Campolo talks to the Church about AIDS
by John Syratt

Today, 6,000 children around the world will become orphans as their parents fall prey to diseases related to HIV/AIDS.

HIV is one of the biggest social, economic and health challenges in the world. It is a global epidemic killing five people every minute.

Despite best efforts from governments, non-profit organizations and healthcare practitioners around the world, HIV and AIDS is still having huge global impact with close to 40 million people suffering from the disease. World AIDS Day brings attention to this each year.

AIDS is the leading cause of death among African-American women ages 25 to 34 and African-American men ages 35 to 44.

Presently, there are 15 million children in Africa who’ve lost both parents to AIDS. Many Christian groups are engaged in the fight to not only stop the spread of AIDS but to try and help the victims of this disease.

World Vision’s Hope Initiative provided $158 million for the Christian humanitarian development and relief organization’s HIV/AIDS programs in more than 90 countries in 2004.

Dr. Tony Campolo

Dr. Tony Campolo, Professor emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in Pennsylvania, toured Canada with World Vision recently in an effort to mobilize Christians to join the battle against HIV/AIDS. Campolo, himself an evangelical Christian, chastised the Christian community for failing to live out its faith and called for immediate action.

"I believe that too often the Christian response to the AIDS epidemic has been abominable," he challenged. "In many instances there is a tendency to write off those who are suffering from AIDS on the grounds that this disease is some kind of punishment from God meted out to those who have been sexually promiscuous. The logic behind such a conclusion is beyond my comprehension."

Campolo spoke to CLN while in Calgary recently. "A lot of preachers took an alarmist view towards the AIDS crisis," he told CLN. "They saw this as an attack…they’re out to get us…infect us, when in fact these people are victims of a horrendous disease."

"AIDS used to be associated with homosexuals," Campolo continued, "but now it’s predominantly a heterosexual issue."

Campolo visited Calgary to help promote World Vision’s Child Sponsorship Program for children orphaned by AIDS.

"By 2020, at the present rate, there will be 44 million children without parents because of AIDS," he said.

"During the Clinton years," Campolo cited, " the US cancelled the debt of 20 nations. The money was to be put in a special fund to address the AIDS crisis. Every year these nations were to put the dollars they would spend servicing the debt towards education about AIDS, making more medicine available and doing massive advertising campaigns."

Uganda, one of the countries benefiting from the debt cancellation saw a 75% decline in new cases of AIDS. The death rate dropped 25% in the last year.

"World Vision is addressing the issue on a micro level," Campolo continued, "asking people to adopt children at a few dollars a month, but this needs to be addressed on a macro level."

Campolo believes the Church in Canada must use its influence on government officials in getting them to cancel the debt of these nations being decimated by AIDS.

"In Africa, we did a great job preaching the Gospel," he observed. "We got them saved but we’ve done a lousy job of discipling Christians. AIDS is spreading most rapidly among Christianized nations."

"The Church never called them to sexual responsibility," he asserted, "Someone needs to say to them, ‘It’s about time you guys keep your pants on.’ We need to disciple people in sexual behaviour."

Girls who are orphaned or who are caring for parents living with AIDS are often responsible to meet their families’ economic needs. In many cases girls engage in "survival sex" to earn money or necessities such as food and school materials. The rape of virgins by some HIV-positive men, who believe this will cure them of AIDS, multiplies the risks tremendously.

"Sixty-eight percent of people with AIDS have done nothing wrong," Campolo lamented. "They’re women and children. World Vision is the only organization I know of that has a program that supports children orphaned by AIDS."

Campolo has a passion to see the Church reach out to everyone affected by the AIDS crisis, no matter who they are or what their sexual preference is.

Campolo remembers listening to a homosexual friend say, "We hear you say, ‘We love the sinner and hate the sin.’ I think you should love the sinner and hate your own damn sin."

"My Jesus says we are to love one another," Campolo concluded, "and before we pull out the splinter in someone else’s eye, we better remove the plank from our own."

AIDS INFO: HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This is the virus known to cause AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). If someone is HIV-positive, it means they have been infected with the virus.

A person infected with HIV does not have AIDS until the virus seriously damages their immune system, making them vulnerable to a range of infections, some of which can lead to death.

HIV is transmitted through body fluids, in particular blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk, in fact there are only four ways a person can become HIV positive.