Nov 28 2008
Should Churches Should be ‘Nonjudgmental’ about Behavior That Transmits HIV?
[CNS News]
At a telephone news conference in advance of World AIDS Day, AIDS activist groups and representatives of various religious groups said that counseling teens and others to be abstinent and restricting sex to marriage just isn’t “realistic,” and called on churches and the incoming Obama administration to deal with HIV/AIDS in a “truthful” and “medically accurate way.”
The Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, executive for health and wholeness advocacy in the national offices of the United Church of Christ, said the church should be “nonjudgmental” when it comes to HIV/AIDS – and cited a recent workshop he attended as an example of how the Church should act.
“The young people in that workshop were so grateful that faith leaders were willing to be real with them, create a safe space for them to ask questions – to share their views, experiences and ideas, and to provide them with value-based, medically accurate information, along with the tools for making healthy and responsible decisions,” he said.
The religious leader called on churches and “faith perspectives” not to engage in what he called “stigma” and “discrimination” – and appealed to Christian tradition to make his point.
“(Jesus) sent his disciples out to heal the sick, and he encouraged people of faith to be alert and ready, saying, ‘If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into,’” Schuenemeyer said.
“In terms of HIV, we already know how HIV breaks into the body and robs the immune system of its capacity to respond to disease,” he added. “But too many people, young and old, are not effectively prepared with the information and tools they need to prevent an infection.”
But Schuenemeyer balked when CNSNews.com asked why religious groups shouldn’t label risky behavior the way religion has traditionally regarded it — as immoral.
Read more here.
[From me]
Did they stop reading the Bible? Paul makes it clear that sex outside of marriage is immoral.
Galatians 5:19
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery
Ephesians 5:3
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people
Colossians 3:5-6
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming
I Thessalonians 4:3
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality
What non-believers do is their business. They can chose to sin if they want. But as believers and especially ministers we must tell people the truth even if it does hurt their feelings. God created sex for one purpose to be between a married man and woman. Multiple partners no matter what sex is sinful. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t love those who engage in immoral behavior. Believers need to love them too. We should love them enough to tell them the truth. Sex outside of a heterosexual marriage relationship is sin according to God.
What do you think?
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11 responses so far
The most hateful thing we can do is to NOT speak the truth in love to others. We must point people to truth and life. We must warn people from lies and death.
David Richardson’s last blog post..Deceiving Appearances
If believers don’t tell the truth or cower under pressure from the world, who will tell the truth? The media? The lost? The government?
Church, it is time to arise…be known more than the pretty building on the corner, or the church with the funny signs, or the place that is so pretty that all brides want to marry there…the church must come alive!
M. Steve Heartsill’s last blog post..A Little Shrimp on the Mall of Life Treadmill
Whatever happened to, “Yes we can!” Does that only apply if it is used as a meaningless politicial slogan? Why can’t these leaders trust in the word of God and speak the truth?
Neil’s last blog post..The Nutcracker Ballet (the “t” is silent)
Kevin, speaking the truth is not enough if your goal is to help people, rather than let them die. I totally agree with you that we should not abandon morality in the face of pressure from the secular world, but this is not a question of whether you will engage in sexual immorality, the question is whether or not you will talk to and counsel a teen in a loving and patient way who has factual questions, who has not yet made up their mind for themselves.
People do not convert people to Jesus by cramming morality down their throats, the Holy Spirit converts people, and the Holy Spirit only exists where there is love and understanding. If a teen is on the fence between becoming a God-fearing Christian and joining the rest of the world, the worst thing you can do is to cram your beliefs down their throat when they are not ready or willing to hear it. The teens in this HIV workshop did not want someone to think for them, they wanted to make up their own minds. If they flat out ask you what the Bible says about sexual immorality, then by all means let them know, but the teens wanted to know more than just a moral stance, they want to know the facts that lead to the moral stance.
The really scary thing is, religious people bash the secular world all the time for how immoral it is compared to the religious world, but the scary thing is that if what these teens really need right now is someone to talk with honestly and in a non-judgmental way, they WILL find a kind person like that in the secular world. And if my mind was not made up and I had to choose between someone talking to me in a loving way and waiting for me to make up my own mind, and someone who crams their Biblical morality down my throat when that is not what I was asking for and not what I felt I needed at that time, I would choose to talk to the secular world person, and ultimately I would never hear the point of view of the Christian.
Basically, when you talk to someone, know your target audience. Yes, it would be nice to fix the immorality of the world, but first we must fix the immorality in ourselves, and that involves restraining ourselves when we want to rail on a teen and tell them how immoral they are. If a teen needs someone to give them facts in a non-judgmental way, someone who is patient with the teen and waits for the teen to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, we are not doing Jesus justice if we fail to strive toward His high standard of love and patience.
Ben,
I’m not talking about fixing anyone. The problem is when “church” people ignore the Bible. The Bible makes it clear that their are things we are not suppose to do. If we just say for example that “gossip” is not a sin then everyone would go around talking about each other behind their backs. Sin is sin. I agree that we shouldn’t be judgmental. That is what this site is about. But there is a difference between being judgmental and warning someone that they are astray. When I get out of line I want to know because I don’t want to hurt me or anyone else.
The problem is the teaching isn’t always about pleasing God. The fear tactic of punishment for having sex is often used. “If you have sex out of marriage, then God will punish you with HIV or pregnancy.” Be biblical about it. Churches need to make it about the relationship with Christ and acknowledge that sexual urges are normal. The curiosity is there and it needs to be dealt with in honest ways. Telling a person to pray when feeling tempted is sadly a joke because then we’ve once again turned God into a genie. We can talk about it being a sin, but how are we going to help the problem. (sermons on gossip are fake when the prayer sharing turns to gossip and isn’t stopped)
Janna,
I agree it shouldn’t be fear. It should be about Abundant Life. You can’t have one if tou die from immoral practices.
Romans 1:18 thru 3:20 is sandwiched between Paul’s words “For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith” (1:17) and “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (3:21). Everything written between those two verses are written to make the case for the righteousness of God. Paul lists out a lot of sins in chapter 1, and truly “those who practice such things are deserving of death…” (1:32) But his point is not that we’re to go around warning people. His point is that these things are the evidence of the fact that people are sinners.
Does anyone pay attention to what verse 24 says? Therefore GOD gave them (all of mankind, if you follow all the them’s, they’s and their’s) up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts…” Previously in verse 19 Paul says, “because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for GOD has shown it to them…. but as per verse 18, people have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness.
My point is… GOD has revealed Himself, and GOD gave people over to uncleanness. Who are we to try to undo what God has done? However… like I said… 1:18 thru 3:20 sandwiches a long description by Paul of sin and unrighteousness… only to be followed up by the truth that the world needs. What follows 3:20 is what we need to share with people. “For there is NO DIFFERENCE; for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY HIS GRACE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS.
The individual sins aren’t the point. All have sinned, and God Himself has revealed Himself to people in the ways mentioned in Romans 1. It’s not about warning people about individual sins. Most people will acknowledge that they sin, whether you give them a list or not. That’s all that’s needed to share with them the good news that they can be justified FREELY by God’s grace through Jesus. It’s not our job to fix their sins, as others have said here. Our ‘job’ (which should be done out of love and not out of duty) is to walk our beautiful feet around and spread the good news!
Joel B’s last blog post..My cup runneth over
As for the church itself, I like Paul’s words in 1 Cor 6:12 and 10:13, and Col 3:6.
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. (1 Cor 6:12)
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify (1 Cor 10:13)
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. (Col 3:5-7 - see also surrounding context)
Paul doesn’t contradict himself. All things are lawful for us. We can do whatever we want. But not all things edify, not all things are helpful, and we don’t want to be brought under the power of certain things. We can keep doing those things… but why would we want to? God’s wrath is coming upon those who aren’t in Christ, because of those things, so why should we who are filled with Christ’s Spirit even think about continuing in those things. We ourselves aren’t subject to God’s wrath, because we’ve been freely justified by His grace, but if those are things that bring about God’s wrath, then why should we do them?
Joel B’s last blog post..My cup runneth over
Was King Solomon somehow exempted from the laws about sexual purity? How many wives and live-in whores did he have? I never can remember.
Schuenemeyer, and many other so called ‘religious leaders’, including Solomon, Francoise, are all ignoring what God has said about this issue and are taking the easy, world’s, way out.
Yes, we know how AIDS gets spread. The true church calls it sexual immorality.
If you abstain from sex outside marrage, you’ll have a much better chance of NOT contracting AIDS. The world’s view is, since you’re going to have sex anyway, to keep from spreading the disease, use a condom.
So who do we listen to? People like Schuenemeyer?
He doesn’t have a thing to say to me that makes any sense at all.
JeraldD’s last blog post..Is Salvation More Than Forgiveness?