Glenden BrownWorld AIDS Day
From the United Church of Christ:
   . . . it is abundantly clear from the recent reports (UNAIDS Dec. 2006) that we are not winning the war against this disease. In spite of the medical advances, programs for education and prevention, and efforts to increase access to treatment, more people than ever are living with HIV worldwide, including here, in the U.S. The numbers of those living with HIV and AIDS and those who have died from AIDS related illnesses are truly devastating. HIV-related stigma and discrimination continues to rear its ugly head. Whether we realize it or not, in one way or another, everyone is affected . . .
Our God is also a suffering God, who suffers with us as we suffer. On World AIDS Day, and throughout the year, let us remember that God suffers with all of us who are suffering from the affects of the spread of HIV. Above all, God is a God of justice. On this World AIDS Day and everyday, may we become increasingly aware of the inequalities and injustices that foster and perpetuate the continual spread of HIV and AIDS throughout the world, including the U.S. May the prophetic witness of God’s concern for justice and healing awaken us from silence and complacency, and stir us to bold new acts of global solidarity to keep the promise to stop HIV and AIDS.
The Rev. Debra Haffner:
I remember the first time I saw the AIDS memorial quilt. I was stunned to tears and silence by the enormity of the losses that each stitch represented. In the mid to late eighties it seemed like every week someone I knew died of AIDS. It’s actually been at least three years since I’ve lost a friend or colleague to this disease. But each year around the world three million die. 3,000,000. It’s a huge loss.
I remember giving a talk back in 1985 at a CDC conference on AIDS where I said that every new HIV infection would be a failure of will to educate, protect, and motivate. That was tens of millions of cases ago.
Today there are 65 million people in the world who live with AIDS. There have been 25 million deaths. The numbers are staggering. One adult in a hundred in the world is living with HIV. In parts of Africa, it is one in three.
People around the world continue to fight about how to prevent AIDS . . . homophobia and sexism still keep people from being able to protect themselves.
From Church World Service:
As the world marks another World AIDS Day this December 1, we call on people of faith everywhere to join in prayer with and for individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS. We pray also that each of us will realize that AIDS affects us all. We must own this together as a common challenge. We remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS, and we embrace the hope of an awakened spirit to respond to this pandemic with even greater urgency in the year ahead.
From SIECUS (The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States):
Recent research by David Holtgrave of Emory University paints a very different portrait, arguing that if we had not invested as we have done, we could have likely experienced an additional 1.5 million infections in the United States. Holtgrave also found that by averting new infections and the related costs of treatment, prevention saved taxpayers $11 billion.
Unfortunately, we have hit a plateau in the prevention of this disease and the number of new infections has remained stagnant rather than continuing to decrease. A different reality might be at hand had HIV prevention been given the necessary political support and adequate funding for evidence-based interventions. Instead, the Bush administration has seized on this plateau and declared our domestic HIV-prevention efforts a failure.
By perpetuating this myth, the administration can justify its own decisions to drastically reduce funding for HIV prevention and to shift focus away from proven prevention strategies based on science toward ideologically driven programs that have never been shown to be effective.
Only a renewed commitment to evidence-based HIV prevention can move us forward as a nation. You cannot starve a program of its lifeblood and then ask why it is not making additional progress, as this administration has done. It is a deceptive slight of hand that has, in just a few short years, had a dramatic impact on our ability to prevent HIV. This report documents this impact and offers seven recommendations for moving forward.
Read the whole report here.
For information on HIV Prevention and Treatment among youth, visit Advocates for Youth.
To quote Julie Sugarbaker:
If God were handing disease as the punishment for sin, you would be down at the free clinic every week. And so would the rest of us.