Only the Moral Shall Live

UNDERNEWS: CHRISTIAN EXTREMISTS ALTERING AIDS FUNDING

The Bush administration is barring private American AIDS organizations from winning federal grants to provide health services overseas unless they pledge their opposition to prostitution, as part of a broader Republican effort in recent weeks to apply conservative values to foreign-assistance programs. The White House move comes as Republican lawmakers have been pressing the administration to cut off funds to private organizations that encourage clean-needle programs overseas for intravenous drug users -- a group at the center of the AIDS epidemic in Central Asia and other areas. Some also are pressing to ban federal funding of all AIDS organizations that fail to accept the president's social agenda on such issues as sexual abstinence and drug abuse.

So only those who repent and live a moral life as Bush sees it deserves to benefit from the alms of American taxpayers. How is that Bush and his buddies in the Christian Rightwing forget this Bible passage?

Matthew 25:40 (21st Century King James Version) And the King shall answer and say unto them, `Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.'

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CHRISTIAN EXTREMISTS ALTERING AIDS FUNDING
MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS, WALL STREET JOURNAL - The Bush administration is barring private American AIDS organizations from winning federal grants to provide health services overseas unless they pledge their opposition to prostitution, as part of a broader Republican effort in recent weeks to apply conservative values to foreign-assistance programs.
The White House move comes as Republican lawmakers have been pressing the administration to cut off funds to private organizations that encourage clean-needle programs overseas for intravenous drug users -- a group at the center of the AIDS epidemic in Central Asia and other areas. Some also are pressing to ban federal funding of all AIDS organizations that fail to accept the president's social agenda on such issues as sexual abstinence and drug abuse. At stake are billions of dollars in U.S. funds that private health organizations working in the developing world spend on AIDS programs. . .
Many AIDS organizations are reluctant to issue a statement condemning prostitution because they work closely with prostitutes on health initiatives such as distributing condoms. The groups say such official stigmatization would increase the women's isolation, making it harder for them to receive AIDS prevention and treatment services. Many nongovernmental organizations in the AIDS field are critical of the administration moves.
"This is another salvo in the campaign that the administration and its fellow conservatives are undertaking to create more and more litmus tests and blacklists of those they're willing to do business with," said Susan Cohen, director of government affairs for the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a private think tank that does research on sexual and reproductive health and favors abortion rights.