Church support for World AIDS Day

By: J. Stapley - December 1, 2005

In support of World AIDS Day, the Church has released an interview with Elder Robert C. Oaks, formerly of the Area Presidency responsible for East Africa. The interview followed the inter-faith leadership breakfast, where Utah religious and public health officials met this morning. Elder Oaks, a former Air Force General, spoke candidly of the plight of HIV/AIDS in the world and the Church’s abstinence based education program in Africa.

The situation of our African brothers and sisters, as related by Elder Oaks, is deeply contrasted to that of most occidental Mormons:

Virtually every Latter-day Saint there has friends or family members that are either HIV-positive or are afflicted with full-blown AIDS. Many of our Church members have seen friends or family members die.

When asked why the Church is involved in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, Oaks Responded:

Because the need is so great. Since its organization in 1830, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been committed to helping people solve their everyday problems. AIDS is a tremendous problem that afflicts people around the world and it’s growing. Responding to this pandemic demands the attention of everybody. For an organization that cares about people, that cares about their well-being, their temporal welfare as well as their eternal welfare, it’s just the most natural thing in the world that the Church would want to help people who are afflicted with this devastating condition.

According to Oaks, the church has prepared two educational pamphlets, a teaching guide and an educational summary that show “what AIDS is, how you get it, how you don’t get it and what you can do to take care of family members who are HIV-positive or afflicted with AIDS itself.” These materials received first presidency approval and were distributed during a seires of special Sunday meetings to approximately 90,000 saints.

Oaks stated that supplemental take home material was also distributed, noting the need to overcome cultural resistance to open discussion. Perhaps we are not so different after all. Full text of the interview is available here.

3 Comments

  1. J,

    Let us know if you see any criticism of the Church for advocating (naturally) an abstinence program over safe-sex.

    Comment by Ronan — December 2, 2005 @ 5:18 pm

  2. In the interview, Oaks makes some pretty strong claims agaisnt safe sex campaigns:

    When we started to pull these materials together, people working on this issue had begun to see from their own statistics that the “safe sex” approach of explicit education and free condom distribution wasn’t working. They were looking for a better answer.

    and

    Governments and corporations have found that so-called “safe sex” programs don’t work, so they’re looking at what we’re doing to see what they can learn from our approach.

    Comment by J. Stapley — December 2, 2005 @ 5:28 pm

  3. I am always uncomfortable when people critisize the Catholic Church for their using abstinance based AIDS programs. I personaly have no problem with harm reduction models (free condoms and needels) and have worked for an AIDS clinic that followed that model. I just believe a private organization can solve problems how they want.

    As far as the LDS church goes I think we are neophites in some of the broader international development and health issues like HIV/AIDS and are getting to the size we are starting to direct our own programs instead of only piggy backing on other organizations.

    Comment by ryan lindgren — December 2, 2005 @ 8:07 pm