Twenty years of World AIDS Day is time for faiths to ‘take stock’, says Ndungane

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Faith leaders "should shout from the rooftops that AIDS is not a punishment from God but a medical condition which is preventable," Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, former primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, has told the World Aids Campaign.

Ndungane was speaking in an interview for the Amsterdam- and Cape Town-based World Aids Campaign, founded by UNAIDS, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the marking of December 1 as World AIDS Day. The campaign says World AIDS Day is a time of "global solidarity for a pandemic that has led to over 25 million deaths, with an estimated 33 million people currently living with HIV worldwide."

Ndungane, who now heads African Monitor, a continental development agency, said that AIDS was "manageable and treatable although not curable," as well as not being a punishment from God.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of South Africa • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine

4 Comments
Posted November 28, 2008 at 10:08 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Sick & Tired of Nuance wrote:

Faith leaders should shout from the rooftops that AIDS is preventable if people will follow the words of God found in the Holy Scripture.  Be chaste.  Come to marriage pure.  Stay faithful in marriage.  Don’t engage in homosexual practices.  Don’t engage in pharmakia, especially intravenous drugs!

The Holy Scriptures specifically state that God chastises those he loves.  It is entirely possible that HIV/AIDS is chastisement from God for our sinful disobedience.

Faith leaders should NOT shout from the rooftops that AIDS is “manageable and treatable”, implying that one can continue to engage in sinful practices without consequence.  Faith leaders should shout from the rooftops that AIDS is “not curable”.

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane:

If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ~ Ezekiel 33:8

November 28, 11:25 am | [comment link]
2. Hakkatan wrote:

Amen, Sick & Tired!

November 28, 1:14 pm | [comment link]
3. Br. Michael wrote:

1, well said.  This as an absolutely preventable illness.

November 28, 1:41 pm | [comment link]
4. nwlayman wrote:

Preventable.  And 100% of the prevention is on the shoulders of one group of people and one only.  Those who *have* the virus.  No one without it can do anything to prevent it.  Nothing.  If each person with the virus decides it is his (primarily a “his” disease) duty to everyone else not to spread it, that’s it.  End of the disease.  Nothing else will work.  I believe what I just said can get me jailed in Canada, no?

November 30, 11:13 pm | [comment link]
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