World News and Trends: Solution to AIDS is not more cash
World News and Trends: This June, the 14th annual international AIDS conference, in Barcelona, Spain, led to the usual calls for the United States and other wealthy nations to spend more to fight AIDS.
One area of concern is education–on how to avoid AIDS. It is clear that many people throughout the world are still unaware of how AIDS is transmitted. Ignorance is widespread.
On the BBC World Service's "Newshour," July 14, a doctor from the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases was asked about diarrhea, the world's foremost killer of children, which leads to gastrointestinal problems as well as diseases of the respiratory tract.
Explaining that diarrhea is mostly caused by polluted water and a general lack of hygiene, the doctor pointed out that educational programs have not worked. Even something as simple as washing one's hands after going to the toilet, a primary preventer of this problem, proves difficult to accomplish in most cultures. So why would spending millions more on AIDS education programs work?
It's difficult for anybody to fully understand another culture. However, definite cultural factors do contribute to the growing AIDS toll in Africa. These will not be overcome easily, if at all.
The best and most effective message is simple: Abstain from sex before marriage; be faithful within marriage. God put it differently in the Old Testament, but the meaning is the same: "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14). Sex is for marriage only.
Some countries have already realized the need to emphasize this, particularly with young people, who need to be encouraged to wait until marriage before they have sex. A few billboards and regular ads on television and radio cost little and can easily be afforded by most governments, especially those that already control the media in their country. Any other message only confuses people and encourages promiscuous behavior.
If the world embraced God's simple message, there would be no need for more AIDS conferences because the disease would die out within 20 years. Failure to follow God's command will lead only to increasing demands for cash as the situation worsens and Western countries are pressured for yet more help. (Source: BBC World Service.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: September - October 2002
Course Content
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
Melvin Rhodes
Melvin Rhodes is a member of the United Church of God congregation in Lansing, Michigan.
Tom Robinson
Tom is an elder in the United Church of God who works from his home near St. Louis, Missouri as managing editor and senior writer for Beyond Today magazine, church study guides and the UCG Bible Commentary. He is a visiting instructor at Ambassador Bible College. And he serves as chairman of the church's Prophecy Advisory Committee and a member of the Fundamental Beliefs Amendment Committee.
Tom began attending God's Church at the age of 16 in 1985 and was baptized a year later. He attended Ambassador College in both Texas and California and served for a year as a history teacher at the college's overseas project in Sri Lanka. He graduated from the Texas campus in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in theology along with minors in English and mass communications. Since 1994, he has been employed as an editor and writer for church publications and has served in local congregations through regular preaching of sermons.
Tom was ordained to the ministry in 2012 and attends the Columbia-Fulton, Missouri congregation with his wife Donna and their two teen children.
