Faith
leaders warned on statements about HIV and AIDS
By
Stephen Brown
VIENNA (ENI) — Faith leaders can play a key role in the fight
against the HIV pandemic if their public statements help combat stigma
and discrimination, a meeting of faith groups in Vienna in advance of
the 18th International AIDS Conference has heard.
"Religious leaders have
the trust and confidence of their communities and can help break these
barriers and create a more supportive environment," the Netherlands
AIDS ambassador Marijke Wijnroks told a July 17 multifaith conference
in the Austrian capital.
Wijnroks acknowledged that
faith communities have been "on the frontline of the response to
HIV and AIDS". Still, religious leaders through their language
have also contributed to the burden of the disease, she warned.
"Public positions and
statements of some faith-based organizations have at times been unhelpful,
or even harmful," said Wijnroks. "Deeply judgmental comments
on populations such as men having sex with men and people living with
HIV have alienated people at risk and contributed to stigma and discrimination."
Earlier, the general secretary
of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, told the meeting
that faith leaders need to exercise care about the way they use statements
from the Scriptures when dealing with HIV and AIDS.
"Language is very much
a matter of ideology and power," said Tveit, a Norwegian theologian
who took office as the head of the Geneva-based WCC in January. This
means, "not only being accountable about what pieces of our faith
texts we quote but how we use these texts".
In recent months church leaders
in countries including Uganda and Malawi have supported criminal penalties
being applied against homosexuals. AIDS campaigners warn this can mean
people at risk from HIV being driven underground.
Tveit was part of an opening
panel at the multi-faith meeting looking at how faith traditions promote
work toward universal access to HIV treatment, care, support and prevention.
"This has to do with
a basic issue of justice," said the WCC leader. Tveit recalled
that back in 1987 the main governing body of the WCC had affirmed the
"right to medical and pastoral care regardless of socio-economic
status, race, sex, sexual orientation or sexual relationship".
He said, "We should keep our commitments to do what we know we
have to do."
The International AIDS Conference
is held every two years. It is drawing more than 20,000 medical professionals,
scientists, policy makers, persons living with HIV and others working
in the field of HIV and AIDS. In 2010 it runs from July 18 to 23.
Jan Beagle, the deputy executive
director of UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS,
said faith communities can help bridge a "disconnect" between
the scientific world and the world of culture, religion and communities.
"We are not asking religious leaders to hand out condoms, unless
that is acceptable within your traditions, but to partner with us in
approaches to HIV prevention education, health care and referral,"
Beagle told the faith groups' conference.
UNAIDS is to launch a high-level
commission on HIV prevention, with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond
Tutu as one of its co-chairs, during the Vienna conference.
The multifaith conference
was organized by a working group convened by the Ecumenical Advocacy
Alliance, an international network of churches and church-related organizations.
"The world expects people
of faith to be working together," said Rev. Richard Fee, the alliance's
chair, a Presbyterian church leader from Canada. "We have recognized
that and it is time we started doing that."
• Stephen Brown, managing editor of ENInews, is in Vienna as part of an EAA media team.
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