wfn.org | Messer views book as 'wake-up call' to AIDS crisis

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March 12, 2004 News media contact: Linda Bloom7(646)369-37597New York7
E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-AF-I {103}

NOTE: Photos are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Kathleen LaCamera*

LONDON (UMNS) - With 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide and
7,000 dying every day from the disease, the Christian church's failure to
take serious action puts its very soul at stake. 

That is the view of United Methodist minister and scholar Donald Messer in
his new book, Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the
Global AIDS Crisis. Messer considers his book a wake-up call to Christians
who have too long stood on the sidelines as millions have suffered and died
from HIV/AIDS. 

In England for a March 9 launch of his book at the British Parliament's House
of Lords, Messer recalled the words of former Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, who said that the measure of a society is how it deals with the
most marginalized.

A past president of Iliff School of Theology in Denver, where he is currently
the Henry White Warren Professor of Practical Theology, Messer believes that
society, and the church in particular, has allowed the AIDS crisis and those
affected by it to "slip off our radar."

This neglect, he concluded, has contributed to the rejection, isolation and
suffering of millions of men, women and children living and dying with the
HIV virus across the United States and across the globe.

"This issue has the church tongue-tied around the world," he observed.
"Denial and silence have been killers."

A general reluctance in the church to talk openly about sex and the
continuing controversy over the use of condoms to prevent infection are just
some of the factors limiting the faith community's real engagement with
HIV/AIDS, he reported. Only three of more than 1,500 petitions submitted to
the 2004 United Methodist General Conference, which begins April 27 in
Pittsburgh, deal with HIV/AIDS.

In places like Zimbabwe - where already one in three people are infected -
Messer warned that in failing "to hear Jesus' call to heal the sick, we
ignore the very essence of what it means to be a Christian."

Part of heeding that call means making a serious effort to influence
governments to do more to help those living with HIV/AIDS, as well as
stemming the tide of infection.

More than 12 million African children are orphans because of AIDS, with
predictions of as many as 40 million orphans by 2010. Of the 30 million
people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, only 30,000 to 50,000 receive
antiviral drugs that help prolong life. That means less than 2 percent of
African HIV-infected parents, breadwinners and skilled providers get medicine
that could help them stay alive longer to look after their families and
contribute to their communities. 

When Messer visited South India, a 22-year-old woman with AIDS asked him why,
when doctors in the developed world can perform heart transplants, she and
those like her in the developing world are denied simple access to antiviral
drugs. 

"'Ask them,' she said to me. 'Tell them we need this medication,'" recounted
Messer.

Conversations like this one - repeated over and over again with mothers,
children, grandparents, fathers, health care workers and clergy in Africa,
India and other parts of Asia, Russia and across the United States -
compelled Messer to write his book.

He hopes that Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence not only will identify a
lack of attention to this issue, but also will empower church leaders, lay
people and theology students to "engage in missions of mercy and good works
in their own creative ways."

"As the second-largest denomination in the U.S., United Methodists have
enormous resources," he said. "For us to see HIV/AIDS as a priority would be
important."

The Rev. Steven Penrose, a British Methodist pastor who serves as London's
HIV/AIDS chaplain, says that Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence is a book
that also will speak to Christians beyond U.S. borders. "Those of us who read
this book will hardly be able to say 'no' to its message," Penrose told
United Methodist News Service.	

That is what Messer wants to hear. Despite the faith community's legacy of
neglect and condemnation on this issue, he sees a tide that is turning.

In Africa, where promotion of condoms to prevent disease has been
controversial, a Mozambique bishop publicly proclaimed, "We must protect life
at all costs. To not do so is committing a serious sin against God."

In the United States, individual churches in places like Denver and
Indianapolis are undertaking grass-roots initiatives to minister to the
HIV/AIDS within their churches and beyond. 

"I remain hopeful that the church will see this global issue and respond not
by condemning, but by showing compassion," Messer said. "I see a church where
indifference will be replaced by new hope."

Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS
Crisis is published by Fortress Press (price: $15) and can be ordered by
calling (800) 328-4648 or going online to www.fortresspress.com.  
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*LaCamera is a United Methodist News Service correspondent based in England.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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