Christian Evangelicals And The US Presidential AIDS Emergency Assistance Program

As the "Century Killer" that threatens the life and health of mankind, HIV/AIDS has become an international issue which seriously threatens the regional security, like terrorism and nuclear weapon. After9·11event, American government listed HIV/AIDS to be a domestic security issue instead of international one. In order to prevent its further expansion, President Bush was signed the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and committed to donate15billion dollars to15Africa countries, to be used for prevention and treatment of AIDS. The plan caused a sensation as soon as it came out, and people were shocked more by the unlikely alliance of religious conservatives and liberties than the huge funds. The past20years has witnessed Evangelical’s political concern extends from domestic politics to international politics and U.S. foreign policies, especially since George W. Bush has entered the White House. Anyway, Evangelicals have become an important factor that cannot be ignored in the research of American political issues.However, Uganda, which has always been the most effective country to fight HIV/AIDS in the world, its HIV prevalence has rebounded in the last decades ever since accepting the assistance from PEPFAR program. It makes people to calm down and rethinking the faith-based aid plan and the foreign policy which has been influenced by religious groups.This article mainly focuses on three questions:first, why and how the evangelicals change their concerns from conservative agendas to liberal ones, and what is the common interest between evangelicals and American government on AIDS issues; second, how evangelicals help the outcome of the plan and result in the negative impact by means of contradiction analysis between "Uganda Model" and "Missionary Model"; third, what impact will this project have on the U.S African policy? In view of most of the previous academic research one-sided focus on the relations between evangelicals and American politics, or the social consequences of HIV, this article will discover the religious variable in the process of introduction and implementation of PEPFAR, and the effect of religious factor on the realization of the interests in Africa as culture soft power.My conclusion is that the Evangelicals have involved in the PEPFAR plan and its implementation for missionary work and political participation, and have led to a failure in the end. But also they have made assignable contribution to the construction of American’s soft power in Africa. Thus, we can learn several diplomatic lessons from it. We should pursue a comprehensive foreign policy; remain flexible in using of private forces and non-governmental organizations; and grasp the initiative in implementation of foreign aid policy.