A suspicious person would wonder what's behind Max Blumenthal's jihad against Warren. Let me guess. A secular Jew (ck). A liberal with an agenda (ck). A east coast journalist (ck). Gay? (Must inquire further). Well, there.it seems I've answered my own question.

Follow the Money--a fundementalist belief?

What's fascinating is that when one does a google search on abstinence education Africa, you find many sites associated with church causes promoting the concept but few facts.

For the record most of these Christian groups, including Rick Warren's, had nothing to do with HIV for the first twenty years of the epidemic. That neocon icon, Ronald Reagan, couldn't even bring himself to say the word AIDS during his presidency. Twenty million people died and another twenty or so million became infected in this period.

These groups opposed funding of any anti-HIV intervention in the 80's and 90's. Their philosophy, as voiced to me by a missionary in Uganda in 1988, was that those with HIV got what they deserved. When Bush, to his credit, decided to put money into HIV in Africa. These churches, so to speak got religion, and followed the money. The only problem is that they wish to dominate the program with an ineffective HIV education message. Hopefully this will change.

A better educated person might wonder why Banjo1 does not know the real meaning of the word "jihad." The real meaning, not the ire-provoking mainstream media meaning. A less bigoted person might wonder why Banjo1 discounts out of hand the opinions of secular Jews, east coast journalists and gays.

I'm a Ugandan, and I've witnessed all what these guys are claiming.
1- Dr. Martin has helped my nation very much as regards HIV/AIDS prevention. Initially Makerere was a dean of death! lots of our relatives were dying at the university, reason being HIV/AIDS. the spread was so much causal sex, and sex promotions, with out a full knowledge of what sex entails. its not a matter of just sleeping with someone. Sex has ability to reproduce (bear children), it entails much more, emotion, physical and spiritual....

About the the "Burning of Condoms".. Initially the government had detected that more than a Million NGABO condoms were deffected(http://abstinenceafrica.com/library/index.php?entryid=1780), and they were supposed to be destroyed to protect our people, The government had to destroy them. Dr. Martin helped us alot, he protected our lives by burning those condoms. I WOULD BE A STATISTIC this day if I WERE TO USE THOSE DEADLY CONDOMS.

I urge you to read more and get to the ground.. there many Ugandans in Uganda, who know this, and its a shame that you biased your article, your fellow writers and journalists have written about the matter since 2005 but u're still giving fake information. Which kinda of writer are you? you've to give REAL TRUTH!!!..

There are lots of links to help you...http://www.google.se/search?q=How Fake Condoms Got Onto the Market&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox -a

This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.

The motivation behind the article is so transparent. Anti-Christian rants don't make for good journalism. There is a larger story here, one that doesn't fit into the pinched space that Mr. Blumenthal has tried to put it in. It would be refreshing to have a voice on religious affairs at the Beast that can find a way to discuss religion and policy in a way that takes into account the larger picture, and in this case, what someone like Warren is actually accomplishing.

Why is it "anti-Christian" to say that abstinance only education, AIDS preveniton programs that eschew condom distribution, etc. don't work?I think that rather than being anti-Christian, it is begin anti extremist/fundamentalist programs and people who decide that because of their beliefs, science and research should be discounted. If we know, based on study, that something works, but we refuse to allow it because of our BELIEFS then we are doing more harm than good. And when a journalist calls that out, we should applaud him. Stop being so scared of the truth that you have to call people names!.

Is this article meant to be serious?

I actually don't even know what to say here. I don't know enough about Warren to have a fixed opinion about this Africa stuff, but this article sure hasn't help inform me. A loose collection of "guilt by association" tales and innuendo. Give us some hard facts... Or does that take too much research and actual hard work?

As an aside... I do wonder what sort of Pastor would keep the left (which I consider myself to be a member of, by the way) happy? If you want a pro-gay, anti-abstinence, non-evangelical... you are pretty much limited Canadian Bishops or maybe someone from New Hampshire. Ok, we get it... you don't like mainstream evangelicals (and plenty of them make me want to puke) but come on! This is meant to be the spiritual part of the inauguration! Get over yourselves and write about something of consequence!

It is out of sheer frustration experienced after reading the previous posts that I feel compelled to comment. It seems that every reader leaves the article only more convinced of his or her position prior to starting. This is not a problem with only this article, but nearly every arguement for or against every topic over the last decade. If you are not willing to be open to arguements from the "other" side, why even click on them at all? Why must every solution be and "either/or" scenario? You don't have to agree with the other side, but you do have to respect the rights to have an opinion. What this world needs is a respectful, open, and honest debate, not paranoia, intolerance and name calling. The other side is always going to exist, so our energies would be best spent learning to live with them instead of squashing them.

On the AIDS issue in particular, I think it is such a serious issue that it requires a multi-faceted solution that touches and influences as many people as possible. For this reason, I would argue that you need BOTH an abstinence program AND a safe sex program. I cannot understand why they must be mutually exclusive. Does one negatively impact the other as it relates to slowing the spread of AIDS? The answer, no matter your religion or political stance, is no. One only impacts the the other from the viewpoint of morality and values, which are themselves subjective and relative in nature.

Are the previous posters kidding (kahawa aside)? Let me guess -- any criticism of a Christian pastor is automatically anit-Christian? Why don't you try responding with intelligent facts, couterpoints or actual discourse? If there are things in the article that are factually incorrect, please state them, I'd like to know. Otherwise it reads as a vert interesting peice and I'm glad someone wrote it.

Kahawa, I think we should all be extremely wary of the work of most East Coast "journalists." I don't know whether he is from the East Coast, but Blumenthal is clearly in league with those elitists. However, by his own words Blumenthal discredits himself as a journalist. This sentence alone is damning: "The bill died and PEPFAR was reauthorized in its flawed form." Regardless of whether one agrees with the meaning of the sentence, it clearly betrays a a bias, something true journalists do their best to avoid.
This is not journalism. This is an extremely one-sided screed that demonstrates Blumethal's wish to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Winlock also points to another obvious problem with this ilk: the near-complete disregard for Christianity, to which the majority of Americans still ascribe belief and from which far more good has come than evil. Blumethal, in fact, tries repeatedly to turn "born again" into an epithet. Laughable.
Max, I shouldn't say this, but if you want to win people to your myopic world view, you need to be a little more subtle than the business end of a barnyard shovel upside the face. People can see past that tactic. Really. From one former journalist to an aspirant, let me tell you that people truly are smarter than you elitists think they are.

This is good reporting, Mr. Blumenthal. Does it fully explicate the underlying, good and sincere intentions of Mr. Warren and a good many evangelicals around the world? No. But, Rick Warren I think does that himself on his website and in a great many other venues. No doubt many good things are happening for members of Saddleback and other congregations around the world as they manifest their beliefs. Your reporting here gives a clear view at some of the very harmful consequences that result from their constant need to find an evil to suppress, or fight, in order to see the good in themselves. This is a very old, tribal and decidedly non-christian habit that should be highlighted at every opportunity. Good work.

How is it Anit-Christian to report facts? I question the emphasis in christianity (and other religions) on sex when clearly SO MUCH senseless needless violence has been perpetrated in the name of religion. Is there a connection between our tendency to supress sex and act violently? This is obviously not a conversation that can be had with someone who is highly invested in their own sexual suppression/repression. But the hippocracy that we see again and again around these issues should give us pause. What instinct is it in us would make us act in so obviously a retarded way? We can easily scoff at African primitivism (sex with virgins will protect you from AIDS?!?) but our own refusal to investigate and uncover reality (no, sex with virgins just reduces the non-infected population AND SPREADS HIV) is just as entrenched and absurd. The question is how can we best perpetuate intelligent ideas when people seem so eager to embrace their own downfall and supression. Education? Can people who see this as a personaly motivated attack on them such as banjo1 and winlock, and those eager to be on the right side with god at the expense (by design?) of their fellows ever loosen their death-grip? Will Batman be able to stop the Riddler in time?

I enjoy how Christians always want us to look at The Larger Picture - which in most cases, is that Religion Kills People.

coloradocynic, your use of elitist as a swear word wears so thin...get over yourself about journalism, this is not a newspaper. the daily beast is a blog site, and does not hold to the same principals. Go back to the WSJ of you want right winged journalism, or NPR if you want fair and balanced. Give me a break and get off this site.

An attack on Christianity? Hardly--Rick Warren doesn't rise to the standard of "Christian." He ~does~ rise to the standard of what passes for evangelicals in the US these days--people interested in the establishment of a theocracy that has their version of Christianity (comes with a real, 17-jewel, self-correcting history)--but that's not nearly so much "rising to the standard" as "floating to the top of the tank."

With their virulent homophobia and what appears to be a fear of sex in general, idiots like Warren and Ssempa are sowing hate, discord, and disease throughout Uganda and here in the US as well. I'm sure that those are Christian values of which Jesus Himself would approve, ne c'est pas?

It frightens me that a journalist who dares to investigate the religious right is instantly labelled "a liberal, gay, east coast, secular Jew with an agenda" by someone who probably doesn't even have a high school diploma (ck). Banjo1, I wish there actually were a hell for you to go to but since there isn't I hope for your sake and the sake of anyone crosses your path that you achieve enlightenment in this, your only, lifetime. Also, it may sound trite - but have we learned nothing form history? Abstinence-only sex education DOES NOT WORK - the research is there to support this. Jesus will not save you from syphilis, gonorrhoea, AIDS or unwanted pregnancies. Only you can be protecting yourself.

As a follower of Christ I resent the way the like of Rick Warren are called Christians. He is another of the fundamentalists who are trashing the world in the name of "their" God. Islam and Christianity has been highjacked by low life thugs.

The statistics on the rising rate of HIV/AIDS infections in Africa and Asia are readily available on many websites. The blunt fact of the mater is that the majority of these cases on those continents are not contracted through homosexual contact, but through heterosexual contact. I don't see many of these Christian cursaders pointing out that particular fact. Seems that way too many Christians still persist in seeing HIV/AIDS as a 'gay' disease. Rick Warren and Ssempa and anybody else who preaches abstinence only are wrong. I live in a city where, for the last thirty years or so, sex eudcation has been abstinence-only. This city has, for the same period, ranked in the top five US cities for teen pregnancy, low birthweight babies, and teen STD and HIV/AIDS infections. Abstinence and monogamous relationships are probably both scientifically and morally the best way to prevent these problems, but are also the least likely to actually succeed in practice.
Many Christians don't have the sense God gave a turnip. They pick and choose which portions of the Bible they want to apply literally and which portions they don't consider relevant. The Bible calls for the segreation of menstruating women, the shunning of psoriasis patients, and for all persons who live in cities to take a wooden shvel and go a specified number of feet from the city walls, there to dig a hole in which to evacuate their bowels, and then to cover that up and return to the city. (Check Deuteronomy) If a Christian is going to take the Bible as the absolute LITERAL Word of God, and declare that every rule and injuection must be followed to the precise letter, then he cannot pick and choose which portions of the Bible are literal and which portions are metaphorical and which portions are no longer relevant. A literal, legalistic interpretation of the Bible should not take into consideration the fact that modern medicine and indoor plumbing render these injuctions irrelevant, but I don't see these anit-gay Christian crusaders carrying shovels.

Banjo1.
I hear Anne Coulter needs a booking agent...
Save the east coast BS for your call in to Limbaugh.

As always Mr Blumenthal hits the on the head.....Christians like Warren should be called out for the BS they spew, fighting AIDS means condoms, family planning, sex education etc, but of course this does not fit into the 19th century thinking of the Christian Right Wing so they dabble in some mediocre AIDS work and then burn condoms.....

Just becuase you dont liek Warren does NOT make you ANTI Christian. Just ANTI IDIOT.

Jesus would be appaled @ Today's Mega Chruch, Hatefull, Pro War, Pro Big Business, anti Sceince Christians....

brilliant reporting. thanks for getting this info out there.

i also must disagree with some of the previous comments. while you clearly oppose the practices of warren and his counterparts, you are still respectful of their personal religious choices. i don't think i will ever understand how a religion "based on love and compassion" could engage in such utterly hateful practices, not to mention ignore empirical and obvious facts.

fine if you want to put up some billboards about abstinence - that will help save lives as well, but why would it be necessary to entirely eliminate any method which helps? i don't see any "evil secular liberals" asking to completely abolish abstinence education ~in conjunction with~ condom supply.

So wait a minute. Is this article trying to say that because Rick Warren supports abstinence education over condoms, his concern for eliminating AIDS is discredited?

That's rubbish. If I never have sex until I marry someone who also has never had sex, then I will not get AIDS through sex. Period, end of story. My children will not have AIDS, and in a generation or two, AIDS would be all but eliminated, if you couple abstinence education with a rigorous clean needle program.

Condoms break, Not having sex is foolproof. Set aside the fact that sex is an amazing thing that no one wants to give up, and it would seem to me that Mr. Warren has found a better solution.

Believing as I do in separation of Church and State, I do not believe there even should be an 'inaugural prayer' or that any religion should be represented at a government function.

The more I read about Rick Warren the more I believe I am right. Separation of church and state is there precisely to keep a self-loathing, hypocritical, lunatic religious nut like Warren away from the levers of power.

Mr. Blumenthal's article is very informative.

EXCELLENT, MAX. THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THIS TO LIGHT. (may the defensive nonsense by melissa etheridge and the obama team begin).

As a pastor myself, I would like to say thank you for pointing out some of the damage that is being done by Warren and his kind. I think that it is obvious for all to see that Rick Warren is no longer a person who can call himself a minister (which, by definition requires loving all people and judging no one) but is rather a politician. Warren is simply a man with a tremendous constituency to appease in order to stay in power, and to appease them, he engages in that most traditional of Evangelical practices; hating anything that he does not understand.

I think that finderj put it best here, you cannot interpret the Bible in a literal sense, unless you want to interpret ALL of it in such a way. And Warren does not appear to be shoveling in any of the pictures I have seen...