TORONTO, Aug 14, 2006 (AFP) - Faith activists on Monday called on religious leaders to shun Biblical terms like "scourge" when discussing AIDS and to use places of worship to battle a disease that respects no creed.
There were also calls from the sidelines of the 16th International AIDS conference here for apologies from leaders of some religions judged deficient in the fight against an epidemic which has killed 25 million people.
"We encourage people not to speak about 'a scourge.' A scourge is a biblical term that says a punishment from God," said Reverend Jape Heath, Secretary General of the African Network of Religious Leaders living with or affected by HIV and AIDS.
"Just by using the word, it emphasizes the view that God is punishing humanity," he told reporters.
Others went further, saying religious leaders must apologize for inaction faced with the epidemic which has killed 25 million people worldwide.
"We must publicly confess and repent of our complicity in the stigmatization of people who live with HIV/AIDS and the marginalization of people with HIV and AIDS, particularly women and children," said Bishop Mark Hanson, head of the US Evangelical Lutheran Church.
"We have to be honest that our silence has made us complicit, that our shaming deeds and words ... the way we have formed moral arguments ... and by our patriarchal structures, we have been complicit," he said.
Specifically, the elevation of morality above pragmatism in sex education and AIDS prevention has been troublesome, he said. It has led to demonizing of condom use, for example.
Notably absent from the discussion were the Roman Catholic Church and Muslim leaders, who some in the anti-AIDs community target as the main offenders.
While it would be wrong to say such groups have completely dodged the battle against AIDS, their actions have "done more harm than good," Heath said.
Many have preached abstinence, cared for the sick, and reached out to console people after they bury their dead.
"Quite frankly, as a person living with HIV, I don't want my faith community to say to me: 'Shame, shame, let me help you die,'" Heath said.
"When we approach prevention messages from a moralistic point of view, we will increase the stigma which will lead to more people facing challenges to access care."
Hanson noted there was increasing cooperation in religious circles on ending hunger and poverty, but the AIDS issue had fallen through the cracks.
Churches, mosques, synagogues and temples as community cornerstones have a tremendous opportunity to become central in the fight against AIDS too, said Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai, director of the Chiang Mai Buddhist College in Thailand.
Efforts to include religious leaders after the last AIDS conference in Bangkok in 2004 to help with disease and sex education and prevention programs have been effective, said Bishnu Ghimire, director of the Active Service Society in Nepal.
"Young people, in particular, accepted religious leaders' advice. People were happy to listen to them and trusted them," she said.
And when religious leaders were educated about AIDS, they softened their rhetoric, she added. They should be tested for the disease themselves and publish the results for the experience, Hanson said.
However, the work of Buddhist monks in Southeast Asia has been hush-hush, Doojai conceded, because the AIDS issue is still "very, very controversial".
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