December 2005 Archives

I hate New Year's resolutions. If one really intends to make a change in some area of one's life, why wait until January 1? Is there something special about the change in the calendar that inspires people into new directions or provides additional spiritual energy to accomplish their goals? I think not. At least 'giving something up' for Lent can help focus the mind on some spiritual task or perhaps broken or forgotten after a few days or weeks?

Nonetheless, the concept of making a new beginning or turning a new leaf is one of the core precepts of the Christian faith. The difference is that the life of faith calls us to make new beginnings constantly, to be constantly transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Christian fundamentalism demands that we be 'born again' once and once only. The new birth is occasioned by conforming to certain 'spirtual laws', i.e. believing that Jesus is the Son of God, confessing him as Lord, and so forth. The new birth is about believing the right things about God in order to obtain eternal salvation.

Assent to a creed may be useful in establishing the bounds of a shared spiritual life and vision, but is entirely bankrupt as a means to new birth and transformation. The fundamentalists have it entirely wrong on this point. Scriptural proof-texts notwithstanding, one cannot 'confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth' and suddenly be saved for all enternity. The spiritual life is a life lived in God from one day to the next. Spiritual transformation occurs within us (and within the world) as we draw near to God in our daily lives and thoughts, learning to 'put away childish things' (i.e. pointless arguments about who is closer to God or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin) and begin to bring forth the fruits of our faith.

Rather than subscribing to Rules of Belief then, the God-centered person is interested in cultivating a Rule of Life -- a discipline for faithful, healthy living. Such a Rule might include the following principles (and more):

• worship often
• pray constantly
• learn continuously
• serve joyfully
• live and give generously

Now there's a New Year's resolution worthy of considering!

Hat tip to ExploreFaith.org for a devotional by Lowell Grisham that provided inspiration for this thought.

Adapted from a contribution to an ongoing discussion of religious fundamentalism on Talk to Action.

An epidemiology and prophylaxis

Why do certain forms of bigotry and ignorance seem to persist over millennia, adapting to different environmental conditions like viruses? Ideas and ideology can take on a life of their own, far divorced from the original context in which they were conceived. One only has to look at the recent development of protestant Christian fundamentalism in Africa to shake off any preconceived idea that this is a particularly American weakness.

The viral analogy may provide some useful pointers. More ‘benign’ viral infections can spread rapidly from host to host, because they do not immediately destroy the host. The virus must do its poisonous work without affecting the host in such a way as to prejudice its own chances of survival. It must also be able to adapt or mutate as it finds itself subject to in new environmental conditions.

If we extend this analogy to the various religious right movements, we see that some have functioned as deadly viral outbreaks but with little persistence over time. Heaven’s Gate is an example. Such experiments might be considered the Ebola or Marburg virus strains of religious extremism. The virus is deadly but since it destroys its host it is generally quickly contained and immobilized. Some aspects of the ex-gay movement seem to conform with this pattern as well.

When the angels’ song is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

— To find the lost
— To heal the broken
— To feed the hungry
— To release the prisoner
— To rebuild the nations
— To bring peace among the brothers
— To make music in the heart.

From The Mood of Christmas, by Howard Thurman

Which would a Republican be more likely to vote for (or against) -- lower taxes, or legal protection for their gay son?

Depending on your outlook, the answer might be encouraging. Eva Young points to a December 25 Star Tribune article on the St Cloud special election, which noted that:

Until recently, legislative special elections in Minnesota were thought of as a playing field tilted toward Republicans, who usually had better luck than DFLers motivating voters for these low-profile, low-turnout contests ...

Although central Minnesota is known as a hotbed of religious conservatism, [Senate Majority Leader Dean] Johnson [DFL-Willmar] suggested that "social issues are not carrying the day" as they did in the past. "Core issues" such as education, transportation, health care and the environment are gaining more attention from voters, he said.

[Republicans Dan] Ochsner, [Kay] Ek and the IP's [Dan] Becker are touting their opposition to abortion, support for a constitutional ban on gay marriage and fiscal conservatism. Besides the "core issues," [DFLers Tarryl] Clark and [Larry] Haws stress positive efforts to reduce abortion instead of new restrictions -- "The Ten Commandments didn't end sin," Haws says -- and note that a 1997 state statute outlawing gay marriage has not been challenged.

The DFL won both seats yesterday by a comfortable margin...

I found this article by Chip Berlet on dominionism and its relationship to the 'Left Behind' heresy quite interesting. It is the most recent post in a five-part series on dominionism. Be sure to read all five. The discussion following each post is also informative.

The Talk To Action site is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the relationship between religion and power in America today.

Yet more revelations of bureaucratic incompetence in the Department of Homeland Stupidity.

There are 500 children still unaccounted for after Hurricane Katrina, but the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is having trouble locating them because FEMA won't share its evacuee database with them, citing privacy laws. Even the FBI had trouble getting access to the necessary information until the Justice Department stepped in earlier this month.

In recent days, FEMA has released data that helped close 15 cases. Yesterday, after inquiries from The Washington Post, the agency sent the FBI a computer disk with the names of 570,000 evacuees.

But as the four-month anniversary of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history approaches, congressional leaders, law enforcement authorities and family advocates say FEMA's slow response has meant that many families that could have been reunited this holiday season instead remain apart.

Wait a minute... the Department of Homeland security won't share information because it doesn't want to infringe privacy laws? This coming from a federal bureaucracy in an environment where it's apparently OK for the president to authorize illegal eavesdropping on domestic telephone calls and e-mail in the national interest, privacy considerations be damned.

New Hope for Homeless LGBT Youth - Gay City News, NY:

Santa Claus came early to the homeless LGBT youth of New York City in more ways than one. On Christmas Eve, the Metropolitan Community Church of New York will celebrate an unexpected gift of $100,000 from an anonymous member to launch one of the first new 24-hour crisis shelters for homeless youth since the establishment of Covenant House, an institution not known to be gay-friendly, in 1972.

“We want to express our gratitude to people like our donor who are really stepping up to the plate,” said Reverend Pat Bumgardner, senior pastor of MCC/NY. “This is the heart of the gospel—caring for people in need. These kids are the future of our community and if we’re not helping them, who will?”

In Same-sex marriage without the sex I reviewed the otherwise progressive Purple Pew blog's ultraconservative views on anal sex, or what the author refers to as sodomy. The use of the term 'sodomy' to refer to male-male anal intercourse seems to me to represent a fundamental distortion of the scriptural references to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. This has been written about extensively elsewhere, and by far more knowledgeable persons, but after reading the Purple Pew I wanted to at least make an effort to address the topic for myself.

Traditional (i.e. post-medieval and modern) discussions tend to focus on a narrow interpretation of the violence intended by the men of Sodom against the two visiting angels, concluding that the violence had something to do with homosexual intercourse, and that for such an abomination God destroyed the city. But the biblical prophets themselves, up to and including Jesus, always understood the 'sin of Sodom' as something quite different...

The announcement of the coming of Jesus is brought to a fearful young girl. She is told by the angel Gabriel to not be afraid, that God was with her, that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1). In Mary's humble song we see a glimpse of a merciful God who would be revealed more fully in the coming of the Christ child:

My soul glorifies the Lord
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
   for he has been mindful
   of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,
   for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
   holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,
   from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty.

(Luke 1:46-53)

How are we to respond to this?

Do we, like the young girl Mary, rejoice in the impossible and exalt God for lifting up the humble and filling the hungry with good things? Do we even care this Christmas whether the humble are lift up or the hungry fed? Or are we proud in our inmost thoughts, sitting on our thrones and sofas, expecting to be blessed by God in our riches but in fact sent away empty?

Does the coming of a savior who says blessed are the poor and blessed are the peacemakers inspire us, or threaten us? Do we have ears to hear what the spirit is saying?

With all this nonsense going around about 'putting Christ back into Christmas' (as if Christ was some kind of religious substance that was being drained from the holiday -- and which the religious should most fervently reinsert to the mix), I was touched today by a reminder of what the birth of Jesus was and is really about.

From a post by Augustus Meriwether:

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." (Luke 2:10)

All of life, all of creation, all men and women are nourished, reconciled, enlivened and recreated by the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of God in Christ Jesus the infant, the man, the glorified Lord. It is not restricted to Jews, to Calvinists, to Roman Catholics, to Orthodox Russians, to Christians - but includes the whole of creation. All animals, even. All life. And nothing and no-one shall be 'unclean' or outside of his love. Gehenna (hell) is a state of the psyche from which we are freed (saved) by our conscious faith in this all-loving, all-embracing God, who lay for us as a vulnerable baby in an animal-feed trough, not only for the best and the least of us, but for all creation. That means you too. This is why it's called 'Good News', and not 'Alright For Some News'.

Christmas, once again, is the time for tax cuts to the rich and good-will to all manner of private sector interests. Congress moves to adopt a budget that would cut $50 billion in funding for programs for people in need, including Medicare, Medicaid and Head Start. Meanwhile, public money is being given away in the form of $60 billion in tax cuts to the rich, as well as the usual round of pork barrel funding (for projects like Alaska's 'bridge to no-where' and digital TV set-top box conversions).

Here we see in stark contrast the neo-conservative agenda to progressively dismantle government services and redistribute the nation's wealth to powerful business interests and the mega-rich. Thus it comes as little surprise to learn that the world's wealthiest nation has made no progress in improving adult literacy over the past decade. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, since 1992 adult literacy in this country has remained flat or dropped across every level of education. "So even as more people get a formal education, the literacy rate is not rising. Federal officials say this trend is puzzling and worthy of research."

A St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity instructor defends (theologizes?) the practice of reserving front-row pews for the wealthy faithful at Mass...

Front-and-center seats for Christmas Eve mass at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in St. Paul are on sale for about $1000. The money goes to fundraising for the parish's "faith-based" elementary school. Nice seat if you can get it, I suppose. What happened to saving the front seats for the elderly and those requiring assistance?

From the Star Tribune:

The Rev. Thomas Margevicius ... said it was once common for Catholic and Lutheran believers to pay for reserved seating. Name tags still hang on pews in some older churches to indicate who owned them, he said. "Some find that offensive in the present day," Margevicius said. "But it's just a cultural construct."

He cautioned against passing judgment on Nativity. "How certain are we of how God believes we should act?" he said. "God comes in unexpected ways and continues to do so."

Margevicius said the biblical story of the Three Wise Men who followed a star to the Bethlehem stable where Jesus was born could be interpreted as the first instance of paying for a front-row seat at Christmas. "They brought gold, frankincense and myrrh," he said. "They had enough wealth to make the trip to see the Christ child."

I wonder what Nativity would do if I paid my $1000 and then arrived for Mass wearing a rainbow sash? Which theological principle would prevail?

According to BusinessWeek, the American Family Association is not happy. Chairman Donald E. Wildmon declared that Ford Motor Company, in deciding to continue its advertising in gay publications, 'violated' an agreement reached in 'good faith' with certain conservative Ford resellers and the AFA. The possibility of a renewed boycott has been floated but it doesn't seem that Ford is going to take the bait this time. Apparently CEO Bill Ford was not all too happy about Ford being used as a fall guy for the religious right's political ambitions.

Praise be to God. This is the second time this year that a major American corporation has had the resolve to tell the theocracy what to do with their un-Christian threats and boycotts. First Microsoft, as I blogged here and here, and now Ford.

Of course, with Microsoft the issue was a more fundamental one concerning the company's support for critical legislation that would positively affect the lives of its gay and lesbian employees as well as the general GLBT population of Washington state. It could be argued (and I do argue) that a company's decision as to where to spend its advertising dollars is of far less significance than its lobbying activities or human resource initiatives. Any victory by the AFA would have been largely symbolic than real.

Promising news from the Washington Post this holiday season:

President Bush reversed position yesterday and endorsed a torture ban crafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) after months of White House attempts to weaken the measure, which would prohibit the "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any detainee in U.S. custody anywhere in the world.

McCain's bill was influenced in part by the testimony of Captain Ian Fishback, 26 year old West Point Graduate and officer with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Fishback relinquished anonymity in order to stand up against what he believed was deeply immoral, even though he understood that the violations of the Geneva Convention that were going on were not isolated instances but in response to instructions from the officer-corps and 'probably in combination with the executive branch of government.'

In an interview published in the September Human Rights Watch report, Fishback said:

Congress should have oversight of treatment of prisoners. That is the way; the Army should not take it upon itself to determine what is acceptable for America to do in regards to treatment of prisoners. That’s a value… that’s more than just a military decision, that’s a values decision, and therefore Congress needs to know about it, and therefore the American people need to have an honest representation of what’s going on presented to them so that they can have a say in that ...

If America holds something as the moral standard, it should be unacceptable for us as a people to change that moral standard based on fear. The measure of a person or a people’s character is not what they do when everything is comfortable. It’s what they do in an extremely trying and difficult situation, and if we want to claim that these are our ideals and our values then we need to hold to them no matter how dark the situation.

I just couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I realized today I must be suffering from a treatable medical condition known as papaphobia.

Defined as "the pope", each year this surprisingly common phobia causes countless people needless distress ... At some point in your past, there was likely an event linking the Pope and emotional trauma ... Train your mind to feel completely different about the Pope, eliminating the fear so it never haunts you again.

How much for this balm of Gilead you ask?

Working one-on-one with one of our team, with guaranteed lifetime elimination of Papaphobia. From $1497 and up.

Always on the lookout for anything that might make life for my far-right friends more bearable, I came across this wonderful online advertisement. It begins with this teaser: "Imagine What Your Life Would Be Like Without Homophobia, Fear of Sameness, Fear of Monotony, Fear of Homosexuality, and Fear of Becoming Homosexual." Hmmm, tell me more.

Trusted, Effective Treatment for Homophobia

Our board-certified team specializes in helping individuals overcome fears, phobias & anxiety of all kinds, and is particularly focused on problems such as Homophobia. With a success rate close to 100% we offer a lifetime guarantee to our clients.

Wow, 100% success rate! Can I order gift sets trimmed with 'Merry Christmas' to send to some, er... friends, in Colorado Springs?

To add insult to an already distressing condition, most homophobia therapies take months or years and sometimes even require the patient to be exposed repeatedly to their fear. We believe that not only is this totally unnecessary, it will often make the condition worse. And it is particularly cruel as homophobia can be eliminated with the right methods and just 24 hours of commitment by the phobic individual.

The ad promises to "train your mind to feel completely different about sameness, monotony, homosexuality, or becoming homosexual, eliminating the fear so it never haunts you again." But more importantly, "homophobia will likely cost you tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your lifetime, let alone the cost to your health and quality of life. Now Homophobia can be gone for less than the price of a round-trip airline ticket."

They really want business: "We have never met a case of Homophobia that could not be overcome using these methods. So please, whether or not you decide to work with us, make a decision to get over Homophobia now."

The perfect Christmas present for the hard-to-shop-for homophobe in your life!

There are proposals afoot to classify 'pathological bias' as an official psychiatric diagnosis. The diagnosis would apply to patients who are 'disabled' by extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice to the point of not being able to function normally. It's hard to know whether this is a positive development or not.

As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis ... it could have huge ramifications on clinical practice, employment disputes and the criminal justice system. Perpetrators of hate crimes could become candidates for treatment, and physicians would become arbiters of how to distinguish "ordinary prejudice" from pathological bias.

"They are delusional," said Alvin F. Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who has long advocated such a diagnosis. "They imagine people are going to do all kinds of bad things and hurt them, and feel they have to do something to protect themselves. "When they reach that stage, they are very impaired," he said. "They can't work and function; they can't hold a job. They would benefit from treatment of some type, particularly medication."

Not all psychiatrists agree that bias, even extreme bias, should be clinically pathologized. It raises the prospect of prejudice being 'managed' in the future the same way depression or ADHD are today - with a pill. Doctors in California's prison system have apparently already been treating inmates with racist and homophobic hatred with anti-psychotic drugs, apparently with some degree of 'effectiveness'.

I was thrilled to read Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. I must admit to never reading Pinter, but what struck me in his speech was an understanding of the political that resonates with the posts of the past two days.

Let me begin by stating that my intention in the previous posts was not to demonize Bush or the conservatives, but to point out the importance of the apocalyptic as a signpost to the understanding of the force of tremendous political power - and how the gospel of Jesus challenges us to resist that power in the name of the kingdom of God.

Pinter on language and truth:

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

I want to state right now that as a 'liberal' or 'progressive' or even 'inclusive' Christian, I developed my passion for social and spiritual justice as a direct response to prayer and reading the word of God.

In my youth I was an ex-gay fundamentalist who knew he would be caught up to be with Christ in the rapture and that the rest of the world was going to hell in a handbasket on the wings of some vast liberal-secular conspiracy. I was one of the righteous and would be saved by faith while God destroyed the rest of the world in his wrath. Anybody who supported legal abortion or gay rights or evolution or denied the literal truth of every word in the Bible was doomed to an eternity in hell.

But the Bible can only be read this way if I have already deceived myself that the vast number of its prophetic texts condemning violence, lust, hypocrisy, greed, oppression, legalism, apathy and unconcern do not apply to me because I am one of the righteous. Of course, if I am righteous there is no need for repentance is there? But once I began to read the bible without reference to Scofield's notes or some other man-made blueprint, the sheer power of those prophetic voices began to work their way in my life and heart.

Bob, in the I am a Christian Too blog, posted this piece that echos some thoughts that I've been having lately. As a progressive Christian I believe that Biblical prophecy speaks to us today not because God was 'foretelling' events that were to come, but because it functions as parable. The issues prophecy addresses are human and universal. Just as the parables of the prodigal son and the lost sheep contain universal spirtual lessons on grace and forgiveness, so the prophecy-parables of the Antichrist and False Prophet speak of their opposites.

But let’s just look at the Anti-Christ/False Prophet imagery for a second. The Anti-Christ is supposed to be a leader that deludes us into thinking that bad is good and good is bad. He would charm us into following him into doing unspeakable acts, say, torture, kidnapping, false imprisonment, ghost detainees, or murder.

The Anti-Christ would be supported by the False Prophet, who would create a false religion to pervert God’s will. This false religion would make us hate instead of love, applaud war instead of peace. It would paint its enemies, say, homosexuals, Muslims and liberals, as undeserving of God’s love, nor ours. This religion would wreak death (the death penalty, war, poverty, disease) instead of life (peace, compassion for the imprisoned, food for the hungry, health care for the sick).

The religion of the False Prophet would become intertwined with the governmental power of the Anti-Christ, quite the opposite of the historic separation of Church and State in the U.S. Government leaders would be qualified for their roles by virtue of their religion (Harriet Myers anyone?). The false religion would defend the immoral actions of the government, while the government would enforce the false morality of the false religion.

So here we have an immoral/amoral system of empire supported by and intertwined with a false religion of death. Sound familiar? Bush/Dobson anyone?

Apparently George W. Bush is not 'Christian' enough for some on the religious right-wing.

According to a new Washington Post article, the Catholic League, American Family Association, Heritage Foundation and conservative web-site WorldNetDaily.com are all upset because this year's White House greeting card does not contain the words Christmas or Jesus. They are also pissed at Target and Wal-mart for omitting mention of Christmas in their holiday advertising. So in their Bizarro-world parallel universe of pseudo-Christian subjectivity, Bush and the retail giants are part of a Grinch-like conspiracy or, at the very least, overcome by political correctness.

Needless to say, that's the first time I've heard this president described as too 'politically correct'... As usual, the ultra-blight-wing has no sense of history, perspective or irony. If they want to 'put Christ back into Christmas', maybe they should consider the following:

Evidence mounts that Sony BMG knew that their new XCP copy protection scheme posed a security risk to consumers before the issue went public, but went ahead with it anyway... Or, as Ed Felten puts it:

We know already that entertainment companies want to redesign our computers in the hope (which is ultimately futile) of stopping copying. From there, it’s not so large a step to decide that users’ security simply must be sacrificed on the altar of copy protection.

Thank God at least for NY state Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Elliot Spitzer, who launched an investigation into the matter last month. This wouldn't be the first time that Sony and other recording companies came under the Spitzer microscope. In May 2004, Sony and several other companies agreed to return nearly $50 million in unclaimed royalties to thousands of unpaid artists that they couldn't bother tracking down.

Apparently the recording industry will go to extreme and even illegal lengths to protect its own profits, but not those of the artists on whom it depends. Or, in Sony BMG's own words:

Going forward, we will continue to identify new ways to meet demands for flexibility in how you and other consumers listen to music.

Can't wait for that!

In a recent post I blogged about how...

It is most startling to hear conservative black clergy referring to their work to deny equal rights to a section of society as representing the modern continuation of the civil rights and justice struggle of the last century.

Thanks then to Llyodletta's Nooz & Comments for pointing us to yet another example of hypocrisy from black church leaders, this time in Indiana, trying to pray gay rights away.

The reverends gathered to pray for the defeat of legislation designed to protect GLBT people in Indianapolis from being fired or denied housing due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Apparently these esteemed Christian leaders believe that we're not entitled to the same basic protections in housing and employment that black men and women fought so bitterly to obtain.

I was walking to the office from the bus stop, using my BlackBerry to read this article in the Washington Post, about BlackBerry users:

Since it hit the market seven years ago, BlackBerry has accelerated the pace of business and bred a generation of workers who rely on constant e-mail updates ... The device has even spawned modern afflictions such as "BlackBerry thumb," from typing too much on the tiny keyboard, and CrackBerry addiction, for those who can't look up from it while eating, walking or even driving.

Wow, how did they know?

Purpose Driven Life' Author Takes on AIDS Fight

I would like to believe Rick Warren's newfound compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS represented the vanguard of some major shift taking place within America's evangelical movement. If you visit the Saddleback Church's web-site the message appears to be encouraging:

God grabbed my heart two years ago. I knew nothing about HIV/AIDS and harbored the same fears and misconceptions that are commonly held in our culture. As I became aware of the number of children orphaned by AIDS, I began to sob and confess that I did not love and care for the people in this horrific crisis the way our God does. I became convinced that the local church was not responding to this Global giant in a meaningful way. Genuine heart-change and genuine reaching to others in the love of Christ can only be done effectively in and through the church. With a biblical mandate and a softened heart, I personally invite you to join in the adventure of reaching every person with the love of God.

But then read the following from the ABC News article linked above, and you see that leopards, perhaps, do not so rapidly change their spots:

Warren said ministering to people with AIDS isn't about their behavior. "The issue is not, how did you get it? The issue is — what now?" he said.

This does not mean evangelicals have changed their views on gays and lesbians.

"People ask me, is homosexuality evil? I say, it's just not natural," Warren said.

I knew today was World AIDS Day. What I didn't realize was that the day began in 1986 as a joint faith initiative between the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Churches and over 5000 other churches and faith communities. By 1988, the observance became an international event sponsored by the UN and WHO.

For so many reasons, there is growing complancency today about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in both the GLBT and faith communities. Consider just a few reasons why we mustn't remain complacent:

• 20 million people have died from HIV/AIDS, and another 40 million people are living with the HIV virus today.

• 5 million people were newly infected with the HIV virus this year alone.

• Over 700,000 of those new cases were children under the age of 15.

• HIV and AIDS have left behind more than 14 million orphans, 12 million of them in Africa.

• In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 8% of the adult population carry the HIV virus.

• Only one in seven people with HIV/AIDS in developing countries will have access to life saving antiviral drugs.

• Most of the AIDS funding promised by the US and other western governments to the most needy countries has never been provided.