""Is this an issue that should split a communion when our attention should be focused on people dying of malaria and children with Aids in Africa?"
-- The Rev Susan Russell"
This is the red herring of red herrings, so often used in ongoing discussions about homosexuality in the Anglican Communion. Why are we so upset about this when there are children dying of AIDS in Africa? Why are we wasting our time when so on and so forth. In other words, they would say, this issue is so boring and unimportant - and social issues are so much more important than moral ones. Well... let's see.
Why do children in African have AIDS? Why is AIDS a problem in first place? Is this really just a social issue? First, the why. HIV is a very simple virus. It is transmitted through four bodily fluids. When any of the four gain contact with infected fluids from an infected person - there is the possibility that the virus can be transmitted. The four bodily fluids are - semen, breastmilk, blood, and vaginal fluid. That's it. HIV can only be stopped by keeping those fluids when infected from mixing. But this cannot be accomplished through simple barriers. HIV is contracted through a lifestyle, not by some sort of failure to prevent the fluids from contact. The reason being that risk is risk. Sometimes precaution is used, and other times not. It still remains that the best way to contract HIV is by promiscuity, heroin and cocaine use, and homosexual sex. When we speak of children with AIDS, we speak of victims of their parents and their parents moral (or immoral as the case may be) lifestyles. We further speak of a lack of medical care, as children can indeed be born to infected mothers by Caesarean Section without being infected. But, this would not be an issue were it not for an immoral lifestyle.
Of course, the issue is more complex. Africa is plagued by a problem of absent fathers, seeking work and leaving their families. In the industrial centers, they are faced with a myriad of temptations, and being outside of the family, the entire structure meant to keep them from that temptation, they have their difficulties. Prostitution, homosexuality, and drug use all plague these men. Upon returning home, they infect their wives, and then their children. The subheading for all of this is not social injustice, but immorality, and immorality which the Church in Africa is fighting against. At least at times. When African Christians are tempted to simple solutions like condoms, they are tempted to swap morality for a social quick fix. They are told - morality will not solve such a complex problem. Do not trust in it. Trust in latex instead.
Thus we say - "abandon the institution of marriage like we have." Of course, our track record is not stellar either. The divorce rate in the U.S. sits right above %50 all the time. We have an illegitimacy rate of %33. This is a picture of a society that is crumbling - because the basic unit - the family - is crumbling. And it is no wonder that a crumbling society is an easy target for HIV/AIDS. It is simple. Marriage between a man and a woman is the cure for AIDS. Marriage - without condoms and without barrier is our hope. Marriages in which children are treasured and fathers are present renew society.
But, Susan Russell and the liberal establishment are anti-family, and this is the key to understanding their disastrous outlook. They champion abortion rights. They push for contraception to be a centerpiece of American life - and it already is. They call for sexual relationships in which children are not even a possibility. In this worldview - careers are more important than children, who are now raised by corporations and the public school system rather than parents.
It is a brave new world, but it is not a moral world. It is a world of oppression - oppression of women and victimization of children. It is a world vulnerable to the plague of HIV, to financial collapse, and in the end - anarchy. So people wonder why Christians fight so hard over moral issues like homosexuality, why we "waste our time." Amazing.
