Towards Inclusive Communities: People Living with HIV and AIDS

Course Code: BID03

Towards Inclusive Communities: People Living with HIV and AIDS

(to be taught by instructors from Biblical, Theology, and Ministry clusters)

BDII, Semester 1, 2 Credit Hours, College Paper, No Final Examination

(It is Compulsory for the College to submit the Marks through Online Portal)

Course Objectives

1. To challenge the students to affirm the agency of the People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and to problematize and understand the HIV and AIDS pandemic from the perspective of the infected and the affected.
2. To encourage the students to understand the social, gender, economic, religious, and cultural roots of the pandemic and the stigma and discrimination attached to it, critically.
3. To enable the students to engage in biblical, theological, and ethical reflections on HIV and AIDS along with the infected and the affected.
4. To inspire the students to initiate and to engage in ministries of compassionate justice along with the infected and the affected.
5. To motivate the students to create awareness in church and society to build inclusive communities of healing, wholeness, and restoration.

Note

No Final Examinations. Class work, seminars, papers, project, and other methods would be determined to examine students.

Course Requirements

• Internal Assessment: 40%
• A research paper on a selected topic of HIV/AIDS: 30%
• Study Visit to an agency involved in HIV and AIDS ministry and a reflection paper: 30%

Course Outline

Unit 1: Problematizing the Problem

• a) HIV and AIDS: A Medical Problem
• b) HIV and AIDS and Health Care Injustice: Public Health and Universal Health Care
• c) HIV and AIDS and Economic Injustice: Poverty, Globalization, Pharmaceuticals
• d) HIV and AIDS and Gender Injustice: Patriarchy, Sexual Violence, Homophobia
• e) HIV and AIDS and Stigma and Prejudice: Exclusion, Homophobia
• f) HIV and AIDS and Moralistic understanding of Sexuality
• g) HIV and AIDS as the “wages of sin”
• h) Constructing the PLHIV as the “other” of the “perfect” and the “able-bodied” people

Unit 2: Biblical Reflections on HIV and AIDS

• a) Use and misuse of the Bible in understanding and responding to the pandemic
• b) “Can the Bible be a resource for dignity, life and wholeness when the church is clearly not (yet)?”: Towards a Hermeneutics from the Infected Bodies
• c) Biblical Perspectives on Disease and Suffering
• d) Touching the Untouchables: Jesus’ Response to Purity Maps, Stigma and Exclusion
• e) Healing as Wholeness, Restoration, and Societal Transformation
• f) Church: A Healing Presence: Biblical Imperatives

Unit 3: Theological and Ethical Reflections on HIV and AIDS

• a) Use and misuse of theology in understanding and responding to the pandemic
• b) Towards a Theology from the Infected Bodies
• c) Created in the Image of God: Re-reading theological anthropology from the infected bodies
• d) Sickness as divine punishment for sinfulness: Theological Reflections on Suffering, Hope, and Death
• e) From the legalistic morality of condemnation and exclusion to the liberation and relational ethics of care, hope, and solidarity
• f) Unveiling the conspiracy of sexual morality and towards an ethics of sexual wellness
• g) Right to health care: Towards an ethics of justice and equality
• h) From Victims to Agents of Change: A Call to be Positive

Unit 4: Solidarity, Advocacy, and Engagement

• a) A critical evaluation of the programs and projects from above and the politics of funding
• b) Towards accessible healthcare to all infected ones
• c) From the wounded psyche of stigma and discrimination to people with dignity
• d) Resisting the legal, theological, and cultural demonization of sexual minorities
• e) Sex workers as partners in the ministry of prevention and awareness building
• f) Campaign against globalization and its impact on accessibility of treatment
• g) Towards a multi-sectoral approach exposing the class, caste, and gender roots of the pandemic
• h) Interfaith initiatives in HIV and AIDS ministry

Unit 5: Church: An Inclusive Community of Compassionate Justice

• a) Church without walls: Accepting the “other” in Christ
• b) Worship as celebration of welcoming, restoration, repentance, and inclusivity
• c) Proclamation: A call to translate the Gospel imperatives in the life of the community
• d) Church in Mission: A call to inclusive and transformative presence

Required Readings

• Akhavi, Negar. AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories from India. New Delhi: Random House India, 2008.
• Ao, Atula. “Health and the Bible: Health in the Old Testament.” In HIV & AIDS: Towards Inclusive Communities, A Theological Reader edited by Philip Kuruvilla and Wati Longchar, 46-49. Nagpur, India: National Council of Churches in India, 2013.
• Dube, Musa W, and Musimbi Kanyoro, eds. Grant me Justice!: HIV/AIDS & Gender Readings of the Bible. New York: Orbis Books, 2004.
• Facing AIDS: The Challenges, the Church’s Response. Geneva: WCC, 2002.
• Gill, Peter. The Politics of AIDS: How they Turned a Disease into a Disaster. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2007.
• Gine, Pratap Chandra. “Biblical Response to HIV and AIDS Pandemic: A Proactive Perspective,” in Health and Life: Theological Reflections on HIV and AIDS, edited by Razouselie Lasetso, Assam: Eastern Theological College, 2007, 49-68.
• Gine, Pratap Chandra. “Value Education: HIV and AIDS Perspective” in Dynamics of Values, Edited by Ranjana Banerjee, Neeta Dang and Debika Guha (Eds.), Calcutta: Loreto College Departments of B.Ed and Education, 2013, 36-55.
• Gine, Pratap Chandra. “Biblical Response to HIV and AIDS Pandemic: A Proactive Perspective,” in HIV & AIDS Towards Inclusive Communities: A Theological Reader. Edited by Philip Kuruvilla & Wati Longchar. An NCCI Centenary Publication. Delhi: ISPCK for NCCI, 2013, 76-94.
• Gine, Pratap Chandra. “Aids against AIDS: The need of the hour in NEI,” Annual Magazine, Eastern Theological College, 1992, 15-19.
• Grace, Care and Justice: A Handbook for HIV and AIDS Work. Geneva: LWF, 2007.
• Kambodji, Alphinus, Erlinda Senturias, Wati Longchar (eds.), HIV and Inclusive Community: Asian Theological and Biblical Perspectives, (Changmai: CCA, 2013).
• Lalrinawma, V.S. HIV/AIDS: A challenge to the Church today (Presbyterian Review, Vol. IV, No.4, October-December, 2003).
• Messr, Donald, Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence: Christian Churches and the Global AIDS Crisis. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.
• Prabhakar, Samson and George M. Nalunnakkal, eds. HIV/AIDS: A Challenge to Theological Education. Bangalore: BTESSC/ SATHRI, 2004.
• Praveen PS, Perumalla. “Christian Hope for the Terminally Ill.” in Rev. Dr. R. Daniel Premkumar (ed), Sharing the Pain with HIV infected: Lenten Bible Studies 2012, (Chennai; CSI, 2012 ), pp. 41-46.
• Ralte, Lalruata. “HIV Stigma and Discrimination: A Church Response.” Master’s College of Theology 6, no. 2 (June 2015). Forthcoming.

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