Misguided thinking on AIDS

Here is a sad illustration of the illogic of our time. The
Congressional Black Caucus had a gathering to express concern that AIDS
is having a disproportionate impact amongst black Americans. It seems
that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
blacks account for 43 percent of the 65,000 U.S. AIDS cases, yet they
make up only 12 percent of the general population. On the other hand,
Hispanics account for 20 percent of AIDS, but only 11 percent of the
population. So the black caucus urged the federal government to declare
an “AIDS state of emergency” because of the “unchecked spread” of the
disease in the nation’s minority communities. Rep. Maxine Waters called
it a national crisis.

One is not surprised, of course, that liberals would be calling for
more government intervention as the first response to this problem,
despite the fact that we are already spending more on AIDS than we spend
on most other disease research combined. More distressing was the list
of specific requests that was made, and the depraved understanding of
the causes of human suffering that it revealed.

The Washington Times reported that “beside the AIDS state of
emergency, the caucus asked for federal help, combining AIDS prevention
and treatment with drug programs, improving AIDS prevention in prisons,
helping community groups draft grant proposals for AIDS treatment
programs, mounting a wholesale campaign against homophobia among blacks,
targeting minority women and children for prevention and treatment, and
increasing the number of minority health workers and researchers in the
field and on panels issuing grant money.”

In the Middle Ages, there was a saying that the devil could disguise
himself very well, but that he couldn’t hide his tail. And while some
things in this list might appear to be good ideas at a first reading,
the devil’s tail is there in the middle of them to warn against the
whole thing: “mounting a wholesale campaign against homophobia.”

The truth is that if we want to do what is necessary to cut down on
the spread of AIDS in the black community, and in any community, we will
have to move people away from a self-indulgent, fornicating mentality
towards sex. If we have a culture saturated with licentious sexual
attitudes, that culture is going to be at risk for all the diseases that
come from that kind of behavior, and not just AIDS. To seriously target
these problems will require that we target the attitudes that promote
it. And when we champion the cause of homosexual radicalism, which is
what “mounting a wholesale campaign against homophobia” means, we
champion a culture that is at the cutting edge of such destructive
attitudes. The people within the gay community themselves admit this.
The propensity toward risky sex is re-emerging in strength in the gay
community.

In the black community the promotion of self-destructive attitudes
toward sex is broader than just homosexuality, of course. Most of the
stations that are broadcasting what is called black music broadcast
musical pornography 24 hours a day. Everything about that culture aims
at promoting the attitude that the more you do it, the better it is, so
get out there and have as much sex as possible, without regard for
anything or anyone else.

If the black caucus really wants to do something about AIDS and other
harm related to sexually transmitted disease in the black community,
they will need to do something about a sex-saturated culture that
encourages people of all ages to believe that sexual activity is
something to be engaged in like having a good meal every day, instead of
being a sacred activity, connected to the very depth of human
spirituality and social life.

Refusal to talk about what will really heal the broken black
community has been a problem with the black liberal mentality for
decades. They don’t want to look at the real problems, because of the
corrupting desire for personal power and enrichment that they gain from
the secular political welfare machine. Instead, every sign of the social
decay that is destroying the lives of the people they are supposed to
care for is treated as simply another occasion to demand that more money
be spent. And the more money they can funnel to their community this
way, the easier is their re-election.

But a moment’s thought reveals that money cannot provide the
solution. It happens that the community with the highest incidence of
AIDS in America, which is the homosexual community, is also one of the
most well-heeled communities in the country.

Rather than money, the communities in America that are suffering the
ravages of decaying families and ungoverned sexual license desperately
need to recover a true attitude toward human sexuality. We can truly
help them only by restoring the connection human sexuality should have
to marriage, family and responsibility, and by facing down an
entertainment industry that shamelessly encourages a culture of
fornication and licentiousness, particularly among our young.

Such moral sanity plays no part in the black caucus’s “AIDS
Prevention Strategy.”

With friends like these …