A Christian Response to HIV/AIDS #2

I think a helpful first question we can ask concerns how we arrived at this point. What can we say about the beginning of the AIDS crisis? Perhaps if we look at the root cause we can start building a response.

A firm biological answer as to how we received this virus remains elusive. Most scientists agree that HIV is a mutated form of a similar virus found in African primates, but there is debate as to how the virus spread to humanity. Some researchers argue that African hunters who were killing and eating chimpanzees and other apes and monkeys were the first to be exposed to the virus, while others suggest that HIV was first spread by a contaminated polio vaccine which was issued to over a million people in central Africa during the late 1950s. The theory is that the vaccine was prepared using infected monkey livers in a laboratory.

However, the scriptures do give us a firm theological answer as to why we have diseases like AIDS:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8.22-23)

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that there is something wrong with the world. AIDS isn’t the only symptom; earthquakes, tsunamis, cancer and human conflict all suggest that our world is not functioning as it should. In the above passage from Romans, Paul writes that the world is “groaning” under the strain of all the suffering and decay that’s going on, and we humans who are living as part of this world are groaning as well. The human race is a burdened race.

When we look back at Romans chapter 5, we see that there is one underlying cause behind all these burdens:

Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5.12)

Here we see the beginning of AIDS. When our first ancestors sinned in the Garden of Eden, it wasn’t just a case of a man and his wife eating an apple. This was the point when sin and death grabbed hold of the world, setting up shop in God’s creation. And once sin and death established themselves it’s as if they vomited all over God’s good and wonderful creation, spoiling it and leaving us with things like earthquakes, cancer, human selfishness, and HIV/AIDS.

Near the university where I used to study there was this one particular Victorian-era terrace. It was fairly run down and in need of renovation, but instead of being sold to a renovator it remained empty except for some squatters who had moved in. It wasn’t long before graffiti appeared on the walls and soon all the windows had been broken. When you looked through the windows there were mattresses on the floor which were all soiled with rubbish and syringes lying about the place. What was once a beautiful and desirable creation was now ruined. You could still see and work out how the building was meant to look like, but the present reality was far from glorious. I think this is a great metaphor for our world. Sin and evil and death have moved in and they’ve made our world far from perfect, leaving us with the rubbish and soil of disease. That’s the origin of the current HIV epidemic.

Why is it important to know this origin of HIV?

1. It puts AIDS into context.
As long as there is sin, there will always be disease – its part and parcel of living in a fallen world. We may not always have AIDS – we might find a cure one day – but we will always have epidemics of one sort or another. This doesn’t mean that we just shrug our shoulders and say “oh well, nothing we can do about it, we’ll always have this issue.” Scripture demands that we respond, and we’ll get to that response in future posts, but it does mean that we don’t have to loose our heads about this. AIDS doesn’t mean that God has lost control; rather it means that God in his wisdom has allowed sin and death to remain in his world for a time. So we live in a world where AIDS is a reality, because sin and death is a reality.

2. Knowing the origin of AIDS gives us a hint as to the nature of a possible solution. Get rid of sin and death, then you rid the world not only of AIDS but of all diseases.

Our next post will take up further the possibility of a final solution.