Tony and Rick in Kigali

Picked up on an interesting little story in the 'Times' entitled, "What Tony Blair did next after Downing Street" and there, down in the Milima restaurant in Kigali, "sitting at a table sipping Inyange mineral water, is Tony Blair. The former prime minister is having supper with an old friend, Rick Warren, America’s most high-profile evangelical pastor." Ah, Rick, the man who supports the burning of condoms to fight the spreading of AIDS in Africa,  and. although  he now appears to be distancing himself from the anti- homosexual witch hunt that is proceeding apace in Uganda, Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa, he still appears to have some weird views when it comes to the world that he would like us all to live in.

In his Christmas letter to the Ugandan pastors he writes: "Let me be clear that God's Word states that all sex outside of marriage is not what God intends. Jesus reaffirmed what Moses wrote that marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman committed to each other for life." The muted "apology" and a distancing himself from the Ugandan president Museveni and the Ugandan the Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa follows. No homosexuals should not be persecuted according to Rick but marriage nevertheless should be where sex takes place and marriage should be a union between man and woman.

Well what about a little quote from Walt Whitman: "Do I contradict myself, very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." Of course, in Walt's case the contradictions resulted from artistic licence and in Rick's case from political expediency and no amount of distancing himself from the excesses of homophobia can detract from the fact that he is homophobic, or have I misunderstood the bit about, "marriage is intended to be between one man and one woman?" Now, of course, it is a long way from expressing homophobic views to actually persecuting homosexuals just as it was a long way from anti-semitism to the holocaust, nevertheless, remember Rick gave Obama's inaugaration speech, the hype man likes him apparently and when people who have influence start telling all and sundry that homosexuals are not quite the full shilling. Well, who knows where it could end up and can you just imagine the results of similarly exclusive drivel from public figures vis-a-vis other minorities?

Anyway, there they are, best of mates, down in Kigali and the 'Times' article goes on to tell us that Tony "wants to help governments create the right conditions for business to grow and to encourage religious leaders to harness the power of faith to do good." Yes, Tony and Rick have a lot in common and we are also told that Tony "plans to work with Rick Warren to use the faith network in Rwanda to distribute medicines and mosquito nets to fight malaria." A "fatih network", Tony and Rick walking in the footsteps of Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, and all the other gobblydegook messaihs and in the meantime these pathetic hypocrites, believers in nonsense, promote a corrupt regime in Kigali and an ongoing ethnic cleansing in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo and do you know what really makes me want to puke is that, while might be wrong, I am tempted to think that these two are not even sanctimonious sinners, but rather arrogant self-righteous, delusional twats who believe that what they are doing is good for the planet.