When can we stop calling these horrible people Christians?

When I read the sobering facts about AIDS in South Africa I just wanted to cry. Not only has AIDS ravaged this country, but according to this AP article the situation has gotten even more dire in the last decade and a half:

An estimated 950 people died per day during 2006 from AIDS-related diseases and a further 1,400 were infected each day _ a total of 530,000 new infections, said the report by the Actuarial Society of South Africa and the Medical Research Council.

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The report said life expectancy dropped from 63 in 1990 to 51 in 2006. In the hardest hit province of KwaZulu-Natal, it was as low as 43.

``The Demographic Impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa: National and Provincial Indicators for 2006'' said that 15-year-olds had a 56 per cent chance of dying before the age of 60, compared to a 29 per cent chance of dying in 1990.

``The youth of today are facing a bleak future, and much still needs to be done to protect and support this vulnerable group,'' said Leigh Johnson, one of the authors of the report.

And as if I wasn’t depressed enough after reading this article, I had to go and add insult to injury by reading this piece by The Carpetbagger Report, which was inspired by an article in the Boston Globe titled Faith groups urge cuts to AIDS fund:

Some leading Christian conservatives, angry over the Global Fund to Fight AIDS’s promotion of condoms and its perceived lack of support for faith-based programs, are pushing Congress to cut US support for the AIDS initiative, which was initiated by President Bush in a Rose Garden ceremony five years ago with a $200 million commitment.

The fund — whose full name is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria — has become one of the pillars of the international effort to fight infectious diseases, growing into a $6.6 billion organization that supports programs in 136 countries.

And what pray-tell could be bothering these “good” Christian conservatives?

Some take issue with the Global Fund’s policies, which include buying clean needles for drug users, and many are furious that just 6 percent of its program dollars goes to faith-based groups.

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… [Peter L. Brandt, senior director of government and public policy at Focus on the Family] said he wants the government to eliminate all spending on the Global Fund’s HIV programs because it is not providing sufficient money to faith groups and has given little support to abstinence messages. Brandt said the government could continue to support the fund’s tuberculosis and malaria programs.

Some other Christian activists, such as Raymond Ruddy , president of the Gerard Health Foundation in South Natick, which gives about $2 million annually to anti abortion and abstinence programs worldwide, want all US money cut from the fund.

“I see a direct correlation of dollars given to the Global Fund and dollars taken away from” the Bush administration’s AIDS efforts, Ruddy said. “The Global Fund is systematically excluding faith-based groups from getting money, and that’s not right.”

So these charlatans are angry because they are not getting enough money to waste on spreading abstinence messages so their answer is to hold their breath, throw a tantrum, and demand an end to all US funding of the program until they get their way. And while these putrid people display their most un-Christ-like behavior, millions are getting infected and dying. God these people disgust me.

Can someone please explain to me why these people deserve to be called Christians?