South Africas top Anglican cleric on Tuesday accused religious leaders of failing to confront the global AIDS crisis, saying “the church has never been good at dealing sensibly with sex”, several South African newsmedia reported.
Cape Town Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, whose country is the hardest hit in the world by AIDS with some one out of nine people infected, said too many churches were contributing to the stigma (fordomme, red.) surrounding the disease rather than fighting it.
– We must acknowledge that HIV/AIDS has challenged the church on a number of levels, Ndungane said in remarks released ahead of a British conference on AIDS and the church.
Ndungane, who succeeded Nobel Peace prize winner and anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu as Cape Towns Anglican archbishop, said the AIDS epidemic highlighted the “shameful” role churches have played in perpetuating discrimination.
– We have privileged men over women and rich over poor. It is a disgrace – and I am ashamed the church has been part of it, Ndungane said.
– The church has… too often condemned, as though sexual sin were the worst sin, and as though all those who are infected “deserved it”, added he.
Ndungane has been outspoken on the AIDS crisis in South Africa, where activists accuse President Thabo Mbekis government of doing too little to fight an epidemic that infects more than five million South Africans.
Ndungane said too many churches continued to regard AIDS as “Gods retribution” rather than a human disease and were failing to provide the support that sick people need.
Kilde: Alertnet
