Compassion Forum Talks Global Poverty
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Sunday night’s Compassion Forum, hosted by Messiah College in Grantham, PA, brought Senators Obama and Clinton together. The event was put on by Faith In Public Life and sponsored by ONE and Oxfam America. Although he was invited, Senator McCain did not attend the forum.
With a question and answer format, moderated by Newsweek’s John Meacham and CNN’s Campbell Brown, questions ranged from the role of religion in public life to those about AIDS in Uganda and federal funding for poverty relief.
Questions were also taken from religious leaders in the audience. Reverend William J. Shaw, of the National Baptist Convention asked Senator Clinton how her administration would deal with the difficulties of providing poor people in “developing countries†with “inexpensive, generic drugs for the treatment of AIDS and other sicknesses.”
Clinton said, “I believe that our government must do so much more to get generic drugs and low-cost drugs to people suffering…not only from HIV/AIDS, but the range of diseases that affect disproportionately the poor…” Clinton went on to commend PEPFAR, calling it “a very bold and important commitment, but it didn’t go far enough in opening up the door to generics and getting the costs down.”
To work toward solutions to these and other problems, citing lack of education, malaria, and TB among them, Clinton said, “I want us to have a partnership, government to government, government with the private sector, government with our NGOS and our faith community to show the best of what America has to offer.”
Senator Obama was questioned by religious leaders as well. Frank Page, of the Southern Baptist Convention, questioned Senator Obama about faith and abstinance-based AIDS prevention programs in Uganda. In his answer, Senator Obama also complimented the PEPFAR program as “one of the success stories of this administration. We’ve seen a drastic increase in funding. And terrific work is being done between the CDC, the NIH, local AIDS organizations, NGOs.”
Obama said that as president, he would “use whatever the best approaches are, the scientifically sound approaches are, to reduce this devastating disease all across the world…” and would seek to “make antiviral drugs available to people who are in extreme poverty.”
You can read through the full transcript here.
-Chris Geer, ONE Vote ‘08 field organizer, Pennsylvania
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The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, with frequent contributions from volunteers, members and partner organizations.
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April 16, 2008 at 11:16 pm
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April 17, 2008 at 12:46 am
Frank Page and the entire Southern Baptist Convention have once again proven their extreme hypocrisy. When AIDS came on the scene, it took a lone black minister, Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church to come to the fore and offer solace for the sick and dying. In 1988, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles also opened several AIDS agencies. The Southern Baptist Convention was no where in sight. It had a chance to show the world how truly Christian and compassionate it was – and it blew it. Big time! To date, there is still no recognizable AIDS agency sponsored by the Convention. I’ve researched this area of the AIDS epidemic and yes, I contacted the Southern Baptist Convention. The response was neglidgeable. When asked if they knew of ANY faith-based AIDS agency after 1988, the response was “we don’t know.”
For someone to be TRULY compassionate, solace must be unequivocal. There can be absolutely no pre-judgment. The Good Samaritan did not say to himself “He’s only a Jew, but I’ll help him anyway.” And as far Christ’s missionary work is concerned, neither the Good Samaritan nor Christ would say “Here’s a bowl of soup, but you can’t have it unless you convert.” The Southern Baptist Convention and its members are not capable of true compassion. Their proselytizing hurts Christianity more than helps it. They’ll pretend to reach out to Africa, all the while ignoring their own Americans since they think America is still afflicted with a “gay” disease.
And yes, they are VERY slow and dimwitted: it took them over 150 years to apologize for slavery, since, of course, embracing slavery was what severed their ties with Northern Baptists. And one last rant: for many years, the largest contingent of any kind in the Ku Klux Klan – Southern Baptist ministers.
I will stand by my comments. If anyone wants to rant back, go ahead.
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