Obama Talks AIDS To Power
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, Religion
The power of the religious right that is. And could he actually be scoring points with the evangelical movement?
From the looks of this story at least…the answer is yes.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois told more than 2,000 evangelical leaders in Orange County on Friday that he “respectfully but unequivocally” disagrees with those who oppose condom distribution to fight the AIDS pandemic. But he said a solution to the worldwide spread of AIDS would also come from churches guiding people to make moral decisions.Obama, a Democrat weighing a run for the White House, made his remarks at an evangelical AIDS conference sponsored by Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. [...]
Obama drew a standing ovation from the 2,072 pastors and others who came from 39 states and 18 nations to explore church solutions to the AIDS pandemic, which has killed 25 million people worldwide. In measured words, he dismissed the notion that simply discouraging promiscuity could stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
“We can’t ignore the fact that abstinence and fidelity, although the ideal, may not always be the reality â€â€? that we’re dealing with flesh and blood men and women and not abstractions, and that if condoms and, potentially, things like microbicides, can prevent millions of deaths, then they should be made more widely available,” he said.
Well said.
And by the way…does this guy ever get bad press?
(h/t: The Moderate Voice)
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 and is filed under Elections, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 4th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Bravo, Obama, finally someone tells the whackos what they need to hear rather than just what they want to hear. Of course they probably put their abstinence only blinders back on about 3 seconds after his speech.
December 4th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
I’m much more a liberal than a centrist, and I have very little good to say about the religious right. But I think it’s destructive to just paint everyone with the “whacko” brush. I’m guessing that these people didn’t travel to an AIDS conference because they think AIDS victims are sinners who deserve to die. Many evangelical churches are doing valuable relief work around the globe, and have done so for years. Much of it is motivated by a desire to proselytize, but I think it’s also motivated by a belief that they have a religious obligation to perform good works.
And they did give Obama a standing ovation. Do you think that was just to trick him into thinking they agree with him?
And by the way, I also think there’s a lot of Republican politicians who believe in doing what’s best for the country, and take their responsibilities very seriously. Crazy, huh?
December 4th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
AIDS is the only disease in history that has been fought by quarantining the healthy and leaving the ill at liberty to spread the disease. The result? 25 milliion people dead. Brilliant strategy! And to even suggest a sane medical approach made one a pariah back in the days when it would have been possible to do the sane thing: to treat this thing like any other communicable disease. Now all we hear is endless defence of the most apalling public health policy in history. Still, I could suffer it, if only it weren’t done with such smug self-righteousness! And then using their “caring” as a club to beat their political enemies over the head! It’s truly disgusting. People are dying and the “caring” people–hypocites!–obscenely warm their hands at the flame.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
I don’t know what he’s talking about about, but I like the way he said it.