoverished children annually (which usually consist of shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, personal items, small gifts, and - yes - Biblical literature).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 14 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 17 Votes: 5.88% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 50 Votes: 64.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying