Separation of Church and Aids

The World AIDS Day has just passed and all the leaders of all the worlds have made their speeches pledging to do more to fight it. Living in North America, I cannot help but be bothered by the “abstinence first” campaign. While it is true that not having sex is the most successful way of preventing the acquisition of HIV, it is the least successful way of population-wide prevention. The reason is simple, sex is one of the few truly natural urges we human have. To ask people not to have sex to prevent STD is like asking people not to eat to prevent food poisoning. It is just not realistic. The promotion of sexual hygiene is the only way to go. Unfortunately, the churches and the political right somehow are fixated on controlling the sexual behaviour of the young. They are less concerned with deceases than with using them to control sexual behaviours. They want people to have sex with those who are officially sanctioned. Meanwhile, people are dying from a host of highly preventable deceases. They really do not care if millions die so long as a few stop having sex outside of sanctioned marriages. Ideology usurps the mission of the works—to save lives. This is just one example of why these kinds of work should not have any religious flavour at all.