Prayer ≠ Antiretroviral

The brand of spiritual healing promoted by several Pentecostal churches in Uganda has endangered the lives of many HIV-positive Africans told to forego their medications in favor of a miracle from God. That’s according to Robert Orchai, the executive director of The AIDS Support Organization. As you probably know, HIV/AIDS is a huge problem in Africa, partly because of the difficulty of distributing effective antiretroviral medications to the public. But who knew the Pentecostals were such a force in Uganda? You’d think long, ratty hair and denim skirts wouldn’t really mesh with the climate. While it’s bad enough for these churches to encourage sick members to pray for miracles over taking needed medication, it’s even worse that some of these churches are apparently selling miracles in exchange for their members’ “valuables”. If the churches count lives as “valuables”, then I guess this is a pretty fair deal. More details here.