HIV AND AIDS

When someone becomes infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus multiplies within the body and gradually destroys the systems that defend the body against illness. The person initially looks healthy, but eventually the virus overwhelms the body’s defences and causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which often leads to early death. HIV infection cannot be cured; all that doctors can do is slow the progress of the disease.

HIV is transmitted through contact with the body fluids of an infected person. Thus it can be transmitted by having unprotected sex (that is, sex without using a condom) with an infected person, by reusing needles used to inject an infected person, and even through the breast milk of an infected mother. Despite the perception that HIV is associated with sexual activity between members of the same sex, the truth is that in Asia the main means of infection are sex between men and women and injections with infected needles.

South Asian societies and South Asian Christians have been quick to judge all those infected with HIV as immoral. Their families have often been stigmatised too. This attitude has resulted in our not doing enough to improve social conditions like poverty and illiteracy that increase people’s vulnerability to HIV infection. We have also failed to recognise that the low status of women across South Asia makes it difficult for them to protect themselves against HIV infection. Even though a husband is being unfaithful, a wife cannot insist that he use a condom when he beds with her. Thus even faithful wives are being infected. Moreover, many poor and illiterate women are forced into sex work as a means of survival and are at high risk of infection.

The emergence of HIV and AIDS has challenged the church to think through its beliefs about gender, sexuality and the salvation Christ offers. Our response must be based on biblical teaching rather than on society’s expectations and prejudices.

We know that all sex outside of marriage is wrong, whether heterosexual (Matt 5:28, 1 Cor 7:2, Heb 13:4) or homosexual (Gen 19, Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9-10; 1 Tim 1:9-11). We can teach this and discourage people from accessing material that devalues sex and responsible sexual behaviour. This has been identified as a significan factor leading to increased sexual interaction among unmarried youth in South Asia.

But while upholding the Bible’s teaching about sex, we must also demonstrate Christ’s grace to those who have disobeyed this teaching.

We must lovingly minister to all who are infected with HIV even if sinful behaviour contributed to their infection. Since salvation is not only about people’s souls but also about their lives, we must also work to change the social conditions that force people into sinful lifestyles. This will include teaching women that they have the same status as men before God (even if we have traditionally assigned women roles that have given them lower status). A woman need not blindly obey her husband if obedience will result in her being infected with a fatal disease.

Sundar Daniel