Editor's note: CNN.com today posted a commentary written by Kay Warren which encourages Christians to care about HIV/AIDS. We offer this article as a more in-depth look at Warren’s thoughts about why Christians should care for those with HIV/AIDS.
We’re taught by our parents and our culture to avoid some topics, like politics, religion, and sex. They’re not polite! We don’t want to talk about things like child prostitution, sexual slavery, bonded labor, grinding poverty, dirty water, orphans, widows -- or HIV/AIDS. These are disturbing topics. But we need to be disturbed because, if we’re not disturbed, then we will spend our lives pursuing all the wrong goals, living for the wrong measure of success, and evaluating our legacy by the wrong standard.When I became disturbed about HIV/AIDS, I had to see it for myself. I traveled to Africa, where the pandemic is decimating millions, one life at a time. Nothing in my life as an American citizen prepared me for what I witnessed. I met Joana, who was dying under a tree after being kicked out of her village. Flora was enduring the pain of living with her husband, his mistress, and their baby; all four of them were HIV positive. I visited the home of three siblings, orphaned due to AIDS; the 15-year-old was caring for his 11-year-old brother and three-year-old sister.
And then I came home to southern California and met Alberto. He is HIV positive and lives in a wheelchair in his backyard because his family is so afraid of his illness; when he needs a bath, his wife attaches a nozzle to a hose and sprays him.
When I think about Alberto, Joana, Flora, and the three siblings in Africa – and 40 million others like them – I am seriously disturbed.
But why should we care about HIV/AIDS? Why not cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes, or heart disease? For a very simple reason: HIV carries a stigma that other diseases don’t carry. No one ever gets banished from her village like Joana did because she’s infected with tuberculosis. No one loses his job simply because of malaria. Husbands don’t beat or divorce their wives for developing the flu, diabetes, or cancer. No relatives refuse to care for children whose parents were killed in an accident. But all of those things and more happen on a daily basis where HIV/AIDS is involved.
Not only does HIV carry stigma and shame, but it is preventable. We can’t prevent many other diseases that plague mankind, but we know how abstinence, monogamy, and condoms can go a long way toward stopping HIV in its tracks.Because of the fact that HIV is preventable, I can hear you saying, “It’s their own fault then; their own risky behavior led to them being infected. I’m not sure why you’re asking me to care about someone else’s stupid choices.”
