Message of the Church is fidelity

THE EDITOR: With reference to the article by Sean Douglas titled “Would Jesus want you dead?” carried in the Newsday, I would like to make the following comments:

Mr Douglas carries on as though the warnings of Christian leaders are contributing to the widespread increase of AIDS.  Does Mr Douglas really expect religious leaders to teach people to fornicate? People do not need encouragement from the church for this. One does not hear him ranting against the Carnival bandleaders, or calypsonians, or organisers of the hornerman cruise, who promote casual sex, but he raves against religious leaders who promote fidelity. The Newsday of December 1, 2003 reported that Professor Bartholomew identified that Carnival and promiscuity were fuelling HIV/AIDS in TT.

Mr Douglas does not mention that the availability or lack of condoms is not the business of the church. The church’s primary task is to call itself and then the nation to repentance. And if we are honest, we as well as the victims of AIDS have much to repent for. The message of the church has always been fidelity. This the church’s will and must continue to teach since it cannot teach otherwise. No one, not the Pope, nor any preacher, has the authority to change this message! The church cannot teach men and women to fornicate and use a condom. The victims of AIDS (through immorality) are those who have not given heed to the message of the Church. He also neglects to mention that the churches do have programmes for victims of AIDS, in some cases moreso than other bodies.

Mr Douglas also has a wrong concept of Christ. He has this idea of a non-judgemental “gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” Certainly the Bible has a lot to say about the love of Christ, but when it comes to judgements, the Scripture never speaks in this way. Christ, himself calls people “a generation of vipers,” “whited-sepulchre,” “blind guides,” “serpents,” “child of the devil,” etc. This is the mind of Christ too! Mr Douglas asks the rhetorical question “Does Jesus want us dead?” What has this to do with condoms and AIDS? More relevant questions are “Would Jesus distribute condoms?” “Would Jesus recommend condom usage for casual sex?” The answer to these, of course, is an emphatic no! Could we imagine Christ or one of the prophets writing for a modern newspaper? Would he be gingerly or meek; would he be safe and tame and ever so careful? Would he be obsessed about respectability and qualifying every word? Christ forgave but never condoned sins, he had nothing good to say about sin.

Douglas makes much of the fact that scientifically a condom can prevent AIDS. But is this an excuse for “business as usual”? His condom message says “it’s alright to have sex with someone who has AIDS or is HIV positive, providing you use a condom.” Would Mr Douglas have sex with someone stricken with the virus while protecting himself with a condom? If no then why encourage others to do so? Why not encourage them to abstain? Mr Douglas says TT “is in a lot of trouble” because a prison officer expressed his personal views against condom distribution in prison. Are people not free to express opposing views in this country? Or is Mr Douglas saying there should be no opposition to homosexuality and immorality? Should the speakers against unrighteousness be muzzled, the stones would cry out.

Sadly, Mr Douglas sees only two options: “Either you and your sexual partner are totally faithful to each other, or if you have casual sex then you use a condom.”  Abstinence is not an option for him; he insists on casual sex, even by people infected with the virus! But abstinence is what Jesus taught and practiced Matthew 19:12: “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” Note Jesus did not address this to Christians but to everyone present at his discourse. Given the AIDS statistics the time to be a eunuch is now!

SYLVAN   JAMES
Penal