Summit Ministries

An article in the most recent edition of First Things summarizes the evidence on the effectiveness of various strategies of dealing with AIDS epidemic throughout much of the world, especially African nations. Essentially, he concludes that strategies based on traditional religious perspectives of human sexuality (abstention, faithfulness to one partner, etc.) are highly more effective than those relying on the typical myths associated with the high profile celebrity and U.N.-driven AIDS relief projects (that poverty and discrimination are the primary problem, condoms are the best answer, and that human sexual behavior will/can not change). The article even accounts for the evidence regarding the spread of HIV/AIDS in cases of rape (often used to discount the "choice" factor). Here is an early summary statement:

Yet such myths are held as self-evident truths by many in the AIDS establishment. And they result in efforts that are at best ineffective and at worst harmful, while the AIDS epidemic continues to spread and exact a devastating toll in human lives.

The strong credentials of the article's primary author makes the argument even more compelling. Edward C. Green is the director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. (If you do not subscribe to First Things, the article is available online here ).

Why is the establishment ignoring the evidence? Green specifically points to a Georgetown University report critical of faith-based AIDS programs which perpetuates these myths while ignoring a mountain of evidence.

Notice the Darwinian and Rousseau-ian heritage of the flawed strategies. First, sexual behavior will not change despite education towards abstaining before marriage and towards faithfulness to a single partner. There is some irony here. Why is it assumed that education can impact how one engages in sexual activity (i.e. they can be convinced to use a condom), but not whether one engages in sexual activity in certain circumstances and with certain people. The answer lies in the Darwinian assumption that humans, like animals, live by instinct. This assumption, of course, was behind the most influential report on human sexuality ever done, the Kinsey Report.

Rousseau's influence? Problems are society's fault. Thus the myth "Poverty and discrimination are the problem." The evidence does not support this. Green points to the fact that those countries with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS are the wealthier ones, and those within the countries with the highest rates are the wealthier citizens.

Conclusion? Worldviews can clarify or distort. They can mobilize us to solutions, or keep them hidden while compelling us towards false hope. Embracing these myths of human sexuality has led to strategies in the AIDS relief community that are dominant, but ineffective. Meanwhile, nations like Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe are seeing relief by embracing changes in sexual behaviors.