May 02, 2008  |  By: JOEY DiGUGLIELMO  | COMMENTS     

Rev. Jeremiah Wright reignited the controversy over his inflammatory sermons at an event at the National Press Club Monday and his remarks on the origin of AIDS drew fire from Sen. Barack Obama and some AIDS activists.

Wright, with whom Democratic presidential hopeful Obama broke ties this week, said Monday in response to a question about a previous statement he made asserting that the U.S. government created HIV “as a means of genocide against people of color,” that “based on the Tuskegee experiment … I believe our government is capable of doing anything.”

The HIV/AIDS comments were the first mentioned when Obama denounced Wright Tuesday calling those and other Wright assertions “ridiculous propositions” the senator was “offended” by.

Carl Schmid, director of federal affairs for the AIDS Institute and a gay Republican, said he found Obama’s statements “reassuring.”

“[Wright’s] comments didn’t help at all,” Schmid said. “They instill a sense of fear and perpetuate a myth. If you’re going to address the AIDS crisis, and it is a crisis, let it be done with science in a responsible way. Scientists are nearly all on the same page that they believe AIDS started in Africa.”

Schmid agreed that Wright’s other comments on HIV must be considered and pointed to a February article Wright submitted to the AIDS Institute for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

“The United States has promised money for the AIDS pandemic that the United Nations has called the world’s worst health crisis,” Wright wrote in the article. “But the United States won’t deliver any money unless the country, the program, the people or the recipients of the U.S. aid subscribe to the insane policy of abstinence only.”

Wright also defended gays in his column.

“God loves everybody,” he wrote. “God says everyone who believes in God’s son shall have everlasting life. That includes people with HIV/AIDS, heterosexuals and homosexuals; therefore, our theological approach comes straight from the Bible.”

In an April speech to the NAACP, Wright said, “… many of us are committed to changing the way we treat each other. The way Christians treat you. The way straights treat gays. We are committed to changing the way we treat each other.”

Wright’s gay-friendly doctrine is not the norm in many U.S. black churches.

Herndon Davis, a black gay Christian and director of communication for the National Black Justice Coalition, said Wright’s comments “could be hurtful.”

“[If people believe him], they may not seek treatment or exercise the prevention they ordinarily would,” Davis said.

Davis, whose father is a retired Baptist minister in Alabama, said he understands how black Christians relate to Wright’s frustration (blacks in attendance at the Press Club boisterously cheered most of Wright’s retorts and jeered a USA Today reporter who moderated), but that he takes things too far.

“The black church historically has been a refuge against atrocities like racism,” Davis said. “It’s been a place where you can openly discuss racism and societal misunderstandings and not have to hide or have your guard or your shield up … but he’s being unnecessarily inflammatory. It’s muddled as to where the black church experience ends and Wright’s opinions begin and it leaves the media scratching its head.”