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SEE
ALSO
AIDS
in Africa: Hartbreak
and hope
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 Not
HIV/AIDS itself, but a culture of silence around the
pandemic is killing Africa's future leaders, according
to Rev. Dr. Joseph Humper, vice president of the General
Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) of the United Methodist
Church.
Speaking
to the semi-annual meeting of the GBGM board of
directors in Stamford, CT, Bishop Humper said Africa's
influential religious and spiritual leaders are
vital to ending the silence around AIDS and stemming
the tide of death.
It is
imperative that they shed denominational differences.
"Struggle against AIDS, not ecclesiastical
and spiritual orientation," he urged.
These
leaders should come together in a sub-regional or
regional consultation on AIDS education, said Humper,
who serves the Sierra
Leone area of the United Methodist Central Conference.
"Unless
African bishops and other religious leaders are
convinced that HIV/AIDS is a reality and not a myth,
not much will be accomplished by the global community,"
he told the bishops, clergy and lay members of the
90-strong, multi-national board. Six of the board's
14 non-US members come, like him, from Africa. "Our
people in Africa would respond more positively to
information given to them when we emphasize the
outcome of consultations held with partners in mission,"
he stressed.
The consultation
should also address the socio-economic problems
of child soldiers, ex-combatants and the sex slaves
of rebels in conflict areas.
The Bishop
targeted some cultural values and taboos that stifle
enquiry and education about human sexuality and
AIDS. Practices such as sexual cleansing and the
custom of marrying the wives of deceased relatives
should be re-examined, he said.
"The
traditionally-held belief that HIV/AIDS is a curse
or contracted through witchcraft must be discarded
or discouraged," Humper said, adding that the
AIDS-related deaths are attributed to the punishment
of ancestors or traditional gods for the violation
of societal norms and values.
But the
Bishop also pointed to "positive traditional
and cultural beliefs and practices which, when articulated,
could be found to be biblically based." Sexual
abstinence before marriage, which he identified
as "one of our good cultural values,"
should be encouraged on youth and young adults,
with parents, guardians and other family members
serving as role models.
"Both
our polygamous and monogamous community members
must be taught to remain faithful to their spouses,
Bishop Humper said.
Church
leaders crucial to the crusade against AIDS would
be motivated to join the struggle if they gained
"knowledge in the use of biblical texts to
bear on HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care,"
Bishop Humper said. Drawing on Jesus's view of his
mission as recorded in the Gospel of John (ch.10,
v.10), Humper said Africa's spiritual leaders must
uphold belief in wholeness, fullness and sanctity
of life for today and eternity."
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