Source: Daily Beast
The invitation to California mega-church pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony has prompted thousands of words both criticizing and praising the choice.
Many of Warren's defenders have pointed to the preacher's work in Africa combating the effects of the AIDS epidemic there as a reason he should be honored.
There has been little explanation, however, on what Warren's work in Africa entailed. Max Blumenthal seeks to fill in some of the blanks in a report on the news website, Daily Beast.
What he found does not paint a rosy picture of Warren's work on the continent:
[A]n 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.”
Warren's prime surrogate in Uganda, according to Blumenthal, is an anti-condom crusader named Martin Ssempa, who heads the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation.
Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.
Report: Rick Warren's Africa missions do harm [contd.]
With support and encouragement from the Bush administration's PEPFAR programs, Ssempa convinced the government to stop all advertising for condoms and instead put up billboards promoting virginity, according to Blumenthal.
And that had almost immediately harmful consequences:
AIDS activists arrived at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006 with disturbing news from Uganda. Due at least in part to the chronic condom shortage, HIV infections were on the rise again.
In other words, Warren's work in Uganda probably did more harm than good.
One of Ssempa's sidelines is intense anti-gay activism.
In August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. “Arrest all homos,” read placards. And: “A man cannot marry a man.”
Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a website he created, along with photos and home addresses. “Homosexual promoters,” he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda’s children into their lifestyle.
Soon afterwards, two of President Yoweri Museveni’s top officials demanded the arrest of the gay activists named by Ssempa. Terrified, the activists immediately into hiding.
And while his associate might have gone a bit farther than Warren himself would have, Blumenthal finds evidence that Warren is generally supportive of the officially homophobic policies in the country, giving prominent when Uganda's Anglican bishops said they'd boycott a major church meeting.
But when Uganda’s Anglican bishops threatened to bolt from the Church of England because of its tolerant stance towards homosexuals, Warren parachuted into Kampala to confer international legitimacy on their protest. “The Church of England is wrong and I support the Church of Uganda on the boycott,” Warren proclaimed in March 2008. Declaring homosexuality an unnatural way of life, Warren flatly stated, “We shall not tolerate this aspect [homosexuality in the church] at all.”
Source: Rick Warren's Africa Problem | Daily Beast