Lausanne World Pulse – World Pulse Archives – World Pulse Archives

No continent has been harder hit by the AIDS epidemic than Africa. The tragedy, however, has provided an opportunity for Africa’s evangelicals to reach out with Christ’s love.

HIV/AIDS has changed patient ministry. It is challenging judgmental attitudes against those with lifestyles we Christians don’t approve of. But when Christians love sinners, miraculous things happen. In this context, many have found hope in the church and faith in Christ as a result of the crisis.

What brought about Uganda’s turnaround from a hopeless cause to becoming Africa’s only nation with a decreasing AIDS rate? DAWN FridayFax reports that Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, a Christian, called for Uganda’s rededication to the God of the Bible. His government launched a public campaign for integrity and morality. The government and churches allied strategically against the disease: condoms and moral change through ethical renewal and a return to biblical values.

Uganda’s HIV/AIDS infection rates have fallen from an initial 25 percent of all women who visited prenatal clinics in 1987 to just 8 percent today. “The World Health Organization, facing a mystery, is investigating the ‘Ugandan phenomenon,'” FridayFax reports. Uganda’s Christians initially called the disease God’s judgment for wicked, promiscuous people. But with time the challenge was to respond with Christ’s love. The earliest Christian voice was that of Richard Goodgame, a Southern Baptist missionary teaching at Uganda’s leading university, Makerere. In the Catholic church a hospital superintendent, charismatic Irish nun and medical doctor Miriam Duggan, said AIDS was God’s kairos moment: Christians should view this health tragedy as God’s intervention in time for people’s salvation. God could make good come out of evil and use the tragedy for his kingdom’s purposes.

That message went well with what a lot of evangelicals thought, including Goodgame. The government responded by calling for behavioral change but also promoted condom use, abstinence and “safe sex” messages. In Uganda the disease affects mostly heterosexuals and tended to catch those who were sexually active outside marriage. In 1987, Goodgame started “Answers,” a project aimed at HIV/AIDS awareness from both medical and biblical standpoints. It was comprised of giving Bibles with information on how the disease was contracted and how to avoid it. At that time people believed that shaking hands with an AIDS patient spread the disease. It was among the first programs calling on Christians to reach out in compassion to people living with AIDS.

People with AIDS were welcomed into the churches. Some allowed them to speak about their battle with the disease. Holistic Christian ministries address patient care, awareness, income generation and evangelism. Kampala Baptist Church launched its program, “A Cup of Cold Water,” to offer patient care and home visitation. Some churches raised financial support for small loans to those with HIV/AIDS. Youth groups such as the Fellowship of Christian Unions (FOCUS) launched an awareness and behavioral change program on Uganda’s 60 college campuses. Others, such as Scripture Union, have family and school projects that reach thousands across Uganda. Mission hospitals such as Kagando in western Uganda became major centers of patient care, treatment and awareness.

Edith Wakumire of Eastern Uganda started Women Concern Ministries, to which the United Nations Development Program gave an award to recognize her work. With encouragement from Compassion International, the Fellowship of Christian Unions in Uganda started a child development project in a slum community. This child sponsorship program helps some 300 children in Mulago, a Kampala slum. Most of these children are orphans who lost their parents to AIDS.

The main change was at the attitude level. Ugandan evangelicals had a conversion experience of sorts. AIDS affects every Ugandan as the disease has hit a relative, a colleague, a neighbor, spouse or a friend. Orphans, widows and widowers abound. Denial of the situation wore off, forcing churches to deal with reality. Once attitudes changed and the sick were welcomed into churches, people began living longer because they had hope for eternal life. Christians volunteered to give, participate in HIV/AIDS awareness, and care for patients.

Evangelicals find much room for cooperation with the government in fighting AIDS. The area of tension, predictably, is over mass condom distribution, which evangelicals believe promotes promiscuity. The government argues that some high-risk groups, such as soldiers, youths and sex workers, do not heed the abstinence message. Churches, however, may preach abstinence to singles and recommend condoms in marriage if one partner is infected. Some leading church crusaders against AIDS, such as Duggan and the late Bishop Misaeri Kauma, were part of the government Uganda AIDS Commission that oversees AIDS-fighting efforts.

While the epidemic has been greatly reduced, there is no time to celebrate. About 2 million people are already infected and living with the disease. The pandemic has left more than 2 million orphans, which has strained traditional African hospitality of the extended family system. Youth ages 15 to 24 remain at greatest risk. Reports show they seem not to heed behavioral change messages.

Aggrey Mugisha is media and communication secretary of IFES-EPSA, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in the English and Portuguese Speaking Africa.

July 6, 2001