IN THEORY:United front to fight AIDS?

Last week, Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, was strongly criticized by some conservatives for inviting U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to address more than 2,000 evangelical leaders at Warren’s second international conference on AIDS. “Why would Warren marry the moral equivalency of his pulpit — a sacred piece of honor in evangelical traditions — to the inhumane, sick and sinister evil that Obama has worked for as a legislator?” wrote radio host and blogger Kevin McCullough. Warren responded that people should listen to Democrats like Obama and Republicans like Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who also spoke at the conference. “I’ve got two friends here, a Republican and a Democrat. Why?” Warren asked. “Because you’ve got to have two wings to fly.”

Considering that Obama told the religious leaders that to stem the tide of AIDS they should halt their opposition to condom distribution — a change that’s unlikely to happen — will uniting such diverse interests help in the battle against the deadly disease?

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but religion produces even stranger couplings and pillow talk. If a clergyman believes that God Almighty equates abortion with homicide (a position to which I do not subscribe), then it follows that those who uphold a woman’s right to abort are accomplices to murder.

No one agrees with everyone on everything. We may support a position and still befriend and work with an opponent of that position. There are many who reach their hand across the aisle in a spirit of bipartisanship.

But how can a religious leader, for whom abortion is a foundational issue and manifestation of God’s word, who is certain that his views on life and death are congruent with God’s, embrace a person who flouts that view? How can he clasp to his evangelical bosom one who legitimizes what he considers to be the outright extermination of human beings? How can he proclaim as his “friend” and one of his “wings” a leader who acquiesces in the torture and slaughter of defenseless “people.” To applaud one who abets the “murder” of millions is to descend to the depth of intellectual bankruptcy and moral collapse. It could only have come to pass out of some Machiavellian bargain between two leaders who needed each other and used each other for their own purposes.

It is apparent here that abortion was demoted, in the reverend’s pantheon of sins, from its dominant status as mass murder to just another concern among a host of issues. Obviously, the reverend can relegate his stance on abortion to the back burner when there is unity of purpose on other matters. Abortion does not seem to be the litmus test for evangelicals that I perceived it to be.

Bishop James T. McHugh of Long Island, N.Y., banned pro-abortion politicians from ascending any rostrum in Roman Catholic institutions of his diocese, writing that “No pro-abortion public official or candidate is to be invited to address Catholic agencies or organizations, school or parish groups, even if he/she does not intend to express their pro-abortion views. It would be foolish and counterproductive to provide a platform to those who favor or support a public policy of abortion on demand. It would also be extremely misleading to provide such persons a platform to promote their views, even on other issues, lest they claim that the Church somehow implicitly tolerates their rejection of Church teaching on pro-life issues.” While not agreeing with the church’s stand on abortion, I commend it as one driven by integrity and a conviction of truth.

On the present question, the reverend seems to affirm that a purpose-driven life can accommodate making common cause with “murderers.” While we are at it, let’s ignore their pesky racist views and join forces with white supremacists on the issue of prayer in the schools.

Inviting Sen. Obama to an evangelical conference is tantamount to my inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to help me light the menorah at my Hanukkah party.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

The HIV/AIDS virus does not respect age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other human trait. It is not limited to Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, the wealthy or the poor. Globally, so far in 2006 the number of new infections has risen by 4.3 million, and 2.9 million people have died of AIDSrelated illnesses. Unless diverse people unite to combat this truly deadly disease, the pandemic will kill more and more human beings and ravage more and more souls.

I thought, or at least hoped, that the stupidity that saw this epidemic as the “wrath of God” in the 1980s had gone away like all such ignorance should. But reactions to the conference at Saddleback Church last week show that such prejudice is alive and well, most unfortunately. To stem the tide of AIDS, we need all proposals and programs possible. If someone objects to another’s ideas of how to combat this disease, they should promote and act on a better idea of their own. I agree with both Sen. Brownback who said, “There’s nothing political about dealing with malaria and global HIV” and Sen. Obama who said, “The relationship between men and women, between sexuality and spirituality, has broken down and needs to be repaired.” And, as a priest and pastor, I am trying to do all I can to effect such repair. I trust that the more than 2,000 who gave the senators standing ovations believe and act similarly.

Never have I been more proud to be an Episcopalian than at an exhibit in 1983, when I was among people of faith distributing materials about beliefs and ministries. There was lots of information on other tables about AIDS as “divine punishment.” On my Episcopal church table was a simple pamphlet about “opportunities to minister with people suffering from HIV/AIDS” — in 1983! People wept when they realized there was a religious group trying to put love into action in this way. So to Rick Warren, I’d say, “Welcome!” and “Hooray!”

Unless those of us who are blessed to be well and able do something more to battle HIV/AIDS, billions will suffer and millions more will die. To argue prejudices in the face of suffering and death is the real “inhumane, sick and sinister evil.” To pray for those who suffer and those who die and, then, to act in ways so that more do not unnecessarily do likewise is what God wants of pastors, politicians and all people.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

I have known Kevin McCullough and his family for almost 20 years, and I have never agreed with him on much, and I am not going to start now. The disaster of this disease is the twisted misinformation that is being pushed around by misinformed people and the resultant demonization of people who have contracted the disease. I have friends who are HIV positive. We have opened clinics in Africa for people infected with HIV/AIDS and are working toward finishing a vocational training school for AIDS orphans. HIV/AIDS cannot simply be listed in the books as the result of the moral failure of someone. It is this kind of demonization that limits people from talking. It is the same kind of demonization that keeps the Middle East in turmoil. As we have seen in those conflicts, without dialogue there can be no resolution.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is something that cannot be solved by mere government resolution but must happen in partnership. President Yoweri Kaguta Musaveni of Uganda spoke at the U.N. AIDS conference several years ago. He was asked to speak about the dramatic drop (more than 25%) in the infection rate in his country and how it was accomplished. He shocked the global audience by telling them that it was not through condom distribution, since it violated the social fabric of the African people, but it was through a national education program about fidelity and morality combined with other programs that brought the results. It was a partnership of the churches, mosques, government and international aid that brought success. Uniting diverse parties is the only way to succeed.

McCullough must live in a mighty small world if he refuses to work with anyone who doesn’t agree with him 100%.

RIC OLSEN

Lead Pastor

The Beacon

Anaheim

The ability of some presumably intelligent and educated people to ignore the facts of life as well as reason and common sense because of some nebulous religious concept is totally amazing.

There is a scourge called AIDS that is killing millions. The easiest, most efficient and cheapest way of controlling that disease is with condoms. So the best thing that we can do is make condoms easily available for all. Under President Clinton, our government was helping to make them available, and that program was working. President Bush’s abstinence-only program has proven to be a complete waste of time and money, yet he insists on holding the course, as if somehow a miracle will still happen if we do! (Or is he simply waiting for the Resurrection?)

Under President Bush, our government discourages the use of condoms and will not even let them be discussed wherever he has the ability to bully or bribe his way around. Surely the real Jesus would want us to use the best and quickest means of controlling such a scourge, no matter whose illogical ideology might be tweaked a bit.

The verbal attacks on Obama by some evangelicals at Saddleback Church (stating that he had done sick, sinister and evil things simply because he was in favor of condom distribution and also supported abortion rights) are reprehensible and unforgivable personal attacks that should not be tolerated in a civilized society. If that represents what evangelical people are like, then they should be avoided like the plague.

JERRY PARKS

Member

Humanist Assn.

of Orange County

The real meaning of the holiday season — “peace on earth and goodwill to all” — shines forth when representatives of different religious and political beliefs begin to work together on global issues like AIDS.

It is a credit to Pastor Warren that he is willing to use his extraordinary influence to break through stereotypes and prejudices, to build a bridge between Democrats and Republicans, as well as between conservatives, moderates, liberals and all who are weary of polarization, hostility and paralysis.

The conservative religious right has been far too successful in claiming that they alone speak for religious values. In fact, there are many religious groups in the United States that take opposing stances on ethical issues. It is important that these other religious leaders and politicians become more outspoken about their values.

The United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops as early as 1988 issued a statement commending monogamy within marriage but recommending the use of condoms for those who do not to follow that standard. The Union for Reform Judaism established a national task force on AIDS and supported the distribution of condoms and clean needles to intravenous drug users. One educational campaign by “Condoms4Life” and “Catholics for a Free Choice” designed a poster with couples saying “We believe in God. We believe that sex is sacred. We believe in caring for each other. We believe in using condoms.” There is nothing in Zen Buddhism that would prevent people from using condoms, both for the prevention of disease and for contraception.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side of Chicago. In his book “The Audacity of Hope,” he shares his views about how religious values should enter the public square: “What our deliberative, pluralistic democracy demands is that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals must be subject to argument and amenable to reason.” People who are opposed to the distribution of condoms for religious reasons should explain why this violates a principle or value which is accessible to people of all faiths or to those who have no religious affiliation — if they expect voters to support the ban or elect candidates who will block access to condoms.

This kind of “universal value” rather than one specific religion’s teachings was articulated by Melinda Gates at the most recent International AIDS convention: “Saving lives is the highest ethical act. In the fight against AIDS, condoms save lives. If you oppose the distribution of condoms, something is more important to you than saving lives.”

Let’s hope in 2007 that Gates, Obama, Warren and others can alleviate the suffering from AIDS, stop its spread and save lives.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

Once a man in the confines of marriage has produced enough children to his liking, contraception can be used on a regular basis.

Many people are bisexual with more than one sex partner. The only permanent male form of contraception is the condom. Condoms do not guarantee not catching any sexually transmitted diseases. They do not always work. Nevertheless, condoms must be used if unprotected sexual intercourse poses a medical risk to either party. Condoms do offer some measure of protection against the spread of some diseases, and the duty to maintain health supersedes the responsibility to have children.

If the previous sexual or medical history of either partner suggests the possibility of HIV infection, the man must use a condom. In addition, both partners must have their blood tested on a regular basis for the HIV virus, and if either party tests positive, the use of condoms is not enough. Abstinence becomes absolutely mandatory and necessary, for life must take precedence over the joys of sex.

It is any mature person’s responsibility to think of all health issues before engaging in any physical relationship with another human being.

I think now that you understand the Jewish point of view about AIDS, it is healthy for both sides to know where they are coming from. One is pro and the other is con. By understanding the other point of view, you feel stronger about your own point of view and know why you disagree with the other point of view. Bringing both sides together is very healthy and positive.

RABBI MARC S. RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah

Newport Beach