Conservative evangelicals disagree about U.S. support for Global Fund

An interesting message I received today about the US debate over AIDS prevention from Steve Fouch.

 

A group of conservative evangelicals are advocating against major U.S. contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (www.theglobalfund.org).  They object to the Fund's financing of needle exchange and condom social marketing programs and an alleged near exclusion of abstinence and fidelity. They would prefer that US funding be channeled through PEPFAR, which advocates an ABC policy for HIV prevention.  Focus on the Family founder James Dobson lambasted the international foundation, saying it promotes "legalized prostitution and all kinds of wickedness around the world." 

 

Not all conservative evangelicals, however, agree, including, to the surprise of many, Pat Robertson.

 

Many FBOs, including CCIH members such as World Vision and Salvation Army, obtain major resources from the Global Fund.  At a recent CCIH co-sponsored meeting on the Global Fund and FBOs, Dr. Christoph Benn, Director for External Relations of the Fund, revealed that six percent of its grant funding is channeled through FBOs, and they would like it to be more.

 

This message contains a Religion News Service article about the issues accessible at

http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/newsletters/article.cfm?id=4363.  A Focus on the Family perspective follows as the second article below, and is accessible at http://www.focusaction.org/press/A000000194.cfm.  A five-page letter sent by the anti-Global Fund coalition to U.S. legislators, with the names of the 30 signatories, is accessible at www.focusaction.org/pdfs/Global_Fund_Coalition_Letter.pdf.

 

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AIDS fight moves to religious arena -- Evangelicals clash over U.S. funding for relief agency

 

Publisher: Religion News Service

By: Daniel Burke

First published: June 02, 2006

 

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson may concur on many things, but one thing they do not agree on is how the U.S. government spends money to fight AIDS.

 

As the world marks almost 25 years since HIV and AIDS first began making headlines, a clash among high-profile evangelical leaders over an international relief foundation threatens to take center stage.

 

The dispute also lays bare a faultline among American evangelicals, who have been divided over the treatment and prevention of AIDS because of the disease's perceived connections to homosexuality and sexual promiscuity.

 

The clash, which centers on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, may have long-term ramifications, both for those suffering with diseases and for the reputation of American evangelicals, activists said.

 

If the U.S. fails to extend help because of objections from conservative Christians, "we will look on this as a very mistaken time," said Tony Campolo, a prominent sociologist and Christian activist.