In a column hosted on the American Family Association website, Bryan Fischer defended his denial of the HIV-AIDS link. On Monday, Rick and Kay Warren released a statement to me which condemned Fischer’s recent campaign to support the work of Peter Duesberg. Duesberg is a professor of biology at UC – Berkeley who claims that HIV is a harmless virus and does not cause AIDS.
In his rebuttal, Fischer restates arguments from his previous columns and at times, inadvertently argues against himself. For instance, Fischer chides the Warrens with Uganda as an illustration:
Warren knows for a fact that the only nation in Africa that has been able to dramatically reduce its AIDS rate is Uganda, which has done it by emphasizing abstinence before marriage and fidelity after. It makes perfect sense. If the cause is bad behavior, the cure is good behavior. Pastor Warren ought to be down with that, since that’s exactly what the Scriptures teach.
If you want to solve the AIDS crisis, the solution is simple, and it’s not found in a test tube. If you’re a man, stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men, and don’t shoot up. The beauty of that solution is that it doesn’t require billions and billions of dollars.
First of all, Uganda has reduced the AIDS rate by reducing HIV transmission among straights. According Harvard AIDS prevention expert, Edward Green, gays have a very small impact on the situation there. The ABC approach (abstinence, be faithful, condom use) has been quite helpful there, but this is not what Fischer suggests in his very next paragraph. Instead, Fischer’s advice to men in Uganda — “stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men and don’t shoot up” — would be nearly meaningless. Fischer and Duesberg’s Stop, Stop and Don’t Shoot won’t stop HIV but the ABC method does.
What Fischer does not do is confront the horrendous consequences of his campaign already realized in South Africa. As the Warrens pointed out, the South African government took Duesberg’s advice from 2000-2005 which led to thousands of babies being infected and over 330,000 deaths, as estimated by two follow up studies.
Yesterday, I wrote the AFA’s Tim Wildmon to ask if the AFA agrees with Fischer’s views. No reply has come as yet.
Related:
Rick and Kay Warren condemn the American Family Association’s denial of link between HIV and AIDS
“If you’re a man, stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men, and don’t shoot up.” Why is it that Bryan Fisher always attacks the gays when it comes to this issue.
And he doesn’t have animosity towards gays? Give me a break!
No Warren, ‘ABC’ doesn’t work in Uganda either, for the exact same reasons it doesn’t work here (the West). And the corrupt takeover on the Bush doled-out millions has led to an *increase in HIV rates there.
“Pastor Warren ought to be down with that” – What is he, a rap star?
paul – I think the ABC approach is debatable, with people of good will on both sides of it. However, my main point is that Fischer doesn’t know what he is talking about. He argues that Uganda is doing one thing and then advocates another – Stop, Stop and Don’t Shoot.
Clearly the solution to the Uganda crisis was eliminating poppers from the equation.
It was an extra-special super secret part of ABC that the militant homosexual activists have kept from public view. Cuz teh homosexuals are really powerful in Uganda, you know.
For that matter, why is Bryan Fischer attacking poppers?
Seriously, I know that in the early years of the epidemic, alkyl nitrites (“poppers”) were invoked as an explanation for the relatively high incidence of Karposi’s Sarcoma among gay men with AIDS (but not among AIDS patients generally).
However, it’s long since been confirmed that KS is caused by herpes 8 (HHV-8), which spreads among promiscuous gay men by sexual contact, just as HIV does.
And it’s my understanding (which could be wrong) that alkyl nitrites had essentially been exonerated as a contributing or aggravating factor in AIDS, mainly because the immune-suppressant effects of these drugs tend to weak, temporary, and self-reversing. (Note: It’s not that poppers are totally harmless; it’s that their effects on the immune system aren’t potent enough, or permanent enough, to adequately account for the total immune shutdown seen in patients with full-blown AIDS.)
For that matter, why is Bryan Fischer attacking poppers?
Seriously, I know that in the early years of the epidemic, alkyl nitrites (“poppers”) were invoked as an explanation for the relatively high incidence of Karposi’s Sarcoma among gay men with AIDS (but not among AIDS patients generally).
However, it’s long since been confirmed that KS is caused by herpes 8 (HHV-8), which spreads among promiscuous gay men by sexual contact, just as HIV does.
And it’s my understanding (which could be wrong) that alkyl nitrites had essentially been exonerated as a contributing or aggravating factor in AIDS, mainly because the immune-suppressant effects of these drugs tend to weak, temporary, and self-reversing. (Note: It’s not that poppers are totally harmless; it’s that their effects on the immune system aren’t potent enough, or permanent enough, to adequately account for the total immune shutdown seen in patients with full-blown AIDS.)
“If you’re a man, stop using poppers, stop having sex with other men, and don’t shoot up.” Why is it that Bryan Fisher always attacks the gays when it comes to this issue.
And he doesn’t have animosity towards gays? Give me a break!
No Warren, ‘ABC’ doesn’t work in Uganda either, for the exact same reasons it doesn’t work here (the West). And the corrupt takeover on the Bush doled-out millions has led to an *increase in HIV rates there.
“Pastor Warren ought to be down with that” – What is he, a rap star?
paul – I think the ABC approach is debatable, with people of good will on both sides of it. However, my main point is that Fischer doesn’t know what he is talking about. He argues that Uganda is doing one thing and then advocates another – Stop, Stop and Don’t Shoot.
Clearly the solution to the Uganda crisis was eliminating poppers from the equation.
It was an extra-special super secret part of ABC that the militant homosexual activists have kept from public view. Cuz teh homosexuals are really powerful in Uganda, you know.