J. Matt Barber
The state of AIDS in the Union
By J. Matt Barber
In his State of the Union address last Tuesday, President Bush briefly touched on the horrors of the HIV/AIDS pandemic currently plaguing Africa. Most everyone agrees that something must be done to combat the spread of this dreadful and preventable disease which continues to infect many throughout the poverty stricken continent.
That being said, the president unfortunately missed a valuable opportunity to address the needless HIV/AIDS epidemic within our own borders, which predominately affects — and infects — men who choose to engage in dangerous homosexual behaviors — and at times — the women who love them (in the U.S., the vast majority of women infected with HIV/AIDS are infected by men who also have sex with men, or through intravenous drug use).
As Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth has said, "It's time to acknowledge the pink elephant in the room: fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking."
Lorri Jean, a respected leader among homosexual activists and CEO of the Los Angeles based Gay and Lesbian Center, recently began an advertising campaign tackling "gay" America's HIV/AIDS epidemic. Her message: "HIV is a Gay Disease. Own it. End it."
Although it might spell the end of her career as a pro-homosexual activist, Jean is to be commended for providing a rarely candid and refreshing approach to the homosexual condition.
While delivering a mortal wound to Hollywood's politically correct, intellectually dishonest, and just plain silly "We All Have AIDS" campaign, Jean spoke to the shocking and unpopular revelation that, in fact, we don't "all have AIDS." Said Jean, "In Los Angeles County, gay and bisexual men make up less than 7% of the population but account for more than 75% of the people living with HIV/AIDS ... The men in our community continue to get infected at an alarming rate, continue to get sick, and continue to die. Most alarmingly, a new generation of young gay men has grown up accepting the epidemic as a community norm. That must change."
Jean and other homosexual activists have begun to acknowledge the stark reality that male homosexual behavior, most often promiscuous and frequently anonymous, is the principal catalyst for HIV/AIDS in the U.S.; however, that's where today's homosexual activists and reality — whether stark or otherwise — abruptly part ways.
For one to continue engaging in unnatural and immoral sexual behaviors of choice, one must deny the need for accountability. In fact, one must do away with accountability altogether. And so from this notion — from the human need to rationalize away sin — was born today's fashionable, and accountability-free "safe-sex" myth.
Leftist logic: "What? Stop indulging in disordered, promiscuous, and random 'gay' sex? No need. Here's a condom .... But always practice 'safe-sex' or you might die..." — goes the obtuse liberal mantra.
And so rather than encouraging those trapped in the homosexual lifestyle to begin the admittedly difficult process of escape — which thousands of former homosexuals have successfully done — liberals prefer the nihilistic approach; one in which there are absolutely no absolutes, and in which all morality rests entirely in the eye of the beholder.
Instead of considering a homosexual's best interests, and discouraging both spiritually and physically destructive behavior, the left scandalously encourages him to walk a paper thin latex tightrope, risking up to a one in three chance that he might plunge to his death (studies have consistently established from between a 15 to 30 percent condom failure rate in protecting against HIV/AIDS and other STDs).
Therefore, in order to show compassion — real compassion — and in order to effectively combat our own AIDS epidemic, which continues to needlessly destroy the lives of so many of God's children struggling with same-sex attractions and behaviors — perhaps it's time the left stop enabling, encouraging and promoting those attractions and behaviors. Perhaps it's time for liberals to finally admit that political correctness is not only ridiculous and counterintuitive; but that in far too many cases, political correctness can be a real killer.
© J. Matt Barber
In his State of the Union address last Tuesday, President Bush briefly touched on the horrors of the HIV/AIDS pandemic currently plaguing Africa. Most everyone agrees that something must be done to combat the spread of this dreadful and preventable disease which continues to infect many throughout the poverty stricken continent.
That being said, the president unfortunately missed a valuable opportunity to address the needless HIV/AIDS epidemic within our own borders, which predominately affects — and infects — men who choose to engage in dangerous homosexual behaviors — and at times — the women who love them (in the U.S., the vast majority of women infected with HIV/AIDS are infected by men who also have sex with men, or through intravenous drug use).
As Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth has said, "It's time to acknowledge the pink elephant in the room: fighting AIDS without talking against homosexuality is like fighting lung cancer without talking against smoking."
Lorri Jean, a respected leader among homosexual activists and CEO of the Los Angeles based Gay and Lesbian Center, recently began an advertising campaign tackling "gay" America's HIV/AIDS epidemic. Her message: "HIV is a Gay Disease. Own it. End it."
Although it might spell the end of her career as a pro-homosexual activist, Jean is to be commended for providing a rarely candid and refreshing approach to the homosexual condition.
While delivering a mortal wound to Hollywood's politically correct, intellectually dishonest, and just plain silly "We All Have AIDS" campaign, Jean spoke to the shocking and unpopular revelation that, in fact, we don't "all have AIDS." Said Jean, "In Los Angeles County, gay and bisexual men make up less than 7% of the population but account for more than 75% of the people living with HIV/AIDS ... The men in our community continue to get infected at an alarming rate, continue to get sick, and continue to die. Most alarmingly, a new generation of young gay men has grown up accepting the epidemic as a community norm. That must change."
Jean and other homosexual activists have begun to acknowledge the stark reality that male homosexual behavior, most often promiscuous and frequently anonymous, is the principal catalyst for HIV/AIDS in the U.S.; however, that's where today's homosexual activists and reality — whether stark or otherwise — abruptly part ways.
For one to continue engaging in unnatural and immoral sexual behaviors of choice, one must deny the need for accountability. In fact, one must do away with accountability altogether. And so from this notion — from the human need to rationalize away sin — was born today's fashionable, and accountability-free "safe-sex" myth.
Leftist logic: "What? Stop indulging in disordered, promiscuous, and random 'gay' sex? No need. Here's a condom .... But always practice 'safe-sex' or you might die..." — goes the obtuse liberal mantra.
And so rather than encouraging those trapped in the homosexual lifestyle to begin the admittedly difficult process of escape — which thousands of former homosexuals have successfully done — liberals prefer the nihilistic approach; one in which there are absolutely no absolutes, and in which all morality rests entirely in the eye of the beholder.
Instead of considering a homosexual's best interests, and discouraging both spiritually and physically destructive behavior, the left scandalously encourages him to walk a paper thin latex tightrope, risking up to a one in three chance that he might plunge to his death (studies have consistently established from between a 15 to 30 percent condom failure rate in protecting against HIV/AIDS and other STDs).
Therefore, in order to show compassion — real compassion — and in order to effectively combat our own AIDS epidemic, which continues to needlessly destroy the lives of so many of God's children struggling with same-sex attractions and behaviors — perhaps it's time the left stop enabling, encouraging and promoting those attractions and behaviors. Perhaps it's time for liberals to finally admit that political correctness is not only ridiculous and counterintuitive; but that in far too many cases, political correctness can be a real killer.
© J. Matt Barber
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