wfn.org | TCN Editorial: Praying for AIDS Victims during Advent

["Lydia Ma" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>2962 Edition

>December 1-7, 2008

Editorial: Praying for AIDS Victims during Advent

This week we are celebrating the second week of Advent as well as World  AIDS day. As we await the Savior’s birth, we also pray that His  light will shine on those afflicted by AIDS.

HIV was discovered in 1984 in Kenya and became the most challenging  disease of the century. People who do not know enough about the cause  and spread of this virus almost always recoil in fear and anxiety. Since  HIV is transmitted through exchange of body fluids, AIDS was regarded as  a disease that afflicted people who led immoral lives. Conservative  Christians even considered this deadly disease as God’s wrath on a  very specific group of people. As a result, organizations or movements  supporting AIDS victims were vilified and patients hid their disease or  refused treatment out of fear.

However, many AIDS victims contracted the disease through blood  transfusions. They are neither homosexuals nor drug addicts.  Furthermore, thousands of babies are born each year carrying the disease  through no fault of their own. Because of AIDS, they cannot live or grow  up normally. Though recent advances in medical technology have improved  AIDS treatment and care, it is still a fatal disease. Human frailty and  social injustice are especially obvious in poor countries where people  cannot afford the exorbitant cost of medical attention associated with  caring for AIDS victims. As a result, the disease spreads like wildfire  in those regions.

The spread of AIDS reflects an unjust world economy. Africa has the  world’s largest share of AIDS victims but the region receives the  least of medical resources in the world to deal with the disease.  Because of lack of adequate medical care, several countries in Africa  with a high ratio of AIDS among the populace have seen their  population’s life expectancy drop to forty-five years. Hence,  though AIDS is not always untreatable in rich countries, it is certainly  synonymous to death in poor countries.

The spread of AIDS also reflects sexual discrimination. In the African  continent, more women are infected with AIDS than men. More women than  men die from AIDS as well. This is partly due to the custom of polygamy  in the region. Furthermore, women are often forced to have unprotected  sexual intercourse with men, which results in many young women giving  birth to innocent babies carrying AIDS.

In Taiwan, many youths are in danger of contracting HIV without knowing  it. As the country’s youth experiment with unprotected sex, drugs,  etc. we must take clear and public measures in AIDS prevention and  education. It is time to put our love into action. It is our desire to  see captives freed, mute people speak, sick people healed, and lifeless  souls rejoice with singing because they have found hope. We echo  Zechariah’s song when he said: “because of the tender mercy of  our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on  those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet  into the path of peace." (Luke 1:78-79).

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