wfn.org | Argentine Pastor Wants Churches to be Open about HIV/AIDS

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Argentine Pastor Wants Churches to be More Inclusive and Open
about HIV/AIDS
"We are Always Looking for Groups to Blame"

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa/GENEVA, 7 November 2002 (LWI) - "God is
not democratic, but rather has always preferred the poorest people
and leaned towards those who are excluded from church, religion
and society." With this provocative statement, Lutheran pastor
Lisandro Orlov from Argentina began his address on the theme "The
World Provokes Us - HIV/AIDS" at a Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
consultation on diakonia, taking place November 3-7 in
Johannesburg.

The United Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU) in Argentina pastor
wants to see "a different church," - one that is more inclusive
and open, a church of the cross that has the courage to tell the
truth.

Orlov, 60, has since 1986 coordinated an IELU ecumenical and
solidarity initiative for people living with HIV/AIDS. Together
with a team of 14 other pastors and volunteers, he visits and
cares for about 200 people with HIV/AIDS each year. He ministers
to people with HIV/AIDS not as those who are dying, but rather as
people who want to live. About 17,000 people in Argentina have
fallen ill or died from the consequences of AIDS. According to the
Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, there were about
130,000 people living with the disease in Argentina by the end of
2001. Pastor Orlov is not only considered provocative with his
viewpoints, but also is highly respected both in his country and
internationally. The Argentine government appointed him as an
official representative of his country to the planning meeting for
the May 2001 UN Special Conference on HIV/AIDS in New York, USA.

Orlov stresses that he never refers to those living with HIV/AIDS
as victims, but rather first of all as persons. He points out that
the term "victim" is generally applied to sick people only if they
have cancer or HIV/AIDS, because both ailments are seen as
connected with "punishment" in a moral sense. "We are always
looking for groups on which to put the blame," says Pastor Orlov.
In Mozambique, he said, with an estimated 1.1 million people with
HIV/AIDS, it is usually migrant workers who are blamed - because
they leave their families to look for work in South Africa, where
they start new families and also go to prostitutes. In this way,
Orlov explains, each of them infects a whole series of persons.

What people with HIV/AIDS need, the pastor continues, is neither
blame nor any kind of moral or ethical instruction, but rather
respect and understanding from people who listen to and care about
them. He finds that it is not because of the growing numbers of
persons with HIV/AIDS that the churches should care; each
individual is reason enough to deserve concern. Activist Orlov
sees the AIDS pandemic as a great opportunity for the churches.
But he is of the opinion that the churches are much too cautious.
They must speak out prophetically and much more strongly on behalf
of these marginalized people. The Argentine pastor says it should
no longer be taboo to speak openly about sexuality or about using
condoms. Often he imagines the church as a mother, says Orlov,
holding out her arms to embrace those who are defenseless and
helpless.

He says he has made many mistakes in his contacts with affected
people over the past 16 years, but he has also learnt a great deal
and has himself become radically different. Today, he finds it
particularly important to keep on asking questions, even when he
does not get answers. To ask questions is human, is his motto.
Possibly the answers will be found by seeking them together, not
from the top down, or from the pulpit, but in the midst of the
people, among those who are sick and marginalized.

Orlov finds it extremely important that the worldwide fellowship
of Lutheran churches has prepared two significant documents on
HIV/AIDS - the action plan "Compassion, Conversion, Care:
Responding as Churches to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic" in January 2002,
and the May 2002 Pan African Lutheran Church Leaders' Consultation
commitments to "Breaking the Silence" in response to the HIV/AIDS
pandemic.

For the Argentine pastor, these declarations are an important
step, but they must reach the congregational level. He is
concerned that often, good statements are not well known because
they do not get beyond the church hierarchies. He emphasizes that
effective dissemination of information is a very urgent matter.

He was addressing around 80 representatives of Lutheran churches,
partner organizations, social service agencies and institutions,
meeting in South Africa for the November 3-7 LWF Global
Consultation on "Prophetic Diakonia - For the Healing of the
World." The conference is focussing on the understanding of church
social service - diakonia -in its national and international
context.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 mllion Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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