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Religious Groups on AIDS Front Line
By Grant Peck
The Associated Press
Friday, July 9, 2004
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Religious groups, many of them at first wary warriors against HIV/AIDS, are increasingly in the front lines of the battle against the deadly disease.
From Uganda, where Islamic clerics have declared a jihad against AIDS, to northern Thailand, where Buddhist monks preach and practice "compassionate monkhood," leaders of many faiths have taken up the call.
With more than 100 faith-based organizations attending this week's 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, the religious community now is accepted as an ally of the medical and scientific communities in the fight against the disease, said Prawate Khid-arn of the Christian Conference of Asia.
Because HIV infection is associated with conduct that many of the faithful consider sinful -- homosexuality, promiscuity, drug addiction -- there was a time when AIDS sufferers faced more condemnation than compassion.
Still, "there are many examples of leaders who have rejected stigmatizing behavior, and communities that have embraced people who are affected," said Linda Hartke of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, a Geneva-based grouping of churches working on the social problems of AIDS.
Organizations chary of promoting condom use, the most contentious issue in some faiths, can instead focus on promoting changes in sexual behavior. Emphasizing the so-called ABC approach -- Abstinence, Being faithful to one partner and using Condoms -- allowed many groups to identify the fight against AIDS with their beliefs.
The effectiveness of ABC is hotly debated, but it has the backing of the U.S. government, which is inclined to favor faith-based organizations for funding under President George W. Bush's $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief announced last December.
In much of the developing world, religious sects are major providers of educational and social services. According to the Catholic Medical Mission Board, up to 50 percent of healthcare delivery in the developing world is done by faith-based organizations.
Uganda's holy war on AIDS -- formally, the Family AIDS Education and Prevention through Imams -- dramatically reduced HIV infection rates and is now used as a model by other African nations with large Muslim communities.
In the 1990s, the Islamic Medical Association of Uganda established a grass-roots network of more than 8,000 religious leaders and volunteer teams to go house to house to spread AIDS education. Experts say the project broke the taboo of discussing sexuality, sustained the volunteers' interest and involved women in volunteer teams. It is also helped distribute anti-AIDS drugs.
In Thailand, also praised for its anti-AIDS efforts, Buddhist monks founded initiatives such as an AIDS hospice at the Phra Baht Nam Phu temple in Lopburi, 115 kilometers north of Bangkok.
The Balm in Gilead, a New York-based organization, has been promoting AIDS awareness among blacks since 1989. Its founder and head, Pernessa Seele, said churches and mosques in black communities are "the ideal point for the dissemination of HIV/AIDS-related values, information and services."
In spite of the many success stories, a united front against AIDS has yet to be realized around the world.
In Latin America and in parts of Africa, some churches disassociated themselves from national campaigns that advocated condoms or promoted sex education in schools, says a report by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.
"We have a huge task ahead of us to build communities of faith that welcome all and judge none," the alliance's Hartke said.
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