Biased, whoops, Baptist News Service
Published December 20, 2004
That comment puts the comments by Rev. Tim Wilkins, head of Cross Ministry, Inc, in a horrible light:
"If homosexuality was normal and natural, you would not have a disease that spreads as ravenously as this does."
"[The CDC] statistic obviously shows a pathology that indicates an abnormality. From a Christian perspective we would call it sin."
Wow, if that’s true about the gay community what does that say about the black community. Are they somehow unnatural for having the highest infection rates of any group?
In 2003, the highest rate of HIV/AIDS diagnosis was among African American males, 103.4 cases per 100,000 population.
This rate was almost seven times that of white males and nearly three times that of Latino males.
Racial disparities were even greater among females. The rate of HIV/AIDS diagnoses among African American females in 2003 was 53 cases per 100,000 population. This rate was 18--that's one eight--18 times higher than the rate among white females, which was 2.9 per 100,000, and almost five times higher than the rate among Latinas, which was 10.9 per 100,000.
Why isn’t Wilkins speaking out about this? What does this say about the black community?
Here was the reponse:
Thanks for reading Baptist Press.
The CDC data released last week was reported in several news outlets,
most notably the Los Angeles Times and Reuters. All of them reported the
data in much the same way Baptist Press did. Of course, BP — being a
Christian news organization — did provide biblical analysis.
The data cited about blacks in the weblog you mentioned is mostly
correct. However, the weblog failed to mention the fact that one-third
(33.4 percent) of new AIDS/HIV cases among blacks were among gay black
men.
In addition, 46.9 percent of new AIDS/HIV cases among blacks were from
"high-risk heterosexual contact" — a category that includes contact
with gay men (for instance, a female having sex with a gay man). In
light of that, it is quite possible that more than half of the cases
involve blacks involved gay men. All of this data can be seen in a USA
Today link I have provided.
I have a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of
Tennessee-Knoxville and a master's degree from Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary.
I do hope this answers your questions.
Again, thanks for reading Baptist Press, and thanks for taking the time
to contact us with your concerns.
Blessings,
Michael Foust
Baptist Press
- Biased, whoops, Baptist News Service
- Published: December 20, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Politics
- Writer: Eric James
- Eric James's BC Writer page
- Eric James's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
Criticisms of journalistic skills might include comment on people who incorrectly use "then" instead of "than" when making a comparison.
It is a shame, but you missed the whole point. Sexually transmitted diseases are spreading and most predominantly among those who practice a sinful lifestyle of homosexuality and extramarital sex. This is not a small percentage difference that we are talking about. Very few people that follow God's standard for sexual relationships contract sexually transmitted diseases. There is simply no way around the fact that the "wages of sin is death." Even people who sin by eating too much face increased health problems. It just happens that the "death" related to sexual sin comes in the form of sexually transmitted disease.
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It's too bad you left the journalism field. America needs more correcting, investigative reporters like yourself.
The most important way for an aristocracy/facism to take hold over the general populace, is to push forward the notion that they are morally, intellectually and spiritually superior than the general populace.
Rhetorical garbage and falsehood such as you have pointed out, is one of the main ways to accomplish this.
The most central feature of conservatism is deference: a psychologically internalized attitude on the part of the common people that the aristocracy are better people than they are. It is crucial to conservatism that the people must literally love the order that dominates them. Of course this notion sounds bizarre to modern ears, but it is perfectly overt in the writings of leading conservative theorists such as Burke. People who believe that the aristocracy (elite) rightfully dominates society because of its intrinsic superiority are Conservatives; Democrats, by contrast, believe that they are of equal social worth.
The Religious Right and their misinformation is one of the key ways to gain this illusion of superiority.