aids/hiv

Sexuality/Gender

AIDS Anniversary: Thirty is the New Eternity

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The 30th wedding anniversary calls for pearls, various websites say. And yet, we have no weddings really, from the federal point of view. So what does the 30th mean? Is it the beginning of the end? The end of the beginning? The eschaton? For some, AIDS/HIV is one of the mythic horsemen of the apocalypse. The Salvation Army writes of the “three horsemen of the Russian Apocalypse—AIDS” Others write of the “hybrid horseman of the apocalypse: the global AIDS pandemic.” We debate whether an HIV-positive diagnosis—or even an AIDS diagnosis—is the end of the world. And we write of “the virus at the end of the world.” The victories seem somehow pyrrhic.

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Sexuality/Gender

Pricking the Conscience of Churches: From AIDS Activism to Ending World Hunger

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“Neither hunger nor HIV can be curbed or ended by the church, but neither can these goals be accomplished without the help of the church and other faith communities. Governments alone have the resources to deal with the tremendous needs of feeding the hungry and caring for the sick. However, the church can help serve as the conscience of a country—prompting policies that are more compassionate and generous to the poor. Faith communities need to model what it means to be non-stigmatizing and what it means to share from its resources. Christians that do not reach out to the poor, the hungry, and the sick jeopardize their own souls.”

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Sexuality/Gender

Condoms and Common Sense

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The most recent comments from the Vatican on the Pope’s intentions in his remarks on condom use emphasize his desire to “kick-start” a discussion. It would be fair to ask: a discussion about what? And to wonder if there might be an openness to those who have an alternate vision of human sexuality to that which has dominated official discourse over the last 30 years…

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Politics/Law

Patron Saint of AIDS/HIV To Be Canonized

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Father Damien de Veuster was a Belgian priest who ministered to a community of exiles on the island of Molokai. He has been, for many years, the unofficial patron saint of AIDS/HIV, a disease that has a history of misunderstanding akin to that of the illness he himself died of—Hansen’s disease, or leprosy.

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