The discussion needs to continue

Mad Priest pointed to an article by Kelly Jean Cogswell at Gay City wherein Rick Warren's efforts in Africa around HIV/AIDS is discussed, along the lines of what has already been made public by Max Blumenthal (cf. my earlier post).

In case you actually care, his campaign for AIDS prevention, in a region decimated by the disease, sneers at condoms, needle exchange, and sex education. He claims all those efforts merely slow the spread of AIDS, while his plan can stop it flat. The secret - abstinence before marriage, religious conversion, and, not included on his website, that perennial favorite, queer-baiting.

One of his closest allies in Uganda in his so-called fight against AIDS is Martin Ssempa, an evangelical preacher who blames queers for the disease, makes a show of burning condoms, and this spring organized a rally with the theme "A Call for Action on Behalf of the Victims of Homosexuality," where he spent most of his time railing against queers.

As far as treatment goes, Ssempsa offers faith healing in his Pentecostal services if only victims believe enough and make a nice donation. In general, the bulk of his anti-AIDS activism seems to be legal battles to ensure that homosexuality remains illegal and the media continues to portray queers as sexual predators.

He's getting it done. Homosexuality is still illegal, and queers face increasing harassment and violence from everyone from the government to their next-door neighbors. Newspapers sometimes print lists of people suspected of being lesbian or gay, opening them up to job loss and physical violence. Several activists are arrested every year.

You may read it all here. Warren is chummy with Archbishops Orombi and Akinola and is now offering welcome to the queer-terrified neo-Donatists who have "gone out from among us."

As far as the inauguration goes, the pain and anger are real but I do not expect anything to change and I do not favor boycotting a day of such hope for change, even if it has this nasty glitch in it.

What I do hope for is an unmasking of Rick Warren.

I want him unmasked for the manipulative, oppressive person that he is. I want the public at large to know that his work in Africa centers on an approach that (1) actually increases AIDS risk and incidence, and thus increases the death rate, (2) spreads hate, and (3) fosters oppressive laws. Folks should be applauding this?

As far as I am concerned the "he's actually doing good work in Africa" routine simply does not hold water. He is putting his money where his mouth is, and that is the problem.

Here is what happens:

In 1986, Uganda's President " launched an ambitious HIV prevention campaign, which included massive condom distribution, explicit information about transmission, and messages about delaying sex and reducing numbers of partners. HIV rates dropped from 15 percent in the early 1990s to 5 percent in 2001."

Then Christian activists got involved and Uganda's success took a sharp turnaround. New HIV infections nearly doubled between 2003 and 2005.
...
"Uganda's new morality-based approach has unleashed a wave of stigma against condom use, because now, if you ask for a condom, it must mean you have failed to abstain or be faithful."

It didn't stop people from having sex. It just stopped them from using condoms.
[Becky at Preemptive Karma]

And the US government has a huge hand in this:

The Lancet, a British medical journal, recently attributed Uganda's surge in new infections to the condom shortage and the Musevenis' campaign to remove the "C" [condoms] from ABC. "There is no question in my mind," said Stephen Lewis, the U.N.'s Africa envoy, 10 months into the shortage, "that the condom crisis in Uganda is being driven and exacerbated by the extreme policies that the administration in the United States is now pursuing in the emphasis on abstinence."

[Esther Kaplan, contributing editor at POZ, the national AIDS magazine, via Peace Earth & Justice News]



--the BB

Omigod, a journalist doing research!

Max Blumenthal has looked into Rick Warren's involvement in AIDS in Africa. It's not really a very edifying or encouraging sight.

I encourage you to read the whole article here.

This summarizes it:

But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming to those who have attempted to look into it. His website contains scant information about the results of his program. However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”

Bush loves to take credit for his "compassionate" stance toward AIDS in Africa too, but with his resolutely abstinence-only approach and the resultant governmental policy of withholding funds where contraception is taught or fostered, a lot of unnecessary death ensues. Bush's legacy is rather uniformly one of death and disempowerment for the masses and profits and immunity for the powerful rapists of society and the environment.

--the BB

Trying for balance

Juan Cole has a fascinating post up today. It begins thus:

I was in Long Beach,Ca. on Saturday for the annual conference of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where Pastor Rick Warren and I were both headliners.

Also appearing on the stage Saturday evening were Melissa Etheridge and Salman Ahmad, singing Ring the Bells.

It was clearly the kind of event designed to bring people together and that challenges our divisions.

Juan has a lot to say about his experience of Rick Warren, mostly positive. The most critical comment came in this section:

Warren also talked about the increasing rudeness and rancor of public life in the United States, and urged greater civility and willingness to work with people across the spectrum of opinion. He said, "We can disagree without being disagreeable." He also made a point of saying that al-Qaeda is no more representative of Islam than the KKK is of Christianity. Contrast that to the sorts of things Mike Huckabee or Rudi Giuliani said during the presidential campaign.

But just a gentle reminder to Warren that saying for Melissa Etheridge to be married to Tammy Lynn Michaels is equivalent to pedophilia or incest is not actually very civil or nice or humane.

Toward the end we have this:

I came away liking and looking up to Warren. In fact, I wonder whether with some work he could not be gotten to back off some of the hurtful things he has said about gays and rethink his support for Proposition 8.

Maybe Melissa Etheridge, who is otherwise very angry about Prop 8, saw the same thing in him.

I am a huge fan of Juan Cole and I appreciate his making the effort to share this. If you read the article you will learn more about Warren, the good stuff you have heard is there but don't see in rants like mine. Still, I had to respond and here is the comment I submitted:

Juan, I appreciate your putting in some balance on the Rick Warren controversy and there is no doubt that he is leading evangelicals into some important areas of social ministry. More power to him on that. It is still a huge problem that he has also worked hard to take away civil rights from a chunk of the population and compared their relationships to incest and pedophilia. He may think he loves gays but it is the kind of "love" that nobody with any dignity wants because it comes across as devoid of respect. I grew up in an evangelical atmosphere and know it well. He wants to love gays into straightness and his church welcomes gays so long as they renounce their "lifestyle." He may be affable as all get out but to many he remains an oppressor, and that casts a serious shadow over the good things he is doing in the world. Ms. Etheridge is much more generous than most are ready to be. I would love to know the content of their conversation.

Radical shift-of-topic warning:

Now, there is something in Juan's article that also deserves a lot of attention and I want to point it out. The event was the annual conference of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Before I go further, I just want to praise MPAC as the most wonderful people. This is the American Muslim community at its best-- socially and spiritually active, deeply interested in civil rights, and insisting on reclaiming their religion from extremists. Many of them are religious and social liberals who dislike fundamentalism. Anyone looking for a worthy charity to donate to in this season of giving should seriously consider MPAC. It is an American organization and only accepts money from Americans, and Homeland Security presented there, so it has all the bona fides.

Juan's article is here.

If you want to know what is going on in Iraq on a daily basis you could do no better than to read Juan's blog Informed Comment. Grandmère Mimi and I are long-time fans of his work.
--the BB