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Charles King Explains Rick Warren Connection
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to cut off my ponytail. We were looking for ideas to raise money for the Keith Cylar Fund, with all the money going to support AIDS activists rebuilding their infrastructure in Haiti. I haven’t even trimmed my hair in over twenty years. Auctioning off the right to cut it seems like a sufficiently dramatic gesture.
The Shear Madness announcement went out a few days ago. Yesterday, we got our first bid: $1,000 dollars from Rick Warren, the Pastor of Saddleback, a mega-church in the Los Angeles area. Saddleback was one of the first large evangelical churches to take on the AIDS epidemic in Africa in a serious way.
Warren, his wife, Kay, and I have sparred on many occasions, over faith-based AIDS programs neglect of gay and bisexual men, over the emphasis on “A” in ABC HIV prevention education, over the effective approaches to sex work and sex trafficking, and more recently, over Warren’s support of Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage in California.
Housing Works’ marketing team sees an opportunity. They ask and Rick gives a long and thoughtful quote for a press release. He challenges others to match or beat him, saying, “What will you give?”
Sure enough, we get our first angry response from gay blogger, John Aravosis “Rick Warren is a pig….this is really dumb.” Politico wants to know if this is a parody. Ben Smith, one of Politico’s renowned commentators does a blog on the oddness of evangelicals and AIDS activists getting in bed together.
Shy as I am about controversy (that’s parody), I’ll happily take Rick Warren’s money for Haiti, and I will pray with him too. He tells us that at this year’s Easter service at Saddleback, where he expects 50,000 people, the offering is going 100% for Haiti relief.
In his statement, Rick writes:
The Bible says, “If anyone has enough money to live on and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help—how can God’s love be in that person?” (1 John 3:17) We simply cannot turn our backs on Haiti right now. I urge you to join us in the joy of being part of a miracle of generosity.
Amen to that.
And it is gratifying to see that our efforts in Haiti are coming along, even if it’s in fits and starts. Severe, Vaty’s cousin, who went with us on our first trip into Haiti after the earthquake, is going back down. Edgar is a Navy medic in the Reserves and a physician’s assistant. He has collected eight bags of medication, tents and other supplies to take down. He plans to spend a three-day weekend setting up our pharmacy in Port-au-Prince and putting in place an inventory and order system.
Edgar called me at 5am to say that the Delta agent was only allowing 10 bags and being snippy about it—even though Delta had already sent us approval e-mail. The agent was meticulous about weighing the first two and making him remove items to reduce the weight under 50 pounds. Oh for my friend Judy at Terminal Two! After the second bag, Edgar told her he thought she was being “real special.” After an exchange of words, she relented and let the other eight on without the strict weight check.
Once in Santo Domingo, Edgar will be picking up a used SUV that we have bought in Santo Domingo. We can then return an Avis rental, which is costing more than $1,200 a week. The international relief effort has given vehicle rental agencies at the Port-au-Prince airport an opportunity to make a fortune.
Unfortunately, the paperwork delays that until tomorrow. Jobanny will have to ask the volunteers arriving tomorrow if one of them will drive it over to Haiti. But the good news is that we have a team of four people from SOLO Wilderness and Emergency Medicine School in New Hampshire coming in tomorrow.
And on Saturday, two HIV-trained nurse practitioners will be arriving from Boston. And on Monday or Wednesday, we have a doctor with OB-GYN experience coming from California, and on Thursday, an emergency room doctor from Philadelphia…wow! This is starting to flow! We might be able to get the St. Marc clinic up and running this week after all.
Your inside source for in-depth activism news is updated daily by Staff Writer, Julie Turkewitz
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