Washington, DC -   House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said today that Harry Knox, who serves on President Barack Obama’s faith-based advisory council, appears to be an “anti-Catholic bigot” and should resign as a White House adviser.

Earlier this week, Knox said he stood by a statement he made last year that Pope Benedict XVI is “hurting people in the name of Jesus” because the pope does not support promoting the use of condoms as a means to stem the spread of HIV.

Knox, who is director of the Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program, has made other controversial comments about the Catholic Church in the past. For example, in 2007 he was quoted in a statement from the Human Rights Campaign saying that the Catholic Church had committed an act that was “immoral and insulting to Jesus” when it denied communion to a lesbian couple in Wyoming who had promoted same-sex marriage. “In this holy Lenten season, it is immoral and insulting to Jesus to use the body and blood of Christ the reconciler as a weapon to silence free speech and demean the love of a committed, legally married couple,” said Knox.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) describes itself as the nation's "largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization." President Obama was the keynote speaker at the HRC's annual national dinner in October.

St. Michael Society, a Catholic organization, started an online petition calling for Knox to resign from his position on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Congressman Boehner was asked at his press briefing Thursday whether he believed that Knox should resign. “He should resign. And I have agreed to sign a letter,” said Boehner. “We can’t have in the White House an anti-Catholic bigot, and that’s what this gentleman appears to be.” Boehner is a Roman Catholic.

At the National Press Club on Tuesday, CNSNews.com had asked Knox: “You put out a statement saying Pope Benedict XVI was—quote—‘hurting people in the name of Jesus’ because he did not support promoting the use of condoms as a means to control the spread of HIV. And I was wondering, do you still believe the pope’s position on condoms is ‘hurting people in the name of Jesus’?”

Knox replied, "I... I do."

Meanwhile, Catholic Online reports that Knox has long persisted in making anti-Christian statements based solely upon his secular, pro-homosexual views of faith-based views of believers he opposes, such as:

• On March 17, two weeks before his appointment to the advisory council, Knox published a statement on the Human Rights Campaign Web site in reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks concerning condoms and AIDS in Africa. The statement partly reads: “The Pope’s statement that condoms don’t help control the spread of HIV, but rather condoms increase infection rates, is hurting people in the name of Jesus. …On a continent where millions of people are infected with HIV, it is morally reprehensible to spread such blatant falsehoods. The pope’s rejection of scientifically proven prevention methods is forcing Catholics in Africa to choose between their faith and the health of their entire community. Jesus was about helping the marginalized and downtrodden, not harming them further.”

 

• In reference to a bishop’s instruction that a lesbian couple in Cheyenne, Wy., could not receive communion at the Catholic Mass, Knox, in an Apr. 6, 2007 statement on the HRC’s Web site, wrote: “In this holy Lenten season, it is immoral and insulting to Jesus to use the body and blood of Christ the reconciler as a weapon to silence free speech and demean the love of a committed, legally married couple.…The Human Rights Campaign grieves with the couple, Leah Vader and Lynn Huskinson, over this act of spiritual and emotional violence perpetrated against them.”

 

• In reaction to the Vatican’s refusal to sign a U.N. agreement that called for decriminalizing homosexuality and equating all sexual orientations, Knox and the HRC signed a statement with other pro-homosexual groups that read, in part: “As faith leaders we were shocked by Vatican opposition to this proposed initiative….By refusing to sign a basic statement opposing inhumane treatment of LGPT people, the Vatican is sending a message that violence and human rights abuses against LGBT people are acceptable. Many are speaking out against this immoral stance in the name of religion.”

 

• In March 2009, the HRC launched a new, interactive Web site called EndtheLies.org designed “to confront right-wing lies and distortions repeatedly used to defeat LGBT equality measures.” The wall features an image of Pope Benedict XVI and this statement: “Pope Benedict XVI has called same-sex relationships ‘a destruction of God’s work,’ opposed a U.N. resolution decriminalizing homosexuality, and claimed in March 2009 that the use of condoms increases HIV infections.”

 

• Mar. 19, 2009: The Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco quoted Knox as following, “The Knights of Columbus do a great deal of good in the name of Jesus Christ, but in this particular case [Proposition 8], they were foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression.

 

• The newspaper further reported: “Knox noted that the Knights of Columbus ‘followed discredited leaders,’ including bishops and Pope Benedict XVI. ‘A pope who literally today said condoms don’t help in control of AIDS.’”

 

• Knox told CNSNews.com that he “absolutely” stands by his criticism of the pope. “The Pope needs to start telling the truth about condom use,” Knox said on Monday, Apr. 6. “We are eager to help him do that. Until he [Pope Benedict] is willing to do that and able, he’s doing a great deal more harm than good – not just in Africa but around the world. It is endangering people’s lives.”

The stupidity of Knox' statements become clear when viewed in light of well-known facts surrounding the false faith of condomism.  Those countries that have chosen to popularise use of the condom – like many nations in southern Africa – are now fast changing policies. Those countries that have given emphasis to late start of sexual activity, abstention and faithfulness in relationships have seen a dramatic fall in the rate of new cases.

According to UNAids, in Botswana 24% of the adult population is infected by the HIV virus, in South Africa 18%. In Uganda, after a two-decade campaign stressing the importance of abstinence and faithfulness, the figure is under 7% – a fact noticed by various international agencies, which are now quietly modifying their targets.

"Condoms can protect Africans from Aids," claims Tanya Gold, a Catholic volunteer in Africa. It is clear that the only way to stop HIV/Aids is to ask people to lead responsible sex lives. Offering the condom as a panacea does the opposite. Perhaps this simple fact is lost on people who have never set foot in Africa, but parading the miracles of the condom simply invites people, especially the young, to be careless with their sexuality and so become prime targets of the HIV virus.

If the Catholic church is against the condom, it is not because it wishes Africans to die. On the contrary, more than 50% of all projects targeting HIV/Aids in Africa are run by the Catholic church, with many more run by other Christian churches.

"There are 12 million Aids orphans in Africa," Tanya added. It is also clear that most of the thousands of volunteers who every day reach out and touch the lives of those infected, their families and their communities, are Christians.

The policy of the church is not the result of an obscurantist vision, but the realisation of a simple fact: the battle against Aids will not be won by condoms or antiretroviral medicines; it will be won by a change of lifestyle. It is sad to see that the interests of multinational pharmaceutical companies (which thrive on a large number of patients) are always protected by Christian bashers such as Harry Knox.