Politics
AIDS in Uganda, the Rick Warren Connection
This is an amazing story from The Daily Beast.
Rick Warren has been working closely with the Martin Ssempe, the charismatic leader of a booming born-again minister promoting abstinence only AIDS eductaion in Uganda, more or less scrapping all the success of the previous, hugely successful ABC program of the Ugandan government.
Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House.
Ssempe is a close ally of Warren and even gave the keynote speech at Warren’s 2005 AIDS conference at the Saddleback Church.
Another amazing insight is that Ssempe believes in witches and arresting homosexuals.
Dr. Helen Epstein, a public health consultant who authored the book, The Invisible Cure: Why We’re Losing The Fight Against AIDS In Africa, met Ssempa in 2005. Epstein told me the preacher seemed gripped by paranoia, warning her of a secret witches coven that met under Lake Victoria. “Ssempa also spoke to me for a very long time about his fear of homosexual men and women,” Epstein said. “He seemed very personally terrified by their presence.”
It’s interesting to see the parallel between witch paranoia and born-again Christians. Now compared to Ssempe, Warren is a dream choice to pray at the inauguration. I just hope that people realize his record on AIDS has an ugly, evil side.
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Tags: abstinence only, AIDS, church state, church state separation, Martin Ssempe, Rick Warren, Uganda Discussion
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There isn’t spitting distance between those radicals I affectionately refer to as Jesusistanis and the hardcore members of al Qaeda. What is really frightening to contemplate is that they managed to get one of the most radical ones of them all onto a national Presidential ticket.
It is also worthy noting that Uganda is the home of the Lord’s Resistance Army, an organization that has butchered tens of thousands, enslaved thousands more, and displaced millions, all under a cross.