Ethics Topic: HIV/AIDS

I. The Problem
On Spetember 11th, 2001, America experienced a great tragedy in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center where 3,000 died. While America was morning the loss of their 3,000, 6,000 people obtained the virus that will cause their death. On September 12th, while America was determining what type of military action would take place, another 6,000 people became HIV positive. It is estimated that by the year 2020, 68 million people may have died from AIDS globally. Fifty-five million of these deaths will come from Africa alone. These numbers should grip believer’s hearts as they are called to look on a lost and dying world with compassion.

II. The Relevant Sources of Authority
The foundation for the Christian’s involvement in any social issues, particularly HIV/AIDS must be the telos of scripture. Genesis 1 explains God created the world to be perfect; there was not only union with the Creator but complete physical provision as well. Thus, the very first chapter of the Bible prohibits a Gnostic understanding of the world in which there is a spiritual realm divorced from the physical realm that is infinitely more important. The splendor of the garden of Eden was not just the spiritual perfection but the physical perfection as well. Revelation 21 prophecies the end of God’s redemptive plan when he will restore the world to the way he originally intended it. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will exist no longer; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.” Christopher Wright says, “Ultimately all that will be there in the new, redeemed creation will be there because of the cross. And conversely, all that will not be there (suffering, tears, sin, Satan, sickness, oppression, corruption, decay and death) will not be there because they will have been defeated and destroyed by the cross.”
Understanding the Christian’s mission must also come through and understanding of Christ’s mission. John 20:21 says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” It is not blasphemous by any means to think the Church’s mission should be the same as Christ’s. Though the Church is not the Savior of the World, they are called to imitate Christ in everything they do. (1 Corinthians 11:1) Christ sacrificially gave of himself not only to spiritually reconcile man to God, but he also served with his deeds by feeding the hungry, washing feet, healing the blind and disabled, and even raising from the dead. Jesus says in John 10:10, “A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance.” This verse is found in an explanation of an ideal shepherd who is portrayed as one who sacrifices himself to serve and care for his sheep. This teaching, however, is found in the context of Jesus healing the blind man. John Stott convictingly says, “[Jesus] supplies us with the perfect model of service, and send his church into the world to be a servant church. It is not essential for us to recover this biblical emphasis? In many of our Chiristian attitudes and enterprises we have tended (especially those of us who live in Europe and North America) to be rather bosses than servants. Yet it seems that it is in our servant role that we can find the right synthesis of evangelism and social action.”
Applying these biblical principles to the specific crisis of HIV/AIDS, it is important to not avoid the horrors of its reality. Klaus Numberger, in his article critiquing evangelical Christian’s lack of response to this crisis, says, “Combined with general breakdown of sexual discipline and family cohesion, this development is drifting society towards chaos. The strict social controls of African traditional societies are disintegrating. . . Youths want to enjoy their lives, not to shoulder family responsibilities. Teenage mothers dump their children in the laps of their ageing grandmothers. . .When these children reach puberty, they have internalized no tradition, not gone to school, received no training, and not learnt to work. To survive, they may roam the streets in search of food, become organized in bands, terrorize the population and fight for turf in running street battles. “

III. Position Statement
This horrible reality has extended far beyond it’s origin of sexual promiscuity and now extends to the overall economic and family breakdown. It is so easy for middle-class, whitewashed evangelicals living in an all-too comfortable American lifestyle to gloss over the numbers and adopt a mentality that the AIDS crisis is a problem resulting from immoral sexual lifestyles. The common unspoken mentality is “they should suffer from their own consequences.” For those claiming to be followers of Jesus, no mentality could me more un-Christlike. If God was more concerned with the spiritual than physical, he would not have created the physical calling it good. A significant part of the curse would not have been the distortion of the physical causing pain, suffering, and death. Furthermore, a significant part of God’s promise of restoration would not have explicitly included the removal of pain and death. The ultimate example of God’s integration of the spiritual and physical is though Jesus who, taking on a physical body, was subjected to the same realities as the rest of mankind. While the power of the cross is the means why which God restores all things to himself, Christ demonstrates that power through his lifestyle of service and healing. There was no dichotomy between his spiritual healing and his physical healing. Both were integrated in his message and purpose.
The evangelical lack of involvement, much less lack of genuine concern, not only fails to fulfill the missional call of Jesus but also greatly damages their witness to a watching world who is suffering. The Church’s response to the HIV/AIDS problem should parallel this calling and should take the form of both immediate help and relief, such as vaccines, food, and shelter, as well as long-term aid, such as education not only about the virus but also economic and other social issues. For the American Church, repentance for the pride and self-righteousness must be the first step. Having the mind of Christ and living a life that reflects his requires believers to not avoid the devastating reality of the presence of sin and the consequences of the fall but to extend the same love, grace, and healing they have received.