A Pentecostal bishop who has challenged Democrats on abortion and a representative of a national gay rights group are among nine new members of a White House advisory council.
President Obama announced the appointments of Bishop Charles E. Blake and Harry Knox on Monday, filling out a 25-person roster that is part of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
More on Harry Knox from here – http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=46192
I’m really sceptical – a little sugar in the poison?
Don
Harry Knox is as strong, articulate and faithful a witness to the Gospel as they come — his addition to this panel is a HUGE step forward toward balancing the faith based voices represented in poliitical discourse advising the White House. [And as a happily married man (married at All Saints Church in Pasadena, I might add) he is also a great exemplar for ending marriage discrimination in this country.]
Mr. Knox seems to be bringing a good deal of snarling bigotry and know-nothingness to the table, #1, given that the Pope is almost surely [url=http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article988275.ece]correct[/url] about condoms in Africa:
[blockquote]In 2003, Norman Hearst and Sanny Chen of the University of California conducted a condom effectiveness study for the United Nations’ AIDS program and found no evidence of condoms working as a primary in HIV-prevention measure in Africa. UNAIDS quietly disowned the study. Since then, major articles in other peer-reviewed journals such as the Lancet, Science and BMJ have confirmed that condoms have not worked as an intervention in the population-wide epidemics of Africa. [/blockquote]
Given the extremely wide range of views on this panel, its recommendations will be “religion at its lowest common denominator,” which may not mean very much.
Odd thing about condums is that you have to wear them for them to work.
[blockquote]Given the extremely wide range of views on this panel, its recommendations will be “religion at its lowest common denominator,†which may not mean very much. [/blockquote]
Precisely. This is a federal version of the indaba group, where the cacaphony that rises from this process will be nudged, shaped and ultimately formed entirely by the “facilitators” appointed to do so.
‘The Obama Indaba’ – it has a ring to it!
I’m reminded of the Lambeth 08 joke that people would rather be in da bar than indaba. 🙂
Filled with abortionists and homosexualists. Anti-religion council.
“Economic recovery,” Matt? I’m not sure what the panel has to say to that at all. I grant you that if those are the only goals, their achievement is less problematic; and yet, “responsible fatherhood” depends to a great extent upon the definition of the family, on which there is dissent at least from the Muslim quarter, and possibly from others. And what about “reducing abortions?” There might be significant disagreement among these disparate viewpoints on how that is to be achieved.
It will be very helpful if facts, as well as these ‘rivals’, are brought into this advisory panel. It is beyond dispute that Pope Benedict XVI’s statements against condom use are backed by solid evidence and research:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5987155.ece
and
http://www.harvardaidsprp.org/faculty-staff/edward-c-green-bio.html
in addition to the research mentioned in comments above.
But not everyone accepts the objective facts, I guess…..