Responding to the AIDS Crisis

As Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) threatens to reach epidemic proportions, and officials propose measures to curb the disease, health concerns are becoming moral concerns. Issues such as advertising condoms on television and broadening the scope of sex education have stirred spirited debate in the nation’s religious, political, and health communities.

AIDS is a contagious disease that cripples the body’s immune system. It is spread primarily through sexual intercourse and exchanges of blood. According to the Centers for Disease Control, AIDS has been diagnosed in more than 30,000 Americans since 1979.

The fatal disease primarily affects male homosexuals and intravenous drug users, but about 4 percent of the cases have occurred among heterosexuals. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Otis Bowen estimates that within five years, more than 10 percent of AIDS cases will be among heterosexuals.

Last year U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop issued a major report on AIDS (CT, Dec. 12, 1986, p. 52). The report called on Americans to maintain “mutually faithful monogamous sexual relationships.” For those who engage in promiscuous sex, Koop recommended the use of condoms to avoid spreading the disease. Koop’s report also said sex education in schools should begin “at the lowest grade possible.… There is no doubt that we need sex education in schools and that it must include [information about] heterosexual and homosexual relationships.”

Defending His Policies

The surgeon general’s report raised the hackles of some conservatives, who said it was too accepting of extramarital sex. Koop, an outspoken Christian, has spent the early part of this year defending his AIDS policy before religious groups. At Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Koop said the strongest criticism had come from his former allies: political conservatives and evangelical Christians. On another occasion, he reported receiving a “tremendous amount of hate mail” from conservative Christians.

In February, Koop argued his case before the National Religious Broadcasters convention. He asked the organization to join him in the “fundamentally moral crusade [against the] brutal, humiliating, and fatal disease.” He repeated his assertion that apart from sexual abstinence or a “mutually faithful, monogamous relationship,” the best protection against AIDS is the use of a condom. While he may be disappointed that people “engage willingly and knowingly in sexual and drug-taking practices that risk their own lives,” Koop said, “[my] moral bottom line” as a public health official is to save lives.

Koop repeated his advice that AIDS education should begin in “early elementary school and at home.” And he stressed the importance of teaching values and responsibility in sex education programs.

The Condom Controversy

Among the most controversial of the surgeon general’s recommendations is promoting the use of condoms to curb the spread of AIDS. At a congressional hearing, Koop said he supports the advertising of condoms in the print and broadcast media. “The threat of AIDS is so great that it overwhelms other considerations,” he said, adding that such advertising would have a “positive public health value.”

U.S. Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Calif.) voiced opposition, citing condoms’ potential for failure. He said it is a “delusion” to present the device as a means of protection. Dannemeyer argued that advocating the use of condoms would reinforce a “permissive lifestyle” and undermine efforts to promote abstinence, heterosexuality, and monogamy.

Religious groups are divided in their response to condom advertising. The National Council of Churches Communications Commission voted to “encourage responsible advertising of preventive methods to the spread of AIDS including abstinence and the use of condoms.”

In contrast, the Catholic Church, which opposes artificial birth control, also opposes the promotion of condoms as a way to stop the spread of AIDS. Daniel Hoye, general secretary of the U.S. Catholic Conference, called the advertisements “a short-sighted, self-defeating, and ultimately false solution to a serious moral problem.”

Conservative Protestants are also wary of the advertising. Curt Young, executive director of the Christian Action Council, said he opposes the ads because he does not want public health education to be left in the hands of condom manufacturers. “I don’t think they can be trusted to educate the public …,” he said. “They can be trusted to promote and sell their product—largely to a heterosexual audience.”

David McKenna, president of Asbury Theological Seminary, has voiced similar concerns. “It is sad enough to abandon ‘moral sex’ for ‘safe sex’ and ‘smart sex,’ ” he said. “But it is inexcusable to learn that we are being ripped off by ‘market sex.’ ”

The Washington, D.C. based Family Research Council expressed concern about the values communicated by condom ads. “[Such advertising] does not support marital relationships,” said council president Jerry Regier, “but promotes a permissive attitude toward promiscuity.…”

Sex Education

Surgeon General Koop has also generated controversy with his calls for early education about sex and AIDS. A U.S. Conference of Mayors survey found that of the country’s 73 largest school districts, 40 already have AIDS education, and 23 others plan to introduce a program this fall.

Forrest Turpen, executive director of the Christian Educators Association, said his organization is urging Christian parents to provide leadership and guidance in choosing public school curricula. “If any AIDS education is taught, we want it to have abstinence as a primary focus,” Turpen said, “and a monogamous relationship within marriage as the only way AIDS will be defeated.”

The AIDS issue is not expected to have much effect on how Christian schools approach sex education. “Most Christian schools do speak to sex education, but start from a spiritual and moral perspective rather than a technician perspective,” said Jerry Carlson, executive director of the American Association of Christian Schools. He added that since most of the schools are church ministries, sex education is “bound up in the total ministry of the church and the home.” Carlson said AIDS should only serve to “heighten the schools’ sensitivity to teaching spiritual and moral responsibility.”

President Reagan, as well, backs educational efforts that emphasize moral sexual behavior. According to White House sources, the President believes “any information [about AIDS] that might be used in public schools should teach that children should not engage in sex, and [the information] should be used with the consent and involvement of parents.”

Christians Respond

Segments of the religious community are taking steps to address the AIDS crisis. The Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention is developing materials designed to interpret the problems of AIDS within a Christian context. The Family Research Council is preparing a survey of sex education curricula that are value-based. The organization plans to release the survey results as a resource for parents.

The Josh McDowell Ministry has been in contact with the surgeon general’s office and the White House as the Reagan Administration develops a framework for addressing public education about AIDS. McDowell supplied the White House with his “Adolescent Sexuality Research Digest,” a compilation of data on teenage sexuality, the consequences of premarital sex, and the factors contributing to increased adolescent sexual activity. McDowell has said he would like to see the promotion of sexual abstinence among youth.

Some are urging that Christians become more outspoken in appealing to society’s moral conscience. The Christian Action Council’s Curt Young said the church is responsible for upholding biblical sexual norms and preaching repentance. “My fear is that evangelicals, with as great a lack of courage as they tend to have in the public arena, will be afraid to advocate the biblical norm because they don’t want to face accusations of moralizing.”

For his part, Koop welcomes the help of Christians. In his speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, he spoke of the time when he and the late Francis Schaeffer were touring the country speaking out against abortion. “… We were frequently very discouraged by the response of many evangelicals,” Koop said. “They drew their skirts about them and shunned the issue of abortion. In due time they’ve come around and have become activists in the prolife movement. My plea to you today is not to repeat that slice of history.”

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