I recently experienced what was by far the most disturbing and
bizarre of dozens of White House meetings and events that I've attended--the White
House Forum for Faith Leaders in conjunction with the International AIDS
Conference 2012.
I should have followed the example of Joshua DuBois, Executive
Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, who welcomed
the gathering of about 150 AIDS activists by bringing greetings from President
Obama--and then quietly ducked out a side door. He missed the subsequent three-hour-long show,
which included blaming the faith community for discouraging AIDS funding and spewing
hatred, demonizing pharmaceutical companies and turning sacred hymns into secular
mantras.
First, to be fair, some speakers at the event offered glimpses of
sanity and civility.
Gayle Smith, Senior Director for Democracy and Development,
National Security Staff at the White House, for example, allowed that "We've
been very privileged to come into office with an extraordinary foundation built
by President George Bush."
President Bush launched the effective and well-respected (if grudgingly
by his opponents) President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The Obama administration,
however, has been slashing funding for the U.S.-run PEPFAR program in favor of
the multinational Global Fund, which not long ago was wracked by scandal and
mismanagement.
Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Assistant Administrator, USAID Bureau of
Global Health, effectively encapsulated the mission of faith-based
organizations by saying, "In the end it's about love. It's your core
competency--your motor, your driver. You understand the communities, you lead,
engage, care for these communities."
Other speakers, however, seemed scarcely able to disguise their disdain
for faith-based organizations, even as they grudgingly acknowledged the unmatched
reach of such organizations.
The World Health Organization, for example, has released a report that "estimates that between 30% and 70% of
the health infrastructure in Africa is currently owned by faith-based
organizations." The
Gallup
World Poll asked sub-Saharan Africans in 19 countries about their
confidence in eight social and political institutions. Overall across the
continent, they were most likely to say they were confident in the religious
organizations (76%) in their countries. I know of many medical missionaries and
faith-based medical institutions who make tremendous sacrifices to reach out in
love and compassion to those afflicted with AIDS.
One speaker who seemed particularly wary of faith-based
organizations was Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, Deputy Executive Director of the UNFPA.
In 2002, the U.S. State Department deemed the U.N. population agency ineligible
for U.S. funding because of its involvement with the Chinese government's notorious
one-child policy, which the Chinese enforce through coerced abortions. The
Chinese government's policy of forcibly aborting babies considered undesirable
by the state apparently comports with the dark side of the UNFPA
slogan--"to ensure that every
pregnancy is wanted."
Ms. Albrectsen first allowed that "the faith leaders in this
room [the vast and vocal majority of whom seemed to enthusiastically toe the
Obama party line] are critical agents of change," and conceded that "16,000
health centers on African continent are operated by Catholic Church."
Then, however, the UNFPA official darkly asserted, "Ignorance
and corruption can assume the mantle of religion. They suppress accurate
information and they whip up stigma and even violence."
She offered no specific examples.
Ms. Albrectsen also incredibly blamed faith-based organizations
for discouraging donations to AIDS work.
"The plain fact is that the funders with those resources ...
if they perceive that dogma holds back our work, they'll find other places to
put their funds. Some faith-based spokespeople have [advocated] a restrictive
approach to condom distribution, [which] is unlikely to provoke sympathy among
those who choose to spend their meager resources on the fight against HIV and
AIDS."
Reinforcing a decidedly aggressive agenda of the Obama administration,
Ms. Albrectsen admonished the audience to "work for empowerment of women…work
for better information and services directed specifically to girls and women…and
show zero tolerance for violence against women and girls."
Many people regardless of political or religious persuasion appreciate
concerns related to women and girls. However, when it comes to AIDS--the supposed
focus of this White House meeting--the
CDC
has
estimated that roughly
three of four adults and adolescents living with an AIDS diagnosis in the U.S.
are men; worldwide,
estimates
of adults living with HIV/AIDS split the percentages roughly equally between men
and women.
Other speakers amplified the content of their ideological screeds
with a verbal volume unmatched in any White House meeting I've attended. This
seemed to delight many in the audience, who seemed to think we were in the
secular equivalent of a gospel revival meeting. Almost raucous shout-outs from
the audience punctuated the often rhythmical pontifications of the speakers.
The louder the speaker and the shriller the message, the more the audience
seemed to respond with enthusiastic approval.
One speaker in particular illustrated the substitution of secular
dogma for religious values. When the time came for his presentation, the Ugandan
representative of an organization called the "International Network of
Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV (INERELA+), stood
up and sang. Dressed in religious garb, he smiled as he replaced the refrain of
a sacred hymn, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus," with the secular mantra,
"Nothing but a comprehensive approach."
His song apparently delighted those who advocate a
"comprehensive" approach to AIDS emphasize condom distribution and disdain
the "ABc" policy that stresses sexual risk avoidance and faithfulness
in marriage as a primary strategy and condom use as a secondary strategy. The
offensiveness of perverting the message of the sacred hymn did not seem to
occur to him or to many others in the audience, who laughed with approval.
A speaker from Bolivia launched her presentation first by chiding
her hosts for not inviting more leaders from Latin America and then by railing
against U.S. pharmaceutical companies--she named Merck and Johnson and
Johnson--for not making their medicines available at little or no cost. She literally
demonized pharmaceutical companies by joking--at least I hope she was joking--that
pharmaceutical companies have "demons."
The idea that free-market profit encourages innovation and the
development of new medicines, and that decreasing or eliminating that
motivation would only serve to stifle pharmaceutical development, seems not to
have crossed her mind.
Not to be outdone by the first singing act, the last speaker instructed
all of us in the audience to stand up and hold hands. She then led everyone in
a rendition of a song sung by Diana Ross, "Reach out and touch someone."
When the song mercifully concluded, she instructed us all to give a
"full-body hug" to those next to us.
Really.
I left the White House never so glad to leave it behind me. As I
exited the building, I turned to face a horde of protestors from the AIDS 2012
conference marching down Pennsylvania Avenue. They chanted slogans and waved
signs demanding that pharmaceutical companies give up their medicines.
I wanted to direct them right into the White House auditorium;
they would have fit right in.
