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AIDS "benevolence" for Warren is first and foremost a form of missionizing.
I don't think the Evangelicals are going to Africa to avoid the gay 'ick-factor.' The need is greater there and there is plenty of 'ick-factor' in Africa as well.
Many Christian groups over the years have predicated help for Africa on missionary work, which seems to keep making countries on the continent more dependent on the US and have less ability to determine their own future and culture. One would think Obama would be thinking more of terms of humanitarian work in Africa than missionary work, but Obama may be a much more conservative Christian than I gave him credit for.
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Two wonderful practices. You said it!!!
As for the "ick-factor," one person's ick is another person's pleasure.
Saying you're "sick of hearing about Warren" is sort of like saying "I'm so sick of hearing about Helms and Falwell - it's so over the top, let's move on to something else".
LGBTs didn't let Helms and Falwell off the hook and that was a good thing.
Mrs. Tannenbaum, my 12th grade English teacher, warned us about Reader's Digest...and that was back in the 50s.
You know what? As someone in a twenty-year same-sex partnership, I just don't care for this whole farce of a "story."
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*shrugs* i think the point mikeb was making....why is his hatred okay and not Warren's?
Answer: it's not okay. Stop being bigoted.
*rollseyes*
*giggles*
That's not standing up for yourselves, mate.
You're just another chubby chase like John.
The FARCE going on here has two names: Warren and Obama.
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
Yet, we're programmed to think of Africa as more exotic, less accessible, and therefore less deserving of our attention. I'm just saying.
And of course, I'm sure that a greater percentage of AIDS in Africa is from homosexual contact than is reported.
Robin asked me how I became an AIDS advocate. Simple question. But how do you condense a life-changing journey into 15 second sound bites? I quickly told about reading the magazine article on AIDS in Africa – how I was stunned to realize that I didn’t know a single person infected with HIV …… horrified I couldn’t name one orphan. I tried to give some of the back story – that up to the time I read the article I didn’t care at all about AIDS anywhere, thinking that it was a gay men’s disease and therefore I didn’t have to be concerned. I said “I was ignorant and hardhearted.” While embarrassing to admit, that was the truth about me in 2002. But in the pressure and panic of my first national television appearance, as a million disconnected thoughts flew through my brain, I did it. I left out a crucial part of my story.
And how easily her "discovery" about AIDS correlates so well with the Bush regime...just how much money has Saddleback gotten of our tax money anyway? You know, Bush's "faith-based initiatives."
On behalf of those people I say: fuck her!
GASP! . . .
a genuine homosexual (named David Miller).
Isn't this the point of John's post? That these people consider AIDS in America a Gay man's disease they do not have to care anything at all about?
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
I don't know anyone with Parkinson's, nor could I name one person orphaned by it. I'm not horried, I'm grateful. Why do I need more misery in my life?
"that up to the time I read the article I didn’t care at all about AIDS anywhere, thinking that it was a gay men’s disease and therefore I didn’t have to be concerned." well, yeah, dying gay men don't deserve compassion. *headdesk*
I am trying to point out that Tammy Lynn Michaels does not seem to know about Saddleback's "cure the gay" program, and about the prohibition on "unrepentant" lesbians and gays.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/22/92016/...
I posted my own diary, and has asked Campanelli to update.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/22/10...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idU...
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
"(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed," the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration.
"The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."
if a right-winger had written this crap, you would be up-in-arms complaining.
"he works on a gay disease in west holloywood FAR FAR away" -- that's exactly how your craps sounds.
How is he trashing it?
I will even go further, it's religious nuts like Warren who help spread AIDS in Africa with their abstinance only education. I wonder, does he pass out condoms?
It's like saying I am Mother Teresa because I get a flu shot, thus preventing the world from getting the flu. Gee I am grand.
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wtf? yes it is anger.
As that modern philosopher Archie Bunker so aptly observed about christian missionary 'works,' you hold their heads underwater until they see the light...
On the one hand, I think the fascination with it does have to do with the fact that in Africa it is not considered a "gay" disease. And, while it isn't a "gay" disease in the United States, either, it has historically been treated (really, untreated) as a "gay" disease.
On the other hand, I think that, in terms of sheer numbers, African AIDS has to be treated as a priority. In the United States, most sexually active people, particularly gay men, know a great deal about prevention. And the reason that HIV-AIDS infections had dropped off so precipitously in the gay community has been the success of education and prevention.
In Africa, we haven't even really scratched the surface with education and prevention. When you have such rampant rates of infection, only the most bigoted person alive would say that AIDS in Africa should not be a global priority. Even the most adamantly egoistic person knows that the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the particularly virulent strain of HIV that dominates there could eventually become an immediate threat to everyone everywhere.
I think from a strategic perspective, however, taking the focus of HIV-AIDS away from its characterization as a gay disease has been a good thing, overall. It thwarts the idea that AIDS is divine punishment. It directs resources to the study of HIV-AIDS.
But, on the other hand, it is disturbing to think about the idea that it took "heterosexual" infections to get certain segments of the population to empathize. On the other hand, empathy always originates with some sense of identification. And, while it is troubling that some people fail to empathize with gay people who do have HIV, I do think that beginning to understand the ravages of the disease by empathizing with heterosexual victims does encourage people think about the disease from a human perspective. Once you accept that AIDS isn't punishment reserved for homosexuals, then maybe you can actually start to try to understand the disease, and eventually move to a position where you are willing to work to prevent it because it hurts people, no matter who they are. The worst part about AIDS is that someone would think that it is punishment from God. This concept interferes totally and utterly with empathy, and consequently with action.
I don't think HIV-AIDS work in Africa makes Rick Warren a "friend" of gays, but at the same time, I think anyone who does work on this tragedy is contributing to a culture of empathy where we might actuallly build friendships with growing segments of the Christian community.
There was a time the Christian Right would have rationalized HIV in Africa as God's retribution. And though this is modest progress, I am grateful for any Christian preacher who helps debunk, intentionally or unintentionally, the notion that "deviants" deserve to suffer and that we should even facilitate this suffering through active persecution.
Only recently has he discovered that Christians should care for the poor and suffering. But since then, his theology has been moving in a more and more progressive direction. And I think this is the case with millions of American Christians.
I'm not saying I condone what he is teaching, but to change people's minds you need to understand where they are. Not eveyone in the gay community wants to work to build bridges with the Christian community... but I think it behooves us to build these bridges and cultivate relationships... so we can go from being this radical "other" and bogeyman.... and be recognized as part of a pluralistic society where all people are important and worthy of respect.
I have no tolerarance for religion anyway, and even less for con artists like Warren who is just a metaphysical step away from Hitler, Stalin and other lowlifes in history.
In the secular democracy of MY dreams, the government cares for ALL people, each according to his needs. Because it is the fulfillment of a social contract here on earth. In reality.
Amazing that a smart guy like Obama just can't seem to figure it out, huh? Warren & Obama have more than a few things in common methinks and it ain't their waist size.
The Warren/Obama/media story line just stinks. Why? Because it is impossible to invalidate the conclusion that Warren is a homophobe who actively and consistently works against equal rights for gay Americans and their families.
The View just had on a gay comediene who is the mother of two teenage boys and she made a really good point. Lyle Menendez, one of the two sons who slaughtered their parents in cold blood one evening, got married in prison. So did Theodore Bundy, the serial killer of women and girls. His last victim was a 12 year old girl in Florida. So, they can get married and she can't. Charles Manson, if he wanted to, could get married and have that marriage legally recognized in California. Consider this the WTF factor. How is this defensible?
The religious right sees heterosexual people with AIDS as deserving care and compassion. Gays with AIDS on the other hand are seen as just getting what they deserve. After all, if God is going to burn them in hell forever, why oh why would we want to limit their suffering here on Earth?
These Christianists see the future of LGBT people as eternal torture by the hand of God. They want to help out and do God's work by torturing us here on Earth. You betcha.
And yes I believe that all people living with HIV deserve proper medical treatment.
It's about time someone brought this up. Thank you. AIDS in Africa is just another why these hypocrits try to hide their bigotry. You, and you alone, are doing wonders in waging the battle against the hypocracy of the compassionate conservatives
Answer: Because Obama's father was a Heterosexual African, not the descendant of American slaves.
We are all the innocent victims of Barack Obama.
I'd add another question: Why was team Obama's communications staff so gay-ignorant that they didn't realize any of this before they started lecturing us about Warren?
Today the Pope said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rain forest from destruction. "(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed," the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration. "The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less…" The pope said humanity needed to "listen to the language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work."
Prior to his election as Pope, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger had been since 1981 the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was known as "God's Rottweiler" for the manner in which he went after his enemies and destroyed them. In previous centuries the Congregation of which he was Prefect was called the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and the Prefect was called the Grand Inquisitor. The Inquisition was responsible for the torture and execution of heretics, Jews and homosexuals by burning or strangulation. The last person to be executed by the Inquisition was Cayetano Ripoll, a schoolmaster from Valencia,Spain, who was garroted to death on Jul 26, 1826 for allegedly teaching the heresy of Deism. Deism is the belief that religious truths can be arrived at by the application of reason rather than supernatural revelation. Deists believe that reason can be superior to dogma. Thomas Jefferson was a Deist. Ripoll's last words were, "I die reconciled to God and to man."
Prior to becoming a priest, young Josef was a Hitler Youth, but he maintains that he was only following orders.
Reverend Rick Warren says that he will not tolerate homosexuality, not at all, in the African nations of Rwanda and Uganda, where both he and President Bush's abstinence-only global AIDS program, PEPFAR, have enormous sway.
Rev. Rick Warren is homicidally homophobic and sex intolerant in Africa, and, having made Rwanda his model of a purpose driven nation, in accordance with his best selling manual, "The Purpose Driven Life," he is expanding into Uganda. Both countries are U.S. allies receiving U.S. military aid and training, and President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), funding.