Pray Away Illness? The Role of Faith in Overcoming HIV/AIDS
- Aieshwarya Davis
- Apr 17, 2018
- 2 min read
“Well, what can I say? It did happen, but we also ask them to go to the hospital.” This is the answer a representative of the Young Women’s Christian Association in Kampala gave when asked how the organization dealt with those who claimed that they were “cured” of HIV/AIDS through prayer and healing. This narrative is one that our delegation was not prepared for but was one we kept encountering during our time in Uganda. The role of faith in combatting HIV/AIDS has proven to be incredibly crucial in Uganda thereby adding another layer of complication for civil society organizations and other actors to do their jobs in sensitization and treatment.
With the female population disproportionally affected by HIV, it came as a surprise that while there are organizations working towards sensitizing communities about the virus, on a parallel, there are also certain factions of the Christian faith that urge their believers to in fact “pray away the AIDS” instead of acquiring treatment or being tested. Staging “testimonies,” misquoting the Bible and holding “healing” camps, Uganda’s newest faction of the “born again” Christians pose a significant threat to the years of hard work done by organizations in the HIV/AIDS community. This particular movement is even more dangerous as it not only stigmatizes the idea of getting tested but also prompts its followers not to receive treatment and take medication thereby encouraging them to meet their death while waiting for their healing. The propaganda of the new born again Christians in Uganda has even swayed the leaders of various international organizations and influential people within the community.
Faith plays a significant role in almost all of Ugandan society irrespective of economic status, and thus, can play a vital source of sensitization and education but also could be a strong means to convey erroneous messages. The root of the problem which we deciphered from various meetings with organizations working on HIV/AIDS-related issues, was that there were jarringly contrasting messages being given by various social leaders to the masses. Encouraging abstinence and not “believing” in the use of safe sex practices like the use of condoms by the Catholic Church, not being open enough to sensitize its believers about the disease or creating a stigma around the same by the Protestant Church, and the new emergence of the born-again faction has led to confusion and distress on what to believe among the general public of Uganda.
Thus, efforts towards change should start with sensitizing leaders of communities in a manner that would align with the interests of organizations working to eradicate HIV/AIDS but also not deter from the sentimental values that the faith professes. While efforts are being made to do the same by the Ugandan government, it is quite apparent that unless community leaders think about the greater good while preaching to the masses, religion might not be an opiate in the case of Uganda but a barrier to alleviating Ugandans of this deadly virus.
