Rick Warren, Council on Foreign Relations: His African AIDS "ministry"

[Hannah Bell]

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/12/19/untold-consequences-rick-warrens-aids-activism

"Warren's transformation into the evangelical AIDS "it person" is relatively recent....Warren's own AIDS work, together with his wife Kay, began in 2002, ostensibly when Kay read a magazine article about the burgeoning population of AIDS orphans in Africa. That year, Warren led a group of evangelical churches in pushing a reluctant Bush administration to adopt a global AIDS policy... PEPFAR, launched in 2003...

A division of aims within the global AIDS movement between those advocating for prevention funding and those working for treatment access helped draw faith-based groups....Treatment access advocates sought out partnership with evangelicals... But the faith-based solution naturally brought with it skewed policies that limited prevention options and led to what Jacobson calls the "profoundly ineffective" spending of AIDS money: with $20 billion spent on treatment over the past five years, but six new infections for every person treated...

But churches anxious to follow Warren's lead didn't want to provide comprehensive HIV prevention services, such as safer sex education or condoms, so they lobbied for PEPFAR funding policy to be interpreted narrowly, creating stand-alone abstinence-until-marriage programs out of the law's 30% abstinence-only earmark. The new faith-based arm of the AIDS movement Warren had energized asked for, and got, a number of obstacles to prevention services: a prohibition on needle exchange programs for drug users; a ban family planning services in Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission clinics; and the anti-prostitution loyalty oath, which required all groups receiving PEPFAR funding, including those that work with sex workers, to condemn prostitution. As with conscience clauses, Jacobson says, this ideological interpretation of PEPFAR became a source of U.S. funding that "allows groups or organizations to avoid having to provide prevention treatment or care according to evidence-based criteria."

Warren and his fellow evangelicals brought new visibility to the issue; simultaneously, faith-based AIDS groups such as Kay Warren's HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church began receiving significant funding through PEPFAR and disbursing it to organizations on the ground that follow their religious guidelines....How that flawed policy plays out can be disastrous. As journalist Michelle Goldberg noted... one of Warren's protégés in Uganda, the rabidly anti-gay pastor Martin Ssempa, has interpreted Warren's faith-driven solutions to the HIV/AIDS epidemic by burning condoms at universities and offering faith-healing to disease-stricken congregants. Other PEPFAR grantees, as Jacobson's colleagues in the global AIDS movement have witnessed, use their funds to promote fundamentalist interpretations of marital roles, advising women that if their husbands beat them, they should try harder to please them."

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Another excellent post Hannah! Kick and rec!

It seems we Internets-Americans need to educate our journalistic brethren about Warren and the Dominionists.

[last1standing]

2. So Warren funds an AIDS program that actually increases suffering and does nothing to prevent AIDS.

What a wonderful man. :mad:

[ColbertWatcher]

3. AND he recognized Dumbya for the same "accomplishment!" n/t

[leftstreet]

4. Another Faith-Based Fucker feeding at the $$ trough

{snip}

Warren further entangles religion and treatment in his very own "Purpose-Driven Nation," Rwanda. He offered to extend an undisclosed amount of aid to the country if it adopted his bestselling book as an action plan for the nation, using churches as centers for capacity building and American evangelical leaders as medical and development advisors to the Rwandan parliament. The plan included the provision of a set of development kits to churches such as "school in a box" and "clinic in a box," the latter of which Warren says will eventually include AIDS medicines. The problem with this arrangement is comparable to the problem with other faith-based initiatives entrusted with the distribution of state services: that the provision of aid and services is performed with state dollars but with no accountability regarding the fair and non-coercive availability of that aid. Emmanuel Kolini, the Anglican archbishop of Rwanda, who called homosexuality a form of moral genocide, is on the National Steering Committee of Saddleback Church's Western Rwanda HIV/AIDS Healthcare Initiative.

[Hannah Bell]

6. with Warren making money on the deal - I bet.

Creepier & creepier.

[scarletwoman]

5. Obama needs to know about all this stuff -- I suspect he doesn't have a clue.

And now he's on vacation (well-earned, certainly) in Hawaii. Probably no way to reach him.

It occurred to me tonight, while reading DU, that Obama just doesn't know all the stuff that *we* know. I think he's just looked at the surface of Rick Warren, and thinks "he's not so bad, I can work with him", without having a serious clue about the depths of the rot that he represents.

sw

[Gwendolyn]

10. I don't know how he can't be aware. This has been going on for years, and the info is out there.

Bush totally backed and helped grease this perverse abstinence-only policy in African countries. Faith-based initiatives, and Obama intends to continue them.

[scarletwoman]

12. He probably reads highly condensed policy papers, not internet exposées. (nt)

[Gwendolyn]

14. I'm sure, and would think that this would be the content of those condensed policy papers.

[Jamastiene]

19. Exactly.

A lot of people don't do politics as a hobby, as in political junkies or news junkies. A lot of people get their news from the "tee vee" and never see news outside of what our government WANTS them to see.

They miss all of the relevant information that they need to know. they form opinions without having scratched the surface of the information out there.

[glitch]

36. Like many he probably mistrusts non-corporate sources. Sadly. nt

[Jamastiene]

17. You know. I think you just stated what I have been trying to point out

about this Warren thing.

You said it better than I could. I was saying that anyone who believes we can "work with" or "reach out" to the right wing fundies like Warren has got another thing coming. It's either through total misinformation before forming that opinion or naivety about the nature of the religious right (which is neither, btw) that people believe that, sincerely.

I live in the Bible Belt. I know there is no working with them. Their dirty deeds and backdoor deals are atrocious. I wish I could form it into words better what I am trying to point out. I wish I could say it in a way that makes more sense to people.

[stillcool]

41. He knows...and if he doesn't...

that's worse. I don't know if any of these religious foundations that spout all their good deeds are anything but tax shelters and money laundering operations. They may tithe the take, but that's about it.

[Skittles]

7. there is not one decent thing about that hateful, sanctimonious bastard

NOT ONE

[meowomon]

8. And this is only important in the Gay community because we all have AIDS?

Why is AIDS always supposed to be about gay people?

Good for them. I was in Act-up long before Rick Warren started worrying about AIDS. I am a nurse who has lovingly taken care of all kinds of people with AIDS but someone always has to bring it back to the Gay community. WHY? WHY?!!?

[Hannah Bell]

9. What?

This is about Rick Warren & his "ministries".

[Why Syzygy]

11. No one said anything about Gays!

Sorry to disappoint you, but we do know that AIDS has no favorites.

[Jamastiene]

20. Is this because they mentioned an anti-gay preacher?

Or are you pointing out that AIDS is not "just a gay disease" to try to make people aware?

[glitch]

37. Warren isn't offensive only to gays, he is offensive to all decency. See post #13 below. nt

[autorank]

13. So, his AIDS program of backward solutions blocks real soltuions and kills people

This is the most salient and, in many ways, depressing comment on this fraud.

I'm just stunned, completely.

K*R!!!!!

[Hannah Bell]

16. bet there's a pharma tie-in, too.

going to look.

[autorank]

26. I'll be waiting

I'm never surprised by any of this or even disappointed. I expect it. But every once in a while it
is really shocking to see the level of the lies. It's real Matrix material for these idiots at Newsweek
and Time to speak of this guy's AIDS work when giving him a top 100 or top 15 positive people ranking.
Then you see what the real deal is on the AIDS program and realize that these corporate media sources
are liars on steroids, a new level of the grotesque.

[Hannah Bell]

28. Well, dang, I was dying to find out that Mega-Globa-Pharma Inc was

billing the gov at retail, but the drug cost budgeted v. #'s treated looks like it would be at cost or less, i.e. under $500/year/person.

http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/107838.pdf

Looking at some of the other stuff, though...you can sure see how the conjunction of faith-based aid & government $$$ can be used to recruit souls & expand networks for both.

[Jamastiene]

15. Oh, just freaking lovely.

Fantastic! :sarcasm:

So, basically, any funding Bush/Warren did for the AIDS programs were to preach at people to hold a nickel between their knees until they are married. If they drop the nickel, God will smite them.

:wtf:

That kind of makes any AIDS funding bittersweet. What about those who need treatment? Did they get told to just prepare for Hell?

I despise the right wing rabid fundamentalists. I'll be glad when I get to Hell. It'll be an upgrade compared to being in the same realm with them. :puke:

[leftstreet]

18. Well, see, it's all about Rick Warren's stool

http://www.rickwarrennews.com/080806_hivconf.htm

During the session, the leaders spoke of how each of their segments of society – government, business and church – can work in tandem to solve the problem of HIV/AIDS. “Both a one-legged and a two-legged stool will fall over, but a three-legged stool will stand,” Pastor Warren explained. “There is a public sector role of government and NGOs; there is the private or profit sector role of businesses; and there is the faith sector role of churches and houses of worship.

“Each of these sectors brings something to the table that the others don’t have,” Pastor Warren added. “If you say the faith community cannot participate in healthcare, you have just taken out most of the world because the amount of those without faith in the world is very small.”

[Jamastiene]

23. I know where he can stick those stool legs...

x(

[Pastiche423]

40. ...all three of those stool legs at the same time

[Hannah Bell]

21. OMG. Info from the white house PEPFAR report for 08:

PEPFAR = Presidents Emergency PlAn for AIDS Relief

Total Budget: 5.9 billion, spent in 15 countries (some not in Africa, i.e. Haiti, Vietnam)

% allocated to "faith-based" groups: 25% = $1.48 billion

Breakdown of all spending:

22% prevention (1.3 billion)
30% care (1.8 billion)
48% treatment (2.8 billion)


Now this:

"Of note, Abstinence and Be Faithful (AB) activities account for nearly 8 percent of the total prevention, care, and treatment budget, 34 percent of all prevention activities, and 58% of programs that address prevention of sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS. Activities for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) account for 10% of the total prevention, care, and treatment budget."

Got that?

Warren & similar folks control 1.48 billion in federal funds, & get to help disburse it.

Half a billion spent on abstinence/faithfulness education (i.e. salaries for faith-based "teachers" to say "don't have sex before marriage, don't cheat on your spouse). Divided by 15 countries, that's 33 million per country.

How many people could you get clean water & decent food to for 33 million in an African country?
Or, obversely, how many locals could you hire to say, "don't have sex without a condom"?

1/3 of all prevention $$, & more than 1/2 of all $$ spent for prevention of sexual transmission.

Wotta racket.

Gov't is also funding growth of Warren's overseas church, is how I read it. $$ buy influence.

http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/107838.pdf

[leftstreet]

22. ...

:wow:

[Jamastiene]

24. I knew it.

Before I even saw this, I knew it. Abstinence only didn't work in the 80s and it's not going to work now. What a racket.

[glitch]

38. JFC this deserves it's own post. Your posts are must-read IMO. nt

[AntiFascist]

25. If the truth be told...

AIDS probably passed from the simian population to the human population in Africa while drug companies were using monkey organs to develop vaccines, and then tested the vaccines on unsuspecting African test subjects. When the disease began to manifest itself someone probably came up with the brilliant idea of "wrath of God" and both the drug companies and faith-based 'treatment' groups saw dollar signs.

While people like Jerry Falwell proclaimed that "AIDS is the wrath of God against homosexuals" this delayed serious research programs under the Religious Right influenced Reagan Administration long enough for AIDS to begin to spread like wildfire. Then, once it became a serious worldwide health threat, it was time to rake in the money. Education and condoms became a serious threat to the spread of AIDS, so best to keep people in Third World nations in the dark about them.

[autorank]

27. That's what the Jerrys and Ricks do - divert attention from the culprits ...

and bless them too! All things establishment.

[1776Forever]

29. One of Warren's protégés in Uganda - Ssempa rewarded for anti-gay crusade

Monday, September 15, 2008
Ssempa rewarded for anti-gay crusade

http://gayuganda.blogspot.com/2008/09/ssempa-rewarded-for-anti-gay-crusade.html

Sunday, 14th September, 2008

By Joyce Namutebi

DR. Martin Ssempa, a pastor at Makerere Community Church, has received an award for his fight against homosexuality.

Ssempa and his wife Tracey received the plague from Apostle Alex Mitala, the overseer of the National Fellowship of Born Again Churches in Uganda.

This was during the “Great Marriage Celebration” organised by the National Association of Marriage Enhancement in conjunction with the National Fellowship of Born Again Pentecostal Churches in Uganda at Nakivubo Stadium over the weekend.

Mitala led hundreds of couples who converged at the stadium from various parts of the country into a prayer for Ssempa to continue being the torch-bearer in the fight against the vice in Uganda.

“You are not fighting alone. We are with you,” Mitala said.

He said homosexuality was one way of making the world extinct.

“When men marry each other and women marry women, clans and tribes become extinct,” Mitala noted.

Bishop Michael Mugerwa, the organiser of the celebrations, urged couples to continue the fight against homosexuality, saying marriage was made for man and woman.

Ssempa thanked the Christians for standing by him and said he was encouraged by their support to continue with his campaign.

He proposed the establishment of a national marriage alliance to counter homosexuality.

Ssempa said the alliance would also discuss problems concerning marriage in Uganda.

Dr. Joseph Serwadda, the patron of Churches in Communities, asked the Government to consider declaring a national day for married people.

Pr. Robert Kayanja of Lubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral urged husbands to listen to their wives, saying that God can use them to bring blessings in their families.

...........

Hatred building - that is what he should have gotten an award for. Absolutely disgusting! It just keep getting worse and worse!

:wow:

[earth mom]

30. Does anyone know how Bono fits into all this? I think I saw a photo of him with Warren.

I would also like to know what Elton John and other people active in AIDS fund raising make of this bullshit Warren is pulling.

I know what I think of it! :puke:

[Bluenorthwest]

31. In my opinion, Bono

made his choices for the same reasons Warren did, to 'help' with AIDS without dealing with gay people, and to make profit and gain status by doing so. They are indeed brothers in bigotry. Bono also ran from his home problems, he only deals in far flung communities, where the people have no way to speak about what they want and what is being done to them in the name of assistance.
Elton John, well, he has zero nerves left for the Warren sort at all. He never did. Like myself, Elton remembers how lucky we are to still be here. We remember Ryan White, and what the fearful bigots did to him and others, in the name of God. Many of us remember history because we can not forget it, no matter how hard we try. That history is made up of faces, of people, who we loved. Friends and family, it is our own history.

[earth mom]

32. Thanks for your reply. I pretty much thought that's how it was with Bono but

so many have him on a pedestal that I didn't know what to think. Now that I know it pisses me off to the nth degree! :grr:


I also want to say that I'm sorry for your many losses, I can't even imagine how difficult it has been for you to lose so many loved ones. :hug:

[Hannah Bell]

35. bono, big hypocrite, moved his business address to holland to avoid

irish taxes -

which are relatively low to begin with.

little funny-sunglass-wearing douche.

yep, they're all about "helping the poor" - with government $$, with YOUR $$ - but never with their OWN, the slimy twits.

[Mari333]

33. DU always does

what the MSM wont do. it exposes the truth.
k and r

[EFerrari]

39. Isn't it great?

:kick:

[Senator]

34. K&R

[Maven]

42. K/R

[Critters2]

43. Important info. Thanks. I'd rec if it weren't too late. But I can kick it! nt

[Nikki Stone1]

44. I'll kick it too

:kick: