The president has repeatedly emphasized his desire to see more public funds go to religious ministries to provide social services that have historically been offered through government agencies and secular non-profit organizations. It’s a drive that has some disturbing results when over $14 million goes to someone like TV preacher Pat Robertson.
But Bush’s faith-based initiative is even more noteworthy when it comes to distribution of money devoted to combating AIDS.
President Bush’s $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use.
Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well-known Catholic charity and a group run by the son of evangelist Billy Graham, according to the State Department.
These are funding decisions that will likely have serious real-life consequences. Many of the religious groups receiving money have their own agendas, and are operating programs without any significant oversight. Dan Mullins, deputy regional director for southern and western Africa for CARE, one of the best-known humanitarian organizations, said, “[W]e don’t want to fall into the trap of assuming faith-based groups are good at everything.”
It’s not entirely clear if the administration appreciates this.
For prevention, Bush embraces the “ABC” strategy: abstinence before marriage, being faithful to one partner, and condoms targeted for high-risk activity. The Republican-led Congress mandated that one-third of prevention money be reserved for abstinence and fidelity.
Condom promotion to anyone must include abstinence and fidelity messages, U.S. guidelines say, but those preaching abstinence do not have to provide condom education.
The abstinence emphasis, say some longtime AIDS volunteers, has led to a confusing message and added to the stigma of condom use in parts of Africa. Village volunteers in Swaziland maintain a supply of free condoms but say they have few takers.
Given the seriousness of the crisis, a U.S.-backed, taxpayer-financed “confusing message” doesn’t seem like a particularly wise approach. It does seem typical of the Bush adminstration, though.