more on wright

I didn't mention the Wright AIDs thing...

Here are a couple interesting links.

What Rev. Wright said,:

The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.

In 2005, a survey by the Rand Corporation found that one of every two black Americans think AIDS is man-made, more than half believe the government has a cure they are withholding from the poor, and a quarter believe it was created in a government laboratory. As Phil Wilson, founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute, said in the Washington Post when the study was released,

It's a huge barrier to HIV prevention in black communities. There's an issue around conspiracy theory and urban myths. Thus we have an epidemic raging out of control, and African Americans are being disproportionately impacted in every single sense.

Why do people believe this? COnsider the American government's legacy...

The government sponsored syphilis experiments on black men at Tuskeegee, the facts of environmental racism that exposes black families to toxins at a higher rate than whites, and a history of disparities in the health care system.

AIDs was not created by the government. But perhaps we can understand the context out of which Rev. Wright was speaking.

What context was Rev. John Hagee (who has given Sen John McCain his support) speaking from when he called Catholicism a whore-religion? From what context were Rev. Jerry Falwell and Rev. Pat Robertson (whom Bush defended in the 2000 campaign when McCain denounced their radical views) speaking when they claimed the September 11 attacks were God's damnation of America because of abortion and homosexuality? What context does the Rev. Fred Phelps speak from when he says AIDS is God's curse on America as he protests the funerals of American soldiers?

Rev. Wright is not the only American preacher to broadcast extremist views.