Oh my goodness, read this article:
I was alerted to this article by Gene Edward Veith's wonderful blog, Cranach. This is an absolutely damning piece written by a Ugandan Pastor about the AIDS crisis over there. It seems that with the funds that we've sent to help in the crisis, we also have sent our worldview that assumes that all people want to do all the time is look for casual sex! Since our culture is so oversexed we assume that everyone else's ought to be as well. The Pastor does a great job of pointing out the folly of this thinking.
Last line of the piece: "So hear my plea, HIV-AIDS profiteers. Let my people go. We understand that casual sex is dear to you, but staying alive is dear to us. Listen to African wisdom, and we will show you how to prevent AIDS."
2 comments:
As a bit of a side-note: The article is strangely reminiscent of the smallpox infections inflicted upon native Americans by European settlers/military. ...Something along the lines of what is discussed here:
http://www.straightdope.com/
classics/a5_066.html)
As the article states, in response to a transmittable infection, money is thrown into worldly programs that perpetuate and even propogate the problem, when the source of the problem is already addressed by God's Word.
I've forwarded the link to this article to the Blood:Water mission (http://www.bloodwatermission.com)
Dan Hasseltine (of the band, Jars of Clay) writes of the Blood:Water mission, "Clean water is a powerful way to begin a large scale conversation about AIDS. The 1000 Wells Project is a simple campaign that has very little controversy surrounding it. It is difficult to argue whether or not a person should have clean water. It is also difficult to deny the equation: $1= clean water for 1 person for 1 year. And it is vital that the church begin to build relationships with African communities. When a well is built, a conversation is started, a relationship between the church and the community benefiting from the project begins. This is the seed of a worldview shift. This is what excites us about this project."
One aspect of this misguided approach of the West is even racist and xenophobic: That we assume Africans are going to engage in casual sex because they and their cultures are savage and stupid. What gross condescension!
As the Uganda story shows us, we actually have much to learn from African Christians!
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