"Revisiting AIDS" - by Nathan Penner

I found a link to this left over in my e-mail box. I really liked it. He used work with the church we're trying to go and work with. Enjoy.

KP

LINK TO ARTICLE

Revisiting Aids




Last weekend, I struggled to reach my house because of a funeral two doors down for a young woman about my age (24). She died of AIDS.

I think I have forgotten what I used to know about the AIDS crisis before I came to live in Botswana. I was vaguely aware of statistics like 14 million orphans and 8,000 AIDS-related deaths each day. Living in central California, however, I understood very little of what was happening with the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, and I am sad to say that I did not really care.

The people I have now learned to love were faceless individuals in a country that wasn’t on my radar screen. Their problems were not my problems. It was easy for me to think that the situation was being dealt with because the government was spending lots of money on the epidemic. Other similarly misguided thoughts occasionally crossed my mind.

Like most American Christians, I mainly just blew it off and assumed others would deal with the problem and eventually it would go away. But I doubt I even thought about it that much. AIDS in Africa was just an occasional article in the local paper, or a five-minute blurb on the six o’clock news. Maybe it was quickly mentioned in passing at church – something that caused a brief feeling of pity, but was soon forgotten and dismissed. In any case, it was a distant problem that didn’t affect me at all.

Having lived in Botswana for over a year, it is clear that this problem affects everyone.

In this past year, I have become more familiar with the AIDS scene in Botswana than I would like to be. I now know a little bit about the organizations in Africa that receive some of their money from the Bill Gates Foundation and the Bush administration. I have met some of the people working in those organizations.



To be honest, knowing these things makes the problem much more depressing.

It is depressing because the money being spent on the pandemic will not stop the encroaching tidal wave. The counselors employed by the government and non-governmental organizations to help promote "positive living" are under the same pressures as those they are trying to help. These people who are working hard to stop this wave cannot be left to stand alone, or they too will become a victim.

It is depressing because some of those working in the AIDS prevention field do so for financial gain, not out of personal conviction.

It is depressing because the average person does not view abstinence as a possibility. Condoms are widely advertised, but abstinence is left to churches and faith-based organizations to offer as an option. And it is only the church that can connect people with power and support to help them live an abstinent lifestyle until marriage and be faithful in marriage.

It is depressing because funerals are a way of life in Botswana. On Friday and Saturday nights funeral hymns echo through the streets as grieving family members hold vigils the night before the deceased is laid to rest. Moruti James, the pastor with whom I work, is often exhausted on Sunday mornings because he was officiating a funeral just hours before. I’ve lost count of how many funerals he officiated during the two months I lived with his family.

To add to the overwhelming feeling this problem presents is that it is often talked of generally, but rarely talked about personally. Although it is estimated that over a third of the population is living with the virus, few people admit to having the virus. Relatively few people go to get tested for the virus and even fewer people change their lifestyle in order to avoid getting the virus. It is good that the government, with the help of money from Bill Gates and other sources, provides drugs to help people stay healthy and lead productive lives. But this is only one part of the fight.

I am not writing this to give the established organizations a bad name, or to say that money should not be spent on the problem. Indeed, many of these organizations are doing valuable work. I am writing this because it is my belief that the church has ignored the problem for too long. It has been easy for the church, both here and in North America, to treat the problem with a very judgmental attitude. The easy way for the church to avoid the challenge, which the problem presents, is to blame the victim. "They are reaping the punishment for the lifestyle they chose to live." This viewpoint is flawed from the beginning for several reasons.

First, Christine is an orphan after both of her parents, who were faithful to each other, died of AIDS. Her father was in a car accident and received infected blood. He then infected his wife with the virus. What was wrong with their lifestyle? Was this punishment?

Secondly, I work with many youth and children in Old Naledi. Most of these children do not have parents. If they do have a parent, he or she is most likely sick and/or caring for a brother/sister/mother/father/niece/nephew with AIDS. A girl in our youth group is a good example. She is unique because both of her parents are still alive. She has already lost at least one sister to the virus and now her father is extremely sick with tuberculosis (TB). TB is one of the biggest killers in Botswana because it takes advantage of the AIDS-weakened immune system. In the end, everyone in his family will suffer. Are they being punished? For what?

The third and largest flaw in this attitude is that a judgmental response to pain and suffering completely misses the heart of Jesus and His good news. At the center of Christianity is humility, forgiveness and love for the suffering. Jesus continually demonstrated His love for the outcast of the world. Tony Campolo has compared current attitudes toward AIDS with the attitudes towards leprosy in Jesus’ time. Jesus’ response and initiative toward those with leprosy should teach us in our attitudes and relationships with those infected with the HIV virus.

Even if the ones suffering from HIV/AIDS contracted it through immoral lifestyles, does that diminish the Christian churches’ responsibility to extend Christ’s love? If we cannot extend Christ’s grace and mercy and love and forgiveness, do we really understand who Christ was and is?

If the AIDS wave is going to be diverted, a change of heart needs to occur. The church has the power to make this happen. Jesus repeatedly changed the hearts and lives of people, and He still does. The church must be the conduit for His transforming power.

It is in the local church here in Botswana that I have found hope in the midst of this crisis. I work with youth who are on fire for Christ. They lead godly lives as best they can and work hard to keep each other accountable. The church has given them something to hold on to that is stable and supportive. The church has this power. The church shows its community that God and His people care about the real issues in people’s lives. He is not shut up behind the walls of the building, but is involved in the real world through His followers.

But the local church in Botswana and in Africa needs support from the global church – not just organizations and denominations but local church bodies. The problem needs the attention of Christians who have never been to Africa. It needs the attention from Christians who mistakenly think the problem has nothing to do with them. It needs the attention from Christians who are willing to get involved at the personal and corporate and systemic levels to address an issue that is killing millions of people who are made in the image of a God who loves them. This type of active attention from a unified global church would make a meaningful difference to those who suffer, and would speak powerfully to a world who believes God and his people don’t care about this problem.

[Nathan Penner is an MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) worker in Gaborone, Botswana, the country that has the highest percentage of people living with HIV or AIDS in the world. MCC has launched a 10-year, multi-million dollar initiative called Generations at Risk to respond to HIV/AIDS. To learn more, visit www.mcc.org/aids/index.html or phone (559) 638-6911.]