Obama Administration official says Pope Benedict hurts others in the name of Jesus

Harry Knox, a member of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, has stood by his past comment that Pope Benedict XVI is “hurting people in the name of Jesus.”

Knox, a former licensed minister of the United Methodist Church and a leader with the homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign (HRC), originally made his comments in March 2009 in response to Pope Benedict’s comments about the effectiveness of condoms in fighting AIDS in Africa.

“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,” Knox had said in a HRC statement. “On a continent where millions of people are infected with HIV, it is morally reprehensible to spread such blatant falsehoods.”

CNSNews.com spoke with Knox at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Asked if he stood by his comments, he said “I do.”

Asked about Harvard AIDS prevention researcher Dr. Edward Green’s claim that the Pope was correct, Knox said Dr. Green was “simply incorrect.”

“All the other evidence of science shows otherwise.”

In March 2009, Dr. Green told CNA that researchers cannot find an association between more condom use and lower HIV rates. He has also written that programs to increase fidelity in relationships and to reduce the number of sex partners are effective.

Previously, Knox has described Pope Benedict XVI and certain Catholic bishops as “discredited leaders” because of their opposition to same-sex “marriage.”

Though acknowledging the Knights of Columbus’ “good works," he also called the Catholic fraternal order’s members “foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression” because of the organization’s support for the successful California ballot measure Proposition 8. That 2008 measure restored the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.