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RAPE AND RELIGION From the Bishop of Table Bay A young person of 18 was asked
recently, 'What do you want to be when you are 25?' The reply was: 'Alive.'
This young person was speaking in
a world in which AIDS has become a very real factor.
This is one young person (sadly one of a small minority of young
people) who is aware of the fact that the AIDS pandemic is a lethal threat
to our society, particularly to the young.
No longer can we take it for granted that we will live to 70, or
even to 50 or 40 or 25. Statistics
tell us that more and more people in South Africa will die young - because
they will be HIV positive, and this will become full-blown AIDS.
And that is a death sentence. Where AIDS is concerned we are in
a state of denial - as individuals, as communities, as a nation and as a
church. One of our CPSA
Bishops was saying the other day: 'So often we talk about HIV/AIDS in terms of
statistics that we forget or do not see the human face: the face that is
afraid, that is lonely, that is dying.
Recently a young woman knelt in front of me to be confirmed and
after I had confirmed her she asked me to bless her young baby.
They both had AIDS. They
were people with beautiful faces, and she was afraid and lonely because
they were both dying.' Care What is the church's message to
this young mother and child? Those
who have AIDS must know that we as a Church will care for them in a
pastoral and loving way. There
must be no doubt about this. That
means caring for people with the same self-giving love as we see in Jesus
and therefore in God. He
loves those with HIV/AIDS just as much as he loves us, and we who know his
unconditional love are called to express this love to them in the deepest
and the most practical ways. We
dare not allow them to die lonely and afraid. Prevention And while we minister to those
who are dying, we must be doing all in our power to prevent the spread of
the disease by educating those whom we can reach.
Our message to the members of our church is plain and
straightforward: Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again.
He bought us at a price - the price of his own life.
We are not our own. We
belong to him. He has welcomed us into a living and loving relationship with
him, which brings us great joy. He
calls us to be faithful to him, to his teaching and to his commands; and
that means living chaste and holy lives.
Sex is holy, and the enjoyment of sex belongs to the holy estate of
marriage. Christians are called to
abstinence from sexual intercourse outside marriage. With great love we
teach our young people to abstain from sexual intercourse until they are
married. And to our married
members we urge faithfulness within the holy bond of marriage. This has always been the church's standard of holy behaviour,
and it has now become a matter of life and death in this world of HIV and
AIDS. We do not wag our
fingers at young people, or at older people.
We are speaking the truth in love.
We are a Eucharistic people.
At every Eucharist Jesus feeds us with his word, his Spirit, his
Body and Blood. Our Lover comes to us and fulfils our deepest need.
We need never again be hungry or thirsty, emotionally or
spiritually, when our Lover feeds us with himself in word and sacrament,
in holy communion, holy union, far more fulfilling and lasting than any
sexual act. Therefore
Christians can practice
abstinence from extra-marital sex. And
within marriage sex is God's gift to us for the joyful enrichment and
strengthening of our love relationship.
If sex becomes anything other than that, we are abusing God's
precious gift and we must take a long and hard look at our relationship. The ABC of AIDS prevention What
do we say to those outside the church who do not have Jesus the Bread of
Life to sustain and fulfil them? We
offer them the ABC: ·
A is for Abstinence from sex outside marriage.
We commend this to people as their Maker's instruction for a
healthy and happy life. ·
B is for Be Faithful.
We say, 'If you cannot refrain from sex outside marriage, then do
be faithful to one partner. If
neither of you is HIV positive, and you are faithful to each other, you
cannot be infected.' ·
C is for Condoms. We
say, 'If you are at all unsure about your own or your partner's HIV/AIDS
status, then it is utterly irresponsible to engage in sexual activity
without the use of a condom.' I hope we do not have to speak to
Christians about the use of condoms, because we dare to expect Christians
to be faithful to the partner to whom they are married, and if not
married, to abstain. But we
have to accept that not everyone is committed to this Christian way of
life or is at that stage in their Christian life and commitment.
For such people we must encourage safer sex and the use of condoms.
I know that I will not be popular for speaking about this, but we
have a pastoral responsibility to all people, and this responsibility
demands, in the light of the AIDS pandemic, that we encourage the practice
of safer sex. The context in which our
pastoral ministry is exercised today is in a world where people are facing
the prospect of a death sentence through AIDS and it is this context that
makes it imperative for us to adopt this approach.
We are socially irresponsible if we do not speak out realistically
in a world in which God's way of holiness is not understood and God's
safety rules are ignored. Please wake up if you have not
already woken up to the extreme danger our society is in, and carry this
message home with you, to work and to school, and into the community.
We live with a promise and an assurance that we long to share with
the young person who wants to be alive when he or she is 25, and with all
people. God loves them, and wants them fully to enjoy his gift of life. September 2000 © Speak Out Terms of use |