Dogma

Originally aired on November 7, 2009 on BBC World - The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world - is an interesting debate.

Uganda has one of the highest rates of AIDS of any country in the world and much of the church teachings are about abstinence. In Max Blumenthal's piece at The Daily Beast, he sheds light on Rick Warren's work in Africa. This piece is originally from January 2009 when Obama picked Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer.

During the early 1990s, when many African leaders denied the AIDS epidemic’s existence, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni spoke openly about the importance of safe sex. With the help of local and international non-governmental organizations, he implemented an ambitious program emphasizing abstinence, monogamous relationships, and using condoms as the best ways to prevent the spread of AIDS. He called the program “ABC.” By 2003, Uganda’s AIDS rate plummeted 10 percent. The government’s free distribution of the “C” in ABC—condoms—proved central to the program’s success, according to Avert, an international AIDS charity.

The real work behind Warren and other church leaders in Uganda - the Kill Gays bill - is detailed out in the work of Timothy Kinkaid at Box Turtle Bulletin. Check out the connections to USA GOP politicians.

There's so much I want to write about the Catholic church after my upbringing and college years. Sometime I will get it all out. I encourage you to watch all five of the video segments and read the complete articles linked above. For now, the most telling statement came from a gentleman in the audience when the church argues that it has been judged by the standards of the times. He retorts:

"The truths in your doctrines are either eternal or not."

Freedom from Want

I first remember seeing Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms in a little shop in Alexandria VA in the early 1990's and just thought they were remarkable. The prints themselves were just huge, each at least six feet tall and after studying it for a bit, I thought I had never been to a dinner that nice! My holiday dinners were more like the dinner scene from Moonstruck! LOL

Thanks to family and friends and those protecting our freedoms here and abroad. Thanks to Dave for putting up with me all these years and to Winston, Kiana and Jeb for always making me smile. Happy Thanksgiving!