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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 8, 1985
PAGE 13
selected group in Sydney, Australia are now positive for the AIDS antibody,
representing anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 in the city.
A rather "far-out" solution to Britain's mounting AIDS crisis was advocated
by the editorial staff of THE ECONOMIST, an otherwise quite conservative
publication. The editors suggested (in the subhead of an editorial titled
"A Plague on Homosexuals?" in the March 2 issue) that "a more liberal
attitude, and less panic, could help contain Aids." They then wrote:
Acquired immune-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a dreadful disease.
It kills by stripping the body of its defences against other di
seases•••• Its death-toll, mostly among homosexuals, is doubling
in ,several advanced countries every few months. Attacking homo
sexuals will not help matters.
The sensible response is for
society to be � tolerant of homosexuality, in thought-out
ways.
The reason Aids has spread so fast is that many male homosexuals
are sexually promiscuous. The best single way of preventing fur
ther spread is to persuade them to commit buggery [sodomy] with
fewer, and known, sexual partners. Intolerance will not achieve
that.
Deliberate tolerance might.
So sanction � � of
legal "marriage" for� in the hope that this will give them
more reasons to be less promiscuous? The Christian churches
could help
El
focusing less on St. Paul'sliang-ups and� on
Christ's compassion.
"Tolerate and regulate" sin seems to be the approach rather than to "recog
nize and eliminate" it. Another example is provided qy that mecca of toler
ation, Amsterdam. In January, the city authorities were scheduled to place
into operation two new barges where heroin addicts can watch television and
play table tennis while they inject themselves. The new barges (Amsterdam
is located on a network of canals and waterways) were to replace a floating
center set up last year that had become too small to handle the 200 to 250
addicts who were using it daily.
The stated aim of the project is to reduce the number of addicts who hang
around the nearby Zeedijk drug-dealing area. But the authorities may find,
true to the experience of government-sanctioned programs, that the number
of addicts using their new facilities will exceed expectations, given the
official tolerance granted.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau