Barcelona 2002

Week of Monday, July 22, 2002

One thought experiment that I have always found fascinating is to imagine what it would be like if Jesus had lived, ministered, died, and rose from the dead in our own generation. What would he have been like? How would he have dressed? Where would he have lived? What sort of people would he have attracted and called to himself as his twelve disciples? Who would have been his major detractors? Would he have commented on Enron and WorldCom, Afghanistan, or the death of Ted Williams? If he went to see the new Austin Powers movie Goldmember to be released later this summer would he have considered it hilarious social satire or crude cultural rot? The hypotheticals are endless.

I find this a helpful exercise because it reminds me that Jesus was not some disembodied figure only interested in saving “souls” and getting them to heaven. He lived among everyday people and spoke directly to the concrete needs and issues of their day. If Jesus were alive today I am confident that the New Testament that would have resulted from his ministry would contain considerable mention of HIV and AIDS. So this week, I take a break from my twelve week series on the minor prophets to consider the XIV International Conference on AIDS that was held in Barcelona July 7–12. In fact, to do so as a Christian today is a quintessentially “prophetic” thing to do.¹

The conference reports that “the scale of the AIDS crisis now outstrips even the worst-case scenarios of a decade ago.” Today about 40 million people live with HIV/AIDS (in North America, about 950,000; in Africa, about 28.5 million). In 2001 about 5 million people became newly infected with HIV. About 3 million died in 2001 due to HIV. Since 1981 and the first clinical evidence of HIV/AIDS, about 20 million people have died. This short essay cannot do justice to the AIDS crisis or the Barcelona conference; you really should spend some time at their comprehensive website. Here I only draw your attention to four snapshots that I found helpful to know and think about as a Christian.

First, in the worst affected countries, the AIDS epidemic is in its earliest phase. Some people had thought that the epidemic might level off in these affected countries as the virus ran its natural course, but now research shows that is not so. Botswana, for example, has the highest HIV infection rate in the world and it is getting worse, not better. Two years ago 36% of all adults were infected by HIV; today that rate has climbed to 39%. Similar dramatic increases have occurred in other countries like Zimbabwe. In the 45 countries most affected by HIV, about 13 million people died from AIDS in the last twenty years; but unless things change, that figure will quintuple—almost 70 million more people will die in those same countries in the next twenty years. In the developing world less than 4% of those who need antiretroviral treatment have access to it. So, the bad news is that some of the worst countries are getting worse.

One of the hardest hit age groups is young people aged 15–24. Two trends threaten this group. First, they become sexually active at a young age, and second, they do so in almost total ignorance about how HIV is spread. In one study of 60 countries, more than half of the young people aged 15–24 had “serious misconceptions” about how HIV is transmitted. In some of the worst affected countries those who know how to protect themselves can be as low as 20%. The result, of course, is that this age group constitutes a disproportionate number of new infections: today half of all new infections are in people aged 15–24.

One of the most disturbing consequences of AIDS has been the dramatic rise of orphans. This is another grim trend that is getting worse. Africa has the greatest proportion of orphans. In 2001, sub-Saharan Africa had about 34 million orphans, a third of them due to AIDS. In 2010, the number of orphans will rise to 42 million, half of them due to AIDS. The orphan population, as you might guess, is concentrated in the hardest hit countries. For example, in 2001 in sub-Saharan Africa just 12 nations accounted for 70% of the orphans. For sheer numbers, because of its population Asia has the largest number of orphans, about 65 million.

Fourth, despite all of these dire statistics, and there are many, many more, there has been progress. True, the success stories remain the exception rather than the rule, but they remind us that our choices matter, and that we should never give in to the feelings of fate which suggest that nothing we can do will help. That is not true; our choices do matter and there is evidence to prove it.

According to the UN Report, “the world is finally waking up to what it takes” to bring the HIV epidemic under control. The greatest success story in Africa is Uganda. In 1999 HIV infections there ran at 8.3%, but by the end of 2001 they had fallen to 5%. Despite its enormous social, political and economic problems, Zambia has become the other country to actually reverse the spread of the epidemic. Among young women there HIV infection rates have fallen from 28% to 24% in urban areas, and from 16% to 12% in rural areas (1996 to 1999).

Political will, economic commitment, the removal of social stigmas (shame, silence, ostracization, etc.) all remain essential. There is progress here too. Today almost 100 countries have national AIDS strategies in place. Donor funding has increased six-fold since 1998. Even some of the world's poorest nations have increased their budgets. Still, compared to the magnitude of the need, we have a long ways to go. And should not those who follow Jesus somehow, some way, be in the forefront of fighting this scourge?

Jesus did not exclude anyone; for Him there was no “in” or “out” group. Rather, He embraced everyone with equal compassion. But I think it is also clear from the Gospels that He somehow had a special love for social outcasts, the marginal, the misfits of his day: a leper, a paraplegic, a soldier, a woman caught in bed with a man, the despicable Roman tax collectors, a Gentile widow, and on and on. Jesus partied and ate with these people; he did not condemn them for their considerable baggage, be it moral, social, economic, political or medical. He reminded these people that the Father loved them. It would have been very natural for them to have thought, “The last place I want to go to is the house of the Almighty God. He will be disapproving, angry, disappointed, and vengeful.” “No,” said Jesus, “that's wrong, the Father will rejoice and throw a party to welcome you home” (Luke 15).

On most mornings, I have my coffee, run, and then I read a couple of newspapers. On good days I then try to read the Bible and pray. I often then pray, “here is the news...and here is the Good News. Lord, how do I put them together?” I offer this news from Barcelona as a reminder that the Good News of “faith expressing itself in love” is “the only thing that matters” (Galatians 5:6), which in turn is the primary way that the world will know we are on the journey with Jesus.