A few years ago, in his State of the Union speech, President Bush called for a massive increase in federal spending to help fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa. At the time, I was suprised that Bush — who is not known as a friend of AIDS victims, people of color, or countries without petroleum reserves — would make such a statement. Today, I have a new perspective on Bush’s seemingly incongruous statement.
The PBS program, “Religion and Ethics,” said yesterday that the Bush Administration has been requiring one-third of the money spent on AIDS relief in Africa to be spent on abstinence-only sex education programs. Since virtually the only people who create such programs are evangelical Christians (whose religious beliefs coincide with Bush’s own), it’s obvious what motivated Bush to call for aid to Africa: it has enabled him to funnel very large amounts of federal money directly into the pockets of evangelical Christians without overtly violating the Constitutional ban on government-sponsored religion. In other words, as is always the case with politicians, if you want to know what’s really driving them, always follow the money.
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