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How does the state of the global anti-aids effort compare to 15 years ago, when you first began working with HIV/AIDS?

AIDS shrunk our world. As a global community we are not only informed about AIDS but involved in addressing it. Sadly, it is also shrinking our families and societies, reducing vulnerable communities to skeletal units. Today, we would have to be still-sleeping Rip van Winkles not to be affected. Fifteen years ago Christians snored soundly. Today, many thousands are sleepless, engaged in aggressive campaigns for abstinence, frankly discussing biblical sexuality in churches, and walking kilometers to care for the sick and orphaned in their homes. Ironically, AIDS, an agent of death, is bringing life to the Body.

Which countries are best at dealing with HIV/AIDS?

Uganda is often cited for early commitment of leaders and emphasis on prevention of AIDS. America also had rapid, no-nonsense responses from high profile Christian leaders such as Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and Walter Reed Army Hospital researcher Dr. Robert Redfield. Church leaders in Rwanda changed from their stigmatizing attitudes to helping and blessing people with AIDS through church-based ministries. Cambodia turned the tide from being the country with the most rapidly growing AIDS infection in southeast Asia to a country controlling the crisis.

According to a recent report by the U.N., 4.8 million people became infected last year with HIV. That's the greatest increase in any year since the global outbreak began. Why does this happen now, when the world's wealthiest countries are committing significant resources to HIV/AIDS?

We're not doing enough. We have part of the solution, and we can save lives. But we are far from effectively dealing with the core problem. We need to continue to protect life and we need to turn twisted notions of love and sex back to the honor and sanctity of sex that God gave us.

Many public health officials are set against abstinence.

Abstinence is hardly popular. Public health officials need only cite rates of sexually transmitted disease and numerous studies on sexual practices of youth to prove that most unmarried persons in many countries do not practice abstinence. From a pragmatic point of view, then, why pour energy into something that doesn't appear to work?

But both science and faith admit that abstinence is the best way to avoid getting AIDS today. As Christians, we are not called to follow a popular way—but the right way. This is the message we are aggressive in promoting.

In a pluralistic society, we also must accept that many will not chose the right way, including many husbands of faithful women. It is right for us to protect one another—including those who do not make right choices in life—from death sentences and orphanhood. This involves understanding the benefits and risks of condom use.

What are the new frontiers—demographic groups or geographic regions—in this war?

Every group and every place. No group can claim unadulterated piety. All of us are vulnerable.

The U.N. report also indicated that the epidemic is moving from the realms of drug users, sex workers, and men who have sex with men into the general population.

It isn't a new demographic. It's just revealing our secrets. Men who have sex with men also have sex with their wives. Businessmen have sex with prostitutes who also have sex with drug addicts or who may be supporting their own drug problem. We must remember that for many, perhaps most people affected by AIDS today, the risk is being faithful to an unfaithful partner. And that's the message of Hosea—responding to God's faithfulness in redeeming a faithless culture.

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September 2004, Vol. 48, No. 9