Just In Time For World AIDs Day, Religious Right Attacks Global AIDs Fund

[Ian David]

Just In Time For World AIDs Day, Religious Right Attacks Global AIDs Fund

Today is World AIDS day — a day to acknowledge the nearly 40 million people world wide living with HIV.

However, despite these seemingly paralyzing numbers — numbers that plead for action and education — members of the religious right are attacking the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, a $6.6 billion organization active in 136 countries around the world, calling on congress to cut the organization’s funding. Their crime? An emphasis on condom distribution and, according to the religious right, a lack of emphasis on faith based organizations.

From the Boston Globe:

Some leading Christian conservatives, angry over the Global Fund to Fight AIDS’s promotion of condoms and its perceived lack of support for faith-based programs, are pushing Congress to cut US support for the AIDS initiative, which was initiated by President Bush in a Rose Garden ceremony five years ago with a $200 million commitment.

This campaign could not be more disturbing. Yet again the “pro-life” community is willing to trivialize life over a social issue. What’s so absurd about their position is that there is no pro-life alternative. People are dying. The rate of transmission is skyrocketing in countries around the world and, while there is no quick fix, there are solutions — educating people about the disease and how it spreads, and more importantly encouraging them to not only practice safe sex but enabling them to do so, which requires the distribution of condoms.

Remind me again, with the stakes where they are, who is truly damaged by these attempts to curb transmission?

Today I challenge the religious right to truly embrace the pro-life agenda.

In my mind, I wouldn’t even ask that you embrace the global AIDS fund or other programs like it. Just get out of the way of progress, allowing the millions at risk of transmission a chance to live.

More:
http://defconblog.org/2006/12/just-in-time-for-world-aids-day-religious-right-attacks-global-aids-fund/

[VaTF1]

1. Idiots ! ! ! ! !

These "fools" complain about $200 mil per annum to fight A.I.D.S., because of their "fear" of condoms and how they are against their religious "thought process". I wonder if they have convictions similar to this train of thought when we are spending $1 bil a week to fight a war, where men, women, and children (along with the fine members of our military face a possible death on a daily basis in Iraq ?:mad: