Wesleyan Healthcare Response in the FMCSA was unknown to many of the participants. Only a few of the church leaders interviewed had heard about Wesley‘s social ethics, especially his commitment to helping the poor, opposing slavery and alleviating poverty. However, none of the participants were aware of his engagement in healthcare. Therefore, the objective of this section is to identify the gap caused by this unawareness in the FMCSA‘s response to HIV and AIDS in order to highlight how this Church could be empowered by embracing the WHCR as its missional inheritance.
7.2.1 Relevance of WHCR in the FMCSA’s Attitude to HIV and AIDS
Five features of the attitude of the FMCSA towards HIV and AIDS are explored here. The first feature regards the participants‘ agreement that the Church should respond to HIV and AIDS.
As highlighted in chapter 5, all the participants agreed that the Church should respond to HIV and AIDS because it is a threat to everybody within and outside the church membership. This understanding accurately reflects the example of Jesus through his engagement with and fulfilment of the missio Dei. Jesus did not hesitate to heal the sick even if this required breaking the religious law of observing the Sabbath day (Folk, 1990:105). In the same way, this thinking embraces that of Wesley about the community‘s health crisis. In this regard, chapter 3 describes Wesley‘s solidarity with people in England, mostly the poor who were threatened by disease and poverty and had difficulties to access medical services (Hill 1958; Marquardt, 1992). Therefore the views of participants in this study with regard to the necessity of the Church to respond to HIV and AIDS are consistent with Wesley‘s perception of fulfilling the missio Dei in time of a health crisis. However, this similarity is betrayed when it comes to why and how the Church should respond.
The second feature concerns the lack of theological rationale. The results of the study have shown that mostly social reasons are given by the participants as to why the Church should respond to HIV and AIDS. Participants expressed that the Church is also affected by the pandemic, and therefore, has the responsibility to assist people, and to be approached by people who need help. They also mentioned that PWLHA should not be isolated from other life crises in which the Church intervenes. It was also found that no church leader referred to healthcare as God‘s will or commandment.
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While the social crisis and injustices of PLWHA are relevant reasons for the Church‘s engagement, they are not the only ones as far as the Church is concerned. Others factors must be taken into account (Richardson, 2006; 2009; Demissie, 2008). In this regard, chapter 3 articulates that Jesus declared Himself as sent by God to build God‘s kingdom on earth and that healthcare was part of the core components of his agenda (Maddocks, 1981:45-48). Jesus healed sick people not only because they were suffering and were in need of support but also because healing was part of the missio Dei. Like Jesus, Wesley also engaged in healthcare for social and theological reasons. Chapter 3 demonstrates that he initiated this care, not only because there were many diseases and the poor‘s inaccessibility to healthcare in England, but also because he embraced the understanding that God is involved in healing (Wesley, 2004:i-ii). However, most of the participants in this study were not able to appreciate this reference to God when explaining the reasons of the Church‘s engagement in addressing health issues.
The third feature regards the lack of concern about the suffering of others. The data confirmed that the majority of participants (61.5%) agreed that the Church should engage in responding to HIV and AIDS because the Church is also threatened. This suggests that they were more concerned about their personal health interests and less about the suffering of the people outside the Church. This view clashes with that of Richardson (2006:50) who understands that diakonia should reach out beyond the church‘s boundaries. It also differs from that of Jesus who healed all people regardless their holiness, religious membership or nationality (Dube, 2007:93).
Wesley extended his healthcare ministry to church members and non-church members, Methodists and non-Methodists alike. He helped without applying any faith-based criterion in selecting beneficiaries (Marquardt, 1992:23-24). He used his own savings to serve everybody in his clinics (Hill, 1958:1, 12-13). All categories of community members were eligible to receive his cost-free/reduced book, Primitive Physic on easy ways of curing diseases (Maddox, 2007:27).
Therefore, the perspectives of these participants run contrary to that of Wesley that the suffering of the general community is also the missional concern of the church.
The fourth feature is the lack of vision in prevention and long-term strategies to address HIV and AIDS. In expressing how the Church should respond to HIV and AIDS, participants‘
suggestions mainly envisioned the care and treatment of PLWHA while HIV prevention and long-term solutions were not explicitly mentioned. It was found that this gap went contrary to the views of the WCC and some scholars who advocate that programmes should include preventive, curative, short and long-term strategies to address the pandemic (Dube, 2003:215-
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216; WCC, 2007:12; Heath, 2009:71-72). In addition to healing people, which is a curative and short-term solution, Jesus, our model of fulfilling the missio Dei, also developed preventive and long-term solutions for the sick and other marginalised people that included the forgiveness of their sins, challenging life-denying social structures and scriptures (Dube, 2007:91-95).
In Wesley‘s healthcare strategy, curative and short-term strategies are found in his use of natural and pharmaceutical medicine to cure various diseases (Wesley, 2004). Likewise, preventive and long-term strategies can be traced in his advice to people for a better management of the six
‗non-natural‘ factors in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle (Gadsby, 1998; Wesley, 2004:v-vi;
Health and Healing, 2001:6-7). As an example, Newton (1988) writes:
He [Wesley] often expresses concern for the physical, as well as spiritual, health of his women friends. To Lady Maxwell (23 February 1767) he urges: ‗Exercise, especially as the spring comes on, will be of greater service to your health than an hundred medicines; and I know not whether it will not be restored in a larger measure than for many years when the peace of God fixes in your heart...‘ (:136).
This quote shows how Wesley was placing great value on preventing sicknesses rather than curing them. But also, preventive and long-term measures are comprised in Wesley‘s distribution of his book, Primitive Physic, in the community (Maddox, 2007:27), and in his support of the poor for income generation through financial loans and job creation (Marquardt, 1992:29). It is therefore clear here that the perception of participants in the present study lack understanding of the value of preventive and long-term solutions to the disease.
The last feature relates to the explicit negative attitude towards HIV and AIDS. The results of the study confirmed that in some settings, the Free Methodists in South Africa stigmatize PLWHA with abusive names such as iqhoksi (loose woman wearing shoes with high heel and short skirt) or ‗the three‘ (meaning the three letters, H-I-V) (see CG7:1). It was also found that the pandemic is mostly associated with ‗sin‘ of ‗sexual immorality‘ (CL37:11; CL19:2). As a result, PLWHA and the Church‘s community do not find a way to accept, integrate or support each other.
This attitude is different to that of Jesus who sympathised with and advocated for the sick (Dube, 2007:90, 93), did not associate sickness with sin (Kgalemang, 2004:156-159) and forgave sinners, including prostitutes (Dube, 2007:92, 96). It is likewise different from that of Wesley, who, according to Maddocks (1988:139), tried to imitate ‗his master‘ Jesus in his ministry of holistic salvation. In this regard, in explaining the factors which have caused miserable conditions for the poor of England, which are part of Wesley‘s motivation to engage in a health ministry,