2005 Abstaining from AIDS

"I think the tremendous publicity that this has received shows the incredible eagerness of many people to try to latch on to anything that might prove that condoms are the answer."

Norman Hearst AIDS researcher

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--No good evidence exists to prove that condoms are the most effective method to curb the spread of AIDS in most societies, Norman Hearst of the University of California, San Francisco told Baptist Press.
      Hearst has been involved in AIDS research for more than 20 years, and two years ago he was commissioned by UNAIDS -- the joint United Nations program on HIV/AIDS -- to conduct a review of what's known about how well condoms work for AIDS prevention.
      The medical doctor and professor of family and community medicine and epidemiology and bio statistics concluded that condoms are not the answer to stopping the worldwide AIDS epidemic.

"I really believe we're missing an incredible witness of who Christ is and His power by not telling young people worldwide that with God's help they really can not have sex until they're married and receive all that God has for them."

AIDS worker Sharon Pumpelly on the need to promote abstinence over condoms

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--In sub-Sahara Africa, more than 6,000 AIDS victims die each day and more than 8,700 new infections occur each month, underscoring the tremendous need to implement effective prevention methods among those who are still healthy.
      International Mission Board workers Larry and Sharon Pumpelly believe that despite resistance by government entities and cultures, they are seeing progress in the acceptance of abstinence and faithfulness promotion in the fight against AIDS.
      Sharon said government organizations such as the U.S. Agency for International Development are progressively more open to funding faith-based organizations that promote abstinence over condoms in AIDS prevention.
      "There are still people in those organizations who will probably never see that abstinence is a strong viable choice, but there are others who will look at the facts even from their own research and say abstinence is at least one good choice and would be very much in favor of giving support to faith-based organizations," Sharon told Baptist Press.

'Nobody believed that the rates were coming down and nobody believed that it had anything to do with abstinence and faithfulness ... My recommendation: Put more resources into abstinence and faithfulness. That was 12 years ago.'

Edward C. Green, a Harvard researcher, on why abstinence and faithfulness are not being widely promoted in AIDS prevention

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A deadly virus is sweeping through nations, killing millions, and if people don't want to catch it, they must consider changing their sexual behavior, a Harvard researcher told Baptist Press.
      The public health establishment, meanwhile, has failed to recognize the obvious in assessing AIDS prevention methods because it fears endorsing a perceived religious conservatism related to abstinence and faithfulness, Edward C. Green, a research scientist at Harvard University and author of "Rethinking AIDS Prevention," said.
      "It's so insane that [abstinence and faithfulness] has not been part of the advice from the beginning," Green said.

"Data that could save lives is being ignored -- at the cost of millions of lives. That's a great abuse of human rights because you would have saved 3 to 5 million lives if the ABC data was recognized and used years earlier."

Rand Stoneburner CDC epidemiologist

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The U.S. Agency for International Development has dismissed a report by a Harvard professor which says abstinence is the method that has worked best in dramatically reducing the AIDS epidemic in Uganda, according to Focus on the Family's Citizen magazine. USAID instead tapped a nationally known condom advocate to conduct another study that shed a more favorable light on the role of condoms in Uganda's success.
      For the first of a two-part series on the American government's discrimination against abstinence and faith-based programs in distributing AIDS prevention funds overseas, Citizen interviewed Edward C. Green, an anthropologist at Harvard University and the lead author of a study financed by USAID that found abstinence to be more effective than condoms in reducing the spread of AIDS in Uganda.

AIDS epidemic In this 1998 file photo, Southern Baptist missionary doctor Larry Pepper examines an AIDS patient at the Mbarara University Teaching Hospital in Mbarara, Uganda. Although the AIDS rate has declined in Uganda, it has risen in other parts of Africa. Photo by Matt Jones

MBARARA, Uganda (BP)--The HIV/AIDS epidemic ravaging more than 39 million lives around the world cannot be stopped with mere money, says a Southern Baptist missionary who has battled the disease in Africa for a decade.
      The only hope, says Sharon Pumpelly, is for Christians to rise up and engage communities with counseling, education -- and the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ.
      Recent reports from the United Nations estimate that the global HIV/AIDS epidemic killed more than 3 million people in 2004.