Patricia Watson, Staff Reporter
JAMAICAN CHURCHES are being accused of facilitating the spread of HIV/AIDS here by not fully supporting an active sex education campaign to fight the disease.
"The behaviour of the church shows, ironically, disregard for the saving of lives while holding doctrines and dogma in higher esteem, remaining loyal only to their inherited interpretations of the bible," said Jamaican Marvin Gunter, who is chairman of the Caribbean Regional AIDS Network.
According to Mr. Gunter, who was attending the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, last week, while it is important for churches to stick to their convictions, the churches, based on their attitude, a refusal to foster sex education, and their moral and ethical stances have done nothing to curb the rate of infection among its members.
He explained that the infection has been allowed to spread among church communities with little or no kind of pastoral intervention.
"Church members perceive themselves as having a holy calling and in this light are immune to such kinds of infectious diseases," said Mr. Gunter, who is an HIV instructor/trainer and a member of the local HIV Advisory Com-mittee. "Therefore they have little feeling for HIV issues or people living with AIDS (PLWA)."
Mr. Gunter made his pronouncements in front of a packed audience at one of the sessions at the conference. His presentation was entitled "Jamaica's Religious Culture and its Role in the Acceleration of HIV".
He explained that the reinforcement of stereotypes and the sustained stigmatisation of AIDS victims by the church made it difficult for them to learn and understand how to protect themselves in activities which could lead to HIV infection. Mr. Gunter pointed to an incident earlier this year in which the pastor of a church refused to bury his Sunday School teacher because she was suspected to have died from an AIDS-related illness.
"Experiences like these beg the question: Why does the church perpetuate this unfeeling perception of HIV and PLWA?" Mr. Gunter asked.
According to him, it does not help that HIV is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) which the church deems as nastier and dirtier than other diseases.
"There is the perception that STIs are a punishment for improprietous sexual transactions. Therefore, an STI is deserved where the sex act is carried out without the benefit of marriage," Mr. Gunter explained.
He said mainstream religious groups such as the Catholics, Baptists, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses do teach sex issues. However, he said many churches do not entertain the slightest notion of sex education and therefore does not address HIV/AIDS from any practical standpoint.
The church's stance on condom distribution in prisons was another example given by Mr. Gunter on how the church has facilitated the spread of HIV.
"In 1999 there was much sensationalism as to the rate of HIV infection in our prisons...one suggestion was the distribution of condoms in prisons," Mr. Gunter noted. According to him, this suggestion was flatly refused by the Jamaica Council of Churches and "...a deacon, politician and talk show host described the scenario as the institutionalisation of HIV/AIDS in our prisons."
Mr. Gunter said the church in Jamaica promotes the spread of HIV through its exclusion of condom use in its teachings and its refusal to accept the existence of same-sex relationship and infidelity.
"We need to understand that sex is not dirty and nasty," he said. "Only then will we feel comfortable in 'breaking the silence', increase the talking, thus promoting protection strategies."
