Response to Hideyo's Week 5 Material

Wow. Great job this week. I am very impressed with the work you've done. I thought the insight about what churches are addressing AIDS was significant. Perhaps we should think about trying to create networks in which churches can share stories of how they address HIV/AIDS as well as partner together in the battle.

I am also very impressed with the Bible materials. How do we come with these materials in such a way that we cannot be accused of proof-texting (which I don't think you can be) or judgmental? There is grace in harsh prophecy, but I think there will be a large reactionary response from many groups. Perhaps such responses are based out of shame/guilt, but how can we bring the gospel message that God allows us to repent and participate in his kingdom, even if we haven't been actively engaging the kingdom? How do we give the subject the needed weight without turning people away? I know I've been asking this question all quarter, as it is still something I'm thinking about. I noticed in myself that last week I felt the heaviness of this subject and was close to throwing up my hands and saying it's too much, but this week, I feel more hopeful. I think that is a natural boundary most people will have to work through.

Anyway, seriously, great work this week.

Response to Tyler's Week 4 Links and Discussion

I really liked the Putting it All Together pdf page. It encapsulated everything I was beginning to research two weeks ago and some. Just seeing that someone took the time to research the disease and how it affects other aspects of life was just outstanding and completely overwhelming. With this in mind and seeing how many of the MGDs are interrelated, to what extent would you want to exhort churches to adopt "just one of the MGDs" to focus their energies?

I suppose your links to World Vision Hope Initiative page with special emphasis on the Pastor's speaking points pdf as well as the Micah's Challenges prayer points pdf is a good place to start answering that question. This may be overemphasizing my point, but given the situation, the pulpit and prayer may not be enough given the incredible resources God has given the American church. I guess I'm asking what adopting an MGD would look like for a church.

For that I appreciate your link to the UN Millennium project outlining some ways to get involved. But I wish there were more that we could do as a body of faith. Perhaps I'm overreaching. Perhaps I'm just overwhelmed by the dispair. Perhaps I'm just too idealistic. But I can't help but wonder if there is more we can do.

Then again, it is only week 4/5. I'm sure as we talk, find more resources, and compile our wiki, we'll make more progress.

Hideyo's Week 4 Discussion

I appreciate the educational direction you've taken your research this week. The AIDS Info .pdf looks awesome and I agree that we can mine that work for lots of information. I was also struck with the AIDS walk story. A couple exchanges stood out:

1. I found this exchange to be very telling about AIDS in the US:

T: When it comes to HIV/AIDS awareness, there is a general feeling among members of the population that HIV/AIDS is no longer a serious concern. However, the statistics available today prove that HIV/AIDS is on the rise both in this country and across the world. Why is there a relaxed attitude towards the disease considering that the converse is true?

RR: The reality is that treatments [such as AZT] are available and are helping individuals to live longer, healthier lives, but it is also true that more and more individuals are living with HIV every year. Nearly 30,000 people in the Philadelphia region are living with it and unfortunately a third of them don't even know it. As a result, those people are not even accessing the treatments that are available and in the Philadelphia area, many people don't learn their HIV status until they are ill.

It is interesting that the US is once again entering into an education crisis concerning HIV/AIDS. I realize my bias is that the developing nations need education about the disease more than developed nations. But the discussion above shows that we in the US are becoming more lax about educating ourselves.


2. I thought this discussion about abstinence education was also important:

T: Why has abstinence become the "one size fits all" approach to the HIV/AIDS issue?

RR: First and foremost, abstinence does work and it is 100 percent effective. But what it doesn't do is acknowledge the reality of most peoples' lives. Certainly, abstinence education does need to be part of the message we are trying to send, but it probably isn't the only thing that is going to work. Public health policy really needs to meet people where they are and that is a big difficultly when it comes to programs that are strictly abstinence-based.

As you look at how AIDS education is handled, I think you'll be entering into the debate concerning abstinence only vs. harm reduction policies. Many churches favor abstinence education almost to the exclusion of harm reduction. Do you think this is correct? How should the church handle the issue of education. It is one thing to say that we should help those already with the disease, but how do we educate our members and those in our communities to ensure that they don't contract the disease in the first place?