We are celebrating an anniversary this year. “Celebrating” is not the correct word. Perhaps, “acknowledging” is a better word. We won’t be sending cards or thinking romantic thoughts, or raising a glass as we release sentiments like, “we hope the next 30 years are even better than the first. “ It was 30 years ago that the first cases of, “The Gay Cancer,” were reported. We have come to know this disease by a different name. We know it as AIDS.
I still remember sitting in the corner office of our Rendy Lovelady Management as I listened to a man describe what was happening in Africa. He was not hopeful in that conversation. His words held no silver lining. How could it? He was in the office because he needed help. A poll had been commissioned by World Vision to find out what the general state of knowledge and understanding was in the church surrounding HIV/AIDS. They asked a simple question of Evangelicals. “If you had the chance to help someone with AIDS, would you?” Only 3% said yes.
AIDS is complicated. Just as relationships are complicated, or medicine is complicated, or humanity is complicated, or being a Christian is complicated. So, for many people it was necessary to find reasons to disengage without feeling implicated in the work that needed to be done.
The poll suggested that Evangelicals blamed HIV/AIDS on a lot of things. One of the loudest critical voices speaking about HIV/AIDS was the one telling us that Africans were reaping what they had sewn. AIDS was the way God was acting out his wrath on sinners, and so our job was simply to ignore Africa and let those infected with AIDS die.
AIDS is complicated. And the church was immature. And the act of pulling the covers over our heads and hoping that the monster would simply go away, well… , It didn’t work. The monster grew. The next approach was better. What could we learn from people struggling with HIV/AIDS? Our approach was to listen and observe.
We found that the reason for HIV/AIDS rapid spread was not entirely due to an influx of homosexual activity. We learned that it was transmitted through breast- feeding, and ceremonial circumcisions, and wife adoption, and a host of tribal practices meant for healing, and childbirth. We also learned that our response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic was selfish and fearful. We, as a culture, found the human story trapped under the umbrella of mega-statistics and impersonal numbers. We found a foothold to re-engage. And even with a massive push by musicians like Bono and world leaders like, Bishop Tutu, we saw the effects of HIV/AIDS continue to rise.
We built initiatives, and peace plans, and watched the development world truly rally to the call of ending HIV/AIDS. And still we saw the disease hold it’s ground. We saw pockets where an idea or an education campaign made a significant difference in the number of new transmissions of HIV. And still, we find ourselves 30 years into a great war, unable to fully end HIV/AIDS.
