If yes then they are part of the problem. If no then they are doing more than anyone else in fighting AIDS.
Welcome to FR...
OK, Name the churches, NGOs, etc that are doing the following:
- Encouraging a free market, private enterprise system where each individual is responsible for his own (acceptance of) salvation
- Encouraging a nanny state system where a person is responsible for the behavior of others, including both their economic and inter-personal behavior
We've had AIDS with us for 25+ years now and many other more deadly killers than AIDS for thousands of years. (In the past 25+ years, more people have died from genocide, starvation, pneumonia and a dozen other causes than from AIDS.)
Part of the problem is that addressing the short term pain is counter productive in the long term. And addressing the long term solution is painful in the short term. But clearly, if the problem persists for 25+ years, then we should agree that the best course of action is to address the long term solution and endure the short term pain.
But that is too logical and not PC for those who want an easy, sugar coated solution.
Warren sounds like a kook. "Consumerism" is participating in the economy, buying and selling goods and services. What the socialist termed capitalism with disdain.
We should not turn from participating in the economy, and it is not mutually exclusive with helping others. For Warren to suggest otherwise makes his whole message suspect.
I guess my question is...what are YOU doing about it? Don't doubt "the Church" unless you have personally offered what YOU can offer to this issue. How many sick people are YOU helping? Please share with us what YOUR personal actions and recommendations are.
We don't Rick's help except to teach the bible, word by word, verse by verse and chapter by chapter.
Now to the issue: I think AIDS is a largely preventable problem with just a change in moral attitude and behavior. So I'm for preach-for-a-cure charities. Also I could give to children with the disease and others who got the disease through non-sexual, non-drug use, non-irresponsible ways. It's not that I'm not sorry for them; it's just that I have other causes I feel are more deserving. Give charity to the innocent FIRST!
I strongly believe it is wrong for the government to force me to give. Freedom means you deal with your own consequences only with the help of the willing.
You've opened a can of worms with bringing up AIDS. On your first day here, you'll get a good look at the seamy underside of FR.
Once, when a news crew was following him and an AIDS activist was along for the interview, the Cardinal went into one of the rooms and held the hand of one of the sick men. The AIDS activist wouldn't get anywhere NEAR that man! Shows just how compassionate the activists are.
Are you going to join back in your thread?
Hello?
Catholics have been taking care of AIDS victims in their hospitals and hospices since the disease was first reported.
As for condoms and sex education, the statistics show that they only help to spread AIDS.
Left wingers talk a good game, but what the AIDS industry has done, for the most part, is to help spread AIDS. Then Catholic hospices are left to pick up the broken pieces.
I can hardly believe this article is for real. The churches have been neglecting the poor and sick for too long? Where have you been? You can't find a place in the history of Christianity that the Christian Churches have not been in the front lines of taking care of the orphans, uneducated, sick and poor people. This article is nothing but someone trying to set himself up for praise for doing something that has been done for 2000 years. What exactly do you think made Mother Teresa so popular? Power shopping? Sheesh.
Yeah, I guess it doesn't help much when the leaders of African countries deny that AIDS is transmitted through sex or take any accountability for outlawing child brides, rape, multiple partners outside marriage, etc. Meanwhile, the Christians there are being slaughtered by the religion of peace.
I'm always very suspicious of people who start their first column off, "I'm a conservative, but..."
The way churches are going to fight AIDS is by converting people to the monogamous and loving sexuality of Christianity.
" He said, The first Reformation was based on creeds. The second Reformation will be based on deeds. The first was based on belief; now it is on behavior. "
Um, Rick? That would mean that the second reformation would be diametrically opposed to the first reformation.
Many good comments. YOu are supposed to engage what you post, ya know,