NEWS STORY: Bono, Religious Leaders Press Bush, Congress on AIDS Spending

c. 2003 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Pop star and AIDS activist Bono joined religious leaders Tuesday (Sept. 16) in urging President Bush to work with Congress to gain full funding for fighting AIDS and other assistance for foreign countries. “The AIDS emergency is just that,” said the lead singer of the rock band U2. […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Pop star and AIDS activist Bono joined religious leaders Tuesday (Sept. 16) in urging President Bush to work with Congress to gain full funding for fighting AIDS and other assistance for foreign countries.

“The AIDS emergency is just that,” said the lead singer of the rock band U2. “It’s not a cause. … Seven thousand people dying a day is not a cause. It’s an emergency.”


Fresh from a meeting with President Bush, Bono took part in a midday news conference across Lafayette Park from the White House at St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Bono said he and the president discussed his view _ and that of the clergy gathered around him _ that Bush should push Congress for the full $3 billion originally authorized in global AIDS funding.

“He is in charge of America’s wallet and, as he sees it, he wants to spend that wisely,” said Bono. “I believe that it’s wise to spend now to build the capacity, to build the infrastructure to take on the emergency that is AIDS. He doesn’t. We’re having a row.”

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan responded at a briefing Tuesday, saying Bush has shown “unprecedented leadership in the fight against AIDS” and is committed to a $15 billion package of funding over five years. McClellan said the White House is working on a $2 billion request because “we want to make sure that the money is spent effectively and that there’s accountability for that money.”

The Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, said the AIDS effort as well as the Millennium Challenge Account, introduced by Bush to provide developmental assistance to some foreign countries, need full funding.

“Congress and the president are short-changing those new initiatives,” said Beckmann, whose anti-hunger group is based in Washington.

He said the $1.3 billion slated for fiscal year 2004 in the president’s budget request for the Millennium Challenge Account could be reduced to between $800 million and $1 billion.


Beckmann and leaders of Catholic and Protestant denominations and relief groups have been sending letters and encouraging phone calls to Bush and members of the House and Senate, urging them to maintain higher levels of funding.

“Falling short will diminish us as a nation, and will allow more death and disease, and hunger and deprivation among the poorest people on earth,” said Bishop John H. Ricard, chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ International Policy Committee.

Bishop Lawrence Reddick III, who recently led churches in Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, pointed out that the money he and other clergy support for addressing AIDS and other humanitarian needs is far lower than the $87 billion Bush hopes to gain to fight terrorism.

“People around the world need to know that the richest nation in the world cares about their futures just as we care about our security,” said Reddick, who now oversees his denomination’s district based in Birmingham, Ala.

Bishop Stephen P. Bouman, a New York-based bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said the work of compassion that has been seen in his region after the Sept. 11 attacks needs to extend to Africa.

“From ground zero, we are asking you to not ignore the other ground zeros in our world and especially that of AIDS in Africa,” he said, directing his comments to Bush.


Bruce Wilkinson, senior vice president of World Vision, an evangelical relief organization, said his and other humanitarian groups have created a network that could provide services using the full AIDS funding.

“Programs for AIDS orphans and vulnerable children alone could use that $3 billion a year,” he said.

Agnes Nyamayarwo, a Roman Catholic from Uganda who met Bush during his recent trip to Africa and lost her husband and son to AIDS, said the president raised hopes when he visited her country.

“Many, many people have died from last year,” said Nyamayarwo, who has had AIDS for 15 years and will tour with Bono’s DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) organization to raise awareness about the issues in Africa.

“People are coming to me, asking me about `Where is the money? Where is the promise which … President Bush promised?”’ she said. “We need to keep the parents alive to reduce the number of orphans.”

During the news conference, Bono explained why he joined forces with religious leaders who have been fighting for assistance to address AIDS and other humanitarian needs far longer than he has.


“I’m an amateur and they’re professionals,” he said, standing before reporters in a black jacket surrounded by ministers with clerical collars. “They’re my bodyguards and God’s their bodyguard so I reckon … it’s just the smart thing to do.”

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