REPORT

XVI International AIDS Conference

Toronto, Canada

by Duane Crumb

This past week in Toronto was
a very frightening time
for me. I had been looking forward to attending the XVI International AIDS Conference to learn, meet people, network, and in other ways help the work of HIV
Hope.

This is the biggest meeting of people involved in HIV/AIDS in the world attended by 26,000 of us from all over the world. These are the scientists, researchers, policy makers, funders, activists, and others whose lives are devoted to dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

I spent most of the week crying inside
as I realized to a new degree the extent to which the AIDS world has been
deceived by the enemy
and are deceiving others. The enemy’s lie is that it is not possible for people to exercise self control. They have no choice but to have sex with many partners and to use injected drugs.

That is the message of this conference. Any efforts to encourage people to save sex for marriage were attacked constantly as misguided, moralistic, and ignoring the consequences including condemning people to a horrible AIDS-related death. The only hope expressed was for:

  Ø
A larger supply of
condoms
(in Africa with the billions that have been shipped, there are only three condoms available per man per year) and more programs to convince people to use them every time they have sex,

  Ø
The development of a
vaccine
(the best hope expressed at the conference is that there might be a vaccine that might protect 50% of people that might be available in the next ten years),

  Ø
Getting men in Africa to be
circumcised
because that makes them less likely to be infected (without any consideration of the fact that the only motivation for an adult to undergo this procedure would be to be able to have more partners with somewhat less risk), and

  Ø
The development of a
microbicide
(also still many years away) that a woman could put in her vagina (every time) before having sex to reduce the risk of her becoming infected.

These approaches are not bad. My concern is that the entire focus is on these ways of taking away the consequences of having sex outside of marriage rather than on finding ways to motivate people toward God’s plan for sex. Clearly, being married and even being faithful in marriage is no guarantee of avoiding the virus as many are infected by their unfaithful spouses. None of these approaches can guarantee to prevent infection, either. It was overwhelming to see the extent to which any strategy that involves any reference to a moral lifestyle was criticized and utterly discounted!

There was also a great deal of talk about
treatments
(ARVs). However, most of the talk was about the toxicity of these medications (many do significant damage to the liver, for example) and the problems in getting people to take their medications as they need to in order to get the most benefit and to avoid allowing the virus to mutate into forms that are resistant to the medications. They can be wonderful, but are clearly not a cure or the answer to this tragedy.

On the other side, there were exhibits by groups of prostitutes (commercial sex workers) saying, “Sex work is work, too,” groups promoting not only homosexuality but transgender, transsexuals, etc., and condoms were
everywhere including an exhibit of high fashion dresses made of condoms, people dressed up as condoms (including one in a huge sombrero promoting the next International AIDS Convention scheduled for Mexico City in 2008). It seemed as if every time I turned around, someone else was offering to give me condoms of every description.

Two of the heroes of the conference because of all of the money they have brought to the effort were “The Bills” (Clinton and Gates, of Microsoft).  Both spoke several times during the week.

So, I was shocked when a speaker in one session criticized the Gates Foundation for funding to an organization involved in rescuing the victims of sex trafficking. I cannot imagine why anyone would criticize such a goal and was amazed with the audience applauded the criticism. This brought home to me the extent to which the people controlling the agenda for this epidemic have bought into the enemy’s lie that any form of sexual expression is good and should be encouraged and in no way hindered.

In the end, I came away with a large pile of papers, CD-ROMs, and other documents with information that will be helpful. I also came away with a much better understanding of the forces that are driving the HIV/AIDS community and the current research into the disease.

It was a valuable week
and I am now glad that I went, though f
or the first day or two, I wondered why I had come. It was a very lonely place for someone with my values and approach to this epidemic.

Thankfully, these conferences only happen every two years. So, I will not be going through this again until 2008 and I pray that by then there will be other people in the HIV
Hope team who will attend with me so that we can exchange ideas and encourage one another. Again, I came away more aware than ever how vital your prayers are to my survival and success in this mission!

One quote I heard at the conference gave me great encouragement. A pastor from South Africa who is infected with HIV quoted
Corrie ten Boom, the wonderful speaker and writer who, along with her family hid many Jews from the Nazi soldiers during World War II and who was, herself, put into a concentration camp. She wrote,
“


If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.”

God has sent many of us down very rough paths (clearly He has done this with me), I am so thankful for the confidence that He provides all we need to survive these paths and thrive on them. I thank Him for the strong shoes represented by those of you who pray diligently for Kathy and me!