Max Blumenthal on CNN's Roland Martin

Journalist and video documentarian Max Blumenthal came on the show last week to discuss his piece on Rick Warren's sham AIDS work in Africa. Max, who writes for the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, the Nation and other publications, does terrific work and comes on the show often. I had not had a chance until last week, however, to speak with him about his interview at the Democratic convention last summer with CNN's Roland Martin.


Martin, a Democrat and an Obama supporter (and defender of Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration), has in the past expressed what was clearly support of "conversion therapy" of gay people. People can call this anything they like -- counseling, reparative therapy, the cure, or walking away from the "gay lifestyle" -- but it's all the same. Check out a column of Martin's from February 2006:

My wife, an ordained Baptist minister for 20 years, has counseled many men and women to walk away from the gay lifestyle, and to live a chaste life. She has asked heterosexual men and women to abstain from sex until marriage. For her, the obligation is to her calling as a minister of the Word, rather than bowing to societal pressures. She loves gay and lesbian church members dearly, and prays with them, talks to them, and breaks bread with them. But what she cannot do is compromise the integrity of the teachings of Christ.

In my interview with Max -- a video clip of which is below -- I played a clip from his interview with Martin (which you can find on Max's site in full) and discussed Martin's views. Note that Martin now seems to be backtracking, implying that his wife only counseled one man -- "that man" -- as Martin says. But more interesting is when Max raises a question about who "that man" may be. Many listeners wrote me about that exchange, and others wrote me who hadn't heard it but heard about it and asked me to replay the interview.

Before we replayed it, however, I wanted to give Roland Martin a chance to respond. At first he was going to come on, but after he heard the clip, he decided not to appear on the show to respond, and then wrote a statement to our producer to read on the air. That statement follows the clip below.




Statement from Roland Martin

I will not waste my time responding to this utter nonsense from a guy who is totally delusional and confused.

One, my wife didn't "convert" anyone. Max seems to be obsessed about this, but the fiction in his mind is not met with reality. What gets me is Max is focusing on word emphasis and has concluded that means something? Any real journalist who based a story on that would get fired.

Two, that man is an actual member of the church.

Three, I am not "that man" as Max Blumenthal tried to toss out. So I'm supposed to prove that I'm not something? Wow, so this is how the little game is played with guys like him.

"That man" he's speaking of taught Bible study at our church. That's why he went to my wife for guidance. I've never taught Bible study. So if I've never taught Bible study, how can I be that man?

As a journalist, we like to follow that little thing called a fact and follow it to a logical conclusion. His little game is to toss something out, which is a lie, and get me to respond.

The fact that Max Blumenthal would make such a ridiculous and shameful statement shows that he's not worthy of me responding to anything that he says and does. But Max sounds like he's in desperate need of professional help for making such a statement that is so false that's it's unbelievable.

We should all pray for Max. He's obviously a confused soul.

Max didn't state outright that Martin was "that man." Rather he seemed to be simply raising the question because Martin was appearing to speak for the man. But no matter who the man is, this kind of thinking -- that people can "walk away from the gay lifestyle" -- is homophobic and destructive. And it is completely unaacceptable. Is it any wonder that Martin defended Obama's choice of Rick Warren?

On Today's Show

At 3:30 ET: David Hill became the second man fired by a Tennessee hotel this week, simply because he is gay, underscoring the reason why we need the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed. We'll speak with him.

At 4:30 ET: Barack Obama has often referred to Abraham Lincoln as a president he models himself on, and certainly the media has made many references to Lincoln (the whole Team of Rivals bit) and Obama. Obama and his family went to the Lincoln Memorial the other night to pay homage, and there will be a concert there as part of the inaugural festivities at which Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop will give the invocation. Much of the inaugural, we're told, will harken back to Lincoln.

But there is an aspect of Lincoln -- and the memorial -- that has not been focused on, and yet, in the wake of the Rick Warren controversy it's certainly relevant. Tomorrow we'll get to the memorial, but today we'll rebroadcast my interview with historian Jean Baker, who wrote the introduction the the book by the late Kinsey researcher, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, the controversial book that focused on Lincoln's sexuality and his apparent love of men.

Also: What intriguing thing did Max Blumenthal say on the show last week about CNN's Roland Martin, and what is Martin's response? You'll hear it all today on the show.

Rick Warren's AIDS Lies

This is a couple of minutes from my interview on the show with Max Blumenthal this week, focusing on just one aspect of his very important piece which exposes how Rick Warren's AIDS work in Africa -- in Uganda in particular -- is not only a sham; it is killing people and helping to demonize homosexuality rather than saving lives.

On Today's Show

At 3:30 ET: Max Blumenthal will talk to me about his expose on Rick Warren, and his disastrous effect on AIDS prevention in Africa -- though he has been heralded by the Obama folks as someone who battled AIDS. There's a lot here -- much of it horrendous and angering -- and we'll get into it all. What does Obama think of all this, and will anyone in the media ask him about it?


At 4:30 ET: Sex columnist and editor of The Stranger, Dan Savage will join me and we'll get into his theory that the ricin threats against Seattle bars may be from a disturbed gay man. Mostly though, we're going to talk about a topic that we've been talking about quite a bit on the show: Is Stonewall 2.0 fizzling already? Dan thinks it is.

Rick Warren's Sham AIDS Work

Rick Warren's supporters have pointed to his supposedly battling AIDS in Africa as one way he is different from other evangelicals. But Max Blumental reveals the antigay, abstinence-only, ineffective and even dangerous programs Warran promoted. I'll be having Max on the show this week to talk about it:

However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”

On Today's Show

At 3:30 EST, feminist author Naomi Wolf joins us to talk about her new book, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.

At 4:30 EST Max Blumenthal comes back to talk about his story exposing Sarah Palin's connections to radical right extremists.

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