Faith

Condoms `Promote Sin' in Papua New Guinea as AIDS, Faith Cross

By Simeon Bennett

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Godfrey Wippon, the pastor of Papua New Guinea's 70,000-member Revival Fellowship Church, has a simple HIV-prevention message for his flock.``Flee from sin, flee from committing adultery and fornication,'' Wippon, 56, said in a telephone interview from Goroka, in the country's Eastern Highlands. ``If you are a church and you're issuing condoms, you are promoting sin and you're anti-Christ.'' Those infected should turn to God, who has healed 40 church members of HIV, Wippon said.Religion has helped and hindered global health officials battling HIV. While faith-based groups care for AIDS patients, efforts to slow infection have been stymied by religious beliefs and practices. These include Islamic prohibitions against gay sex, which shames gays in Malaysia from responding to prevention efforts, and opposition to circumcision by Hindus and Sikhs in India, global health officials said.``On one hand, some faith-based organizations may be the greatest providers of care and support,'' said Sally Smith, an adviser on faith-based partnerships for UNAIDS, the United Nations' HIV agency. On the other hand, she said, reactions by some religious leaders ``haven't always been positive.''The role religion plays in the fight against HIV is under discussion at the world's biggest AIDS conference, taking place this week in Mexico City. The six-day meeting of 25,000 researchers, health workers and activists features about 100 poster presentations on faith and HIV. It was preceded by a separate summit for Christian groups working with patients.Changing Views``Ten to 15 years ago it was something you didn't talk about,'' Smith said in a July 18 telephone interview from Geneva. ``Now everybody you talk to is saying, `Oh yes, we are just about to start work with faith communities.'''In India, even discussing circumcision to help prevent HIV has run up against historic tensions between Hindus and Muslims. Circumcision reduces men's risk of contracting HIV by at least half and could prevent 5.7 million new infections and 3 million deaths over two decades in Africa, according to the UN's World Health Organization.``For various reasons, religious and otherwise, it has been identified as a very non-Hindu procedure,'' said Nomita Chandhiok, deputy director-general of reproductive health and nutrition at the Indian Council of Medical Research.India has 2.5 million HIV sufferers, according to a November estimate by UNAIDS. The agency reduced the number from 5.7 million, which would have been the largest total for any country, citing improved surveillance. Almost 90 percent of transmission is through unsafe sex, according to India's National AIDS Control Organization.Twice as LikelyA study published last year in the journal AIDS found that uncircumcised homeless Hindu men in Kolkata were more than twice as likely to have HIV as circumcised homeless Muslim men, even though the Muslims had more sexual partners and more frequent contact with prostitutes.The medical procedure is seen as a mark of religious identity, says Shivananda Khan, an AIDS activist and chief executive officer of Naz Foundation International. The a London- based group works to prevent HIV among gay and bisexual men in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.``Because my family name is Khan, people think I'm a Muslim,'' he said in a July 11 interview. ``I've been questioned by various intelligence agencies in different parts of this region as to what I do, who I am, and am I a Muslim. In one situation the only way I could prove I was not a Muslim was to take my pants down and say, `See, I'm not circumcised.'''Truck Driver's OpinionGurdev Singh, a 44-year-old truck driver, says he doesn't care what the benefits are. As a Sikh, he says the procedure is unthinkable.``Only Muslims circumcise,'' Singh said at a road stop in Hosur, on the outskirts of Bangalore. ``I will not circumcise as it is against my beliefs.''In Malaysia, where about half the population is Muslim, officials don't need to promote circumcision. The challenge lies in prevention among gay men and bisexuals, AIDS activists say. The Koran and Malaysian law prohibit sex between men.``For Islam it's non-negotiable,'' said Adeeba Kamarulzaman, chairwoman of the Malaysian AIDS Council. ``Homosexuality is `haram,' full-stop,'' she said, using the Arabic word for forbidden, in a July 16 telephone interview.New HIV infections among gay and bisexual men in Malaysia rose to 184 last year from 51 in 2002, according to the council's data. The real number is probably higher, said Raymond Tai, acting executive director of the Kuala Lumpur-based PT Foundation, which promotes safe sexual practices to gay men.More InfectionsIn Papua New Guinea, where 97 percent of people say they are Christian, health officials expect 5 percent of the population to be infected with HIV by 2012, compared with 2 percent this year. AIDS is the main cause of hospital admissions and deaths.From the beginning of the epidemic, established denominations such as the Catholic and Anglican churches have provided care, counseling and testing services ``when the government was in denial,'' said Richard Eves, an anthropologist at the Australian National University who edited a book on HIV and Christianity in Papua New Guinea.More recently, evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal churches such as Wippon's Revival Fellowship have flourished, promoting a form of Christianity that characterizes HIV as ``the wages of sin,'' Eves said in a July 17 telephone interview.To contact the reporters on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net;Last Updated: August 3, 2008 00:01 EDT

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