World AIDS Day

Friday was World AIDS Day and Bill Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, was in DC. I planned a full day's worth of activities including speaking at a morning vigil, an afternoon UNAIDS event, and lobby visits. On the Wednesday before World AIDS Day, I arrange for him to take part in a press conference on the PATHWAY Act and how US policies could be reformed so that our HIV prevention funding doesn't mandate spending on "abstinence-until-marriage" programming. Below is his statement... it is wonderful:

World AIDS Day gives us an opportunity to educate ourselves about how we can fight this epidemic. A problem so large and so devastating requires us to work together for political and scientific solutions, but it also calls on us to offer a spiritual response, a response that goes beyond sectarian doctrines and embraces our shared humanity. All of the world’s great religions exhort us to love our neighbors. What we religious people now must ask ourselves is, “Who is my neighbor?” The global AIDS epidemic has taught us that we are all connected – black, white, and brown; young and old; male and female; gay and straight. Our neighbors live in tiny African villages, in Russian brothels, and in forgotten places all over the world where hope grows dim. We must not turn away from them.

We know now that the populations suffering the highest rate of new infections are youths aged 15-24 and young married women. Our neighbors with AIDS are trapped in abusive marriages, and they are victims of civil war and genocide. And some of our neighbors who live in relatively peaceful regions are victims of oppressive patriarchies and are unable to protect themselves from domestic sexual violence. And because of these alarming facts, we also know that some of our neighbors are struggling for life in neo-natal care units. We mock their sufferings when we offer international AIDS relief with strings attached. Abstinence is a luxury for those who have complete control over their own bodies and wills. When there is no ability to give or withhold consent, what protection does the choice of “abstinence” offer?

We Unitarian Universalists support the PATHWAY Act because it requires the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator to develop a comprehensive HIV prevention plan that addresses the specific vulnerabilities of women and youth. The Act also eliminates “abstinence-only” conditions on HIV funding. Our policies must reflect the realities of people’s lives. We know that “just say No” didn’t work in the Garden of Eden, and it isn’t stopping the spread of HIV today, either in the US or abroad.

As we confront the human tragedy that is global AIDS, we must urge our leaders not to let their personal commitments to specific ideologies stand in the way of saving lives. We hear politicians invoking “moral values.” Well, as a person of faith, I’m obligated to say that it is immoral to abdicate our responsibility for the spread of AIDS. We know how to ameliorate this epidemic. We have the medical means; we can muster the economic means. The question we must ask ourselves now is whether we have the will to do it. And that becomes a moral -- a religious -- question.

Because all faith communities are called to act in the world, I pray that our actions will reflect the essential truth at the heart of all the world’s religions. We must live the compassion that is at the core of our sacred teachings.

The Rev. Bill Sinkford speaking at "For Whom the Bell Tolls"