Twin Killers: Stigma and Silence

A theological student in India was diagnosed with HIV. Later that same day the faculty of his theological college convened and voted to discharge him from his ministerial studies. The next day the young man committed suicide.

This tragic event symbolizes how stigma kills and how it contributes to a deadly culture of silence that fuels the HIV and AIDS pandemic. If Christian churches, faculties and institutions fail to show compassion and care for persons living with HIV and AIDS, then it is inevitable that the death count from AIDS will continue to climb in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere in the world.

This incident dramatizes the need for asking questions. What if the young man had known how to protect himself from the virus? What if he had been provided counseling about how he could live a good, and possibly long, life using antiretroviral medicines? What if Christian faculty had reached out to him with understanding and loving arms, helping him see the possibilities for Christian ministry to others, especially others living with HIV and AIDS? What if his theological college had not been so judgmental, instead showing Christ-like compassion and care? What if had lived among people who encouraged programs of education and prevention? What if the sins of stigmatization and discrimination had not been so dominate in the theology and spirit of his church?

A Culture of Silence

A friend recently wrote me that the “culture of silence” in Northeast India is dangerously contributing to genocide. She indicated that her:

. . . brother died of AIDS earlier than expected because of the virus
of “silence” and his wife will follow him shortly. The culture of silence is very strong in this part of the world. I used to speak of the danger of silence, but when my own family got affected, I too was also reluctant to speak about it openly. Imagine after speaking so any times about the danger of silence, if I am finding it difficult to speak out, what will others do?

I realize that there is a great need to educate people to break the culture of silence. AIDS is spreading very fast in India, and many families are seriously affected. Many families are crying silently; pastors seldom touch on health issues in their preaching ministry. NGO’s, working among rural villages, tell me that the culture of silence is a serious matter. Several counselors report the greatest danger is “silence.” Some persons refuse to take medicine or go to hospital because of stigma associated with AIDS. They fear that other people will come to know and stop visiting them.

People are afraid to get tested because of the way people in their churches and communities may react. So instead of getting tested, they pretend they are healthy, and as a result end up infecting beloved wives or partners with HIV. This “culture of silence’ prohibits people from learning how to protect themselves from this vicious virus, since church people especially are afraid to talk candidly about human sexuality. Further church people often pretend that the trade in dangerous intraveneous drugs so rampant in many regions of the world is not impacting persons within their church.

Denial combined with stigma and silence inhibits people from openly advocating policies of prevention and care, and thus contributes significantly to the spread of the pandemic. Roaming freely in the world are two twin killers: stigma and silence.

The Deafening Sound of Silence
More than 25 years into the global HIV and AIDS pandemic, and after more than 65 million persons have been infected, a culture and conspiracy of silence still prevails in many places. Nowhere has the sound of silence been more deafening than in the sanctuaries of most local churches and in the classrooms of most theological colleges and seminaries. Christians and other religious groups continue to fuel the pandemic by helping to create stigma. Despite widespread death and suffering throughout the world, combating HIV and AIDS simply is not a priority for most of the people who claim to follow the Great Physician, Jesus the Christ.

God calls Christians to denounce the sin of stigmatization and to shatter the culture and conspiracy of silence by addressing the defining issue of the 21st century: the global HIV and AIDS crisis. For far too long most church leaders, of all denominations and descriptions, have been on the sideline of the world’s worst health crisis in 700 years. In the words of the statement issued by the Christian Conference of Asia,

• "Churches and faith-based organizations are challenged to follow in the footsteps of the Lord:
  · Who stood with people who were marginalized, discriminated against and stigmatized—who healed not only physical ailments but understood and healed the deep scars and wounds inflicted by society
  · Who wept and empathized with human suffering.”