BWA General Council Resolution 1993.6

The General Council of the Baptist World Alliance, meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe August 6-9, 1993,

NOTES with alarm that since its last resolution on AIDS in 1988 the number of those infected has reached epidemic proportions in many countries;

HIGHLIGHTS:
• The alarming spread of AIDS in Africa
• The ravages of AIDS among those aged 20-45;
• The plight of a generation born infected with AIDS who are unlikely to reach their fifth birthday; • The increasing number of AIDS orphans, already in the millions.

IS APPALLED by the tragic impact of AIDS upon the social, political and economic structures of many African nations as it imposes ever increasing burdens upon their scarce resources, and by the failure of many to develop timely programs of education, prevention and care;

AFFIRMS a Christian lifestyle and sexual values, including the Biblical models of chastity outside marriage and fidelity within marriage as a significant means of limiting the spread of AIDS;

BELIEVES that regardless of the cause of infection every sufferer has the right to appropriate and adequate medical care, to be accorded the dignity proper to them as persons and to be granted the same human rights as their fellow citizens; and

CALLS UPON Baptists around the world:

• To cooperate with efforts to limit the spread of AIDS;
• To work with others to secure funds for research for a cure for AIDS;

• To obey the call of Jesus Christ to be ministers of compassion, responding to the afflicted and their families with prayerful, loving support, and

• To serve as models of accepting communities where full human dignity is accorded all those affected directly and indirectly by AIDS, as a sign of the Kingdom of God

Citations

Original Source Bibliography: Lotz, Denton, editor. Baptist World Alliance 1993-1994 Yearbook: Minutes of the General Council Meeting and Directory. McLean, VA: Baptist World Alliance, 1993.

Original Source Footnote/Endnote: Denton Lotz, ed., Baptist World Alliance 1993-1994 Yearbook: Minutes of the General Council Meeting and Directory (McLean, VA: Baptist World Alliance, 1993), p. 112.

Online Document Full Citation: BWA General Council Resolution 1993.6 The Continuing AIDS Crisis; https://baptistworld.org/resolutions.

In-text Online Document Citation: (BWA General Council Resolution 1993.6).