The weareUs organisation which is a Christian charity has produced a marvellous booklet called 'Pray With Us'. The theme for this week is Luke 4:14-21 and the entry has been written by Canon Gideon B Byamugisha, an Anglican priest in Uganda who is HIV positive. Canon Gideon writes about how people who were HIV positive were hectored at a World AIDS Day in Uganda. in 2012. There were no words of comfort for the sufferers but ridicule and the blame game which accused them of adultery and promiscuity.
Canon Gideon writes: 'In Luke 4, Jesus chose to quote from Isaiah at a time when religion, morality and scripture had been hijacked by the status quo to preserve the rights of the privileged, while denying the vulnerable rightful access to resources, knowledge and services that would help protect them against life-threatening realities in Israel.'
The 'Blame' game is becoming ever more pervasive. The poor are blamed for their poverty, the disabled are blamed for their disability and the sick are blamed for being sick. The blame game is all about shifting responsibilities. When the question is posed as to what 'Jesus would have done?' in this modern age of social injustice Luke 4 reminds me that nothing in our circumstances maybe new but our attitudes can be renewed and refreshed through wearing the lens of Christianity.
Thanks for this Jane. What a very lucid clear-thinking attitude Canon Gideon has. I love his last sentence "when we do what we can, God does what we can't".
ReplyDeleteHis message needs to be broadcast loud and clear, wherever there are vulnerable men and women.
The more knowledge there is 'out there', the better the chance of beating this latter-day plague.
You wouldn't think would you that in this day and age such attitudes could exist as experienced by the HIV sufferers in Uganda? I loved his attitude too.
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