Sexuality and Religion in the Time of AIDS

Carter Heyward goes so far as to claim that:
Most historians, sexologists, and others who are interested in how sexual practices and attitudes have developed historically seem to agree that in the realm of sexual attitudes, Western history and christian [sic] history are so closely linked as to be in effect indistinguishable. That is to say, the christian church has been the chief architect of an attitude toward sexuality during the last seventeen-hundred years of European and Euroamerican history an obsessive, proscriptive attitude [Heyward 1994: 12-13].

What Carter Heyward states here for the First World, has impacted through Western missionaries and churches on Africa and South Africa as well. In its first part this presentation will trace the development of sexual norms within Christianity, showing up some of the historic and societal factors that shaped them. The reality of AIDS within churches is proof that the norms for sexual behaviour are not necessarily adhered to by their members. Hence the second part looks at challenges that the reality of AIDS has raised and how churches are responding to them. Finally some attempts to develop a new theology of sexuality are discussed.