The Daily Universe celebrates 50 years
This story originally appeared in the Daily Universe on June 1, 1988
By April D. Lowry
Growing interest caused by increased concerns of the AIDS virus has prompted a message from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to its members.
The Church’s First Presidency released the statement reinforcing the Church’s principles of chastity before marriage, total fidelity in marriage and abstinence from all homosexual behavior.
Church spokesman Don Lefevre said, “It’s a subject very much in the public eye these days. It is a concern of everyone and they (the First Presidency) felt they needed to make the Church’s position very clear.”
According to the statement, current medical information indicated the AIDS virus is not transmitted through casual contact in homes, schools, churches or places of work. “People who are obedient to divine commandments need not unduly fear the affliction although AIDS has infected innocent victims,” read the statement.
Unlike other major epidemics of the past that were transmitted by polluted water, insect bites and casual skin or respiratory contact, AIDS is transmitted through sexual intimacy with infected persons, through illegal intravenous drug use, from infected mothers to babies before or during birth and to persons receiving infected blood or blood products, the statement indicated.
Church members should extend compassion to those who are ill with AIDS, according to the statement. It urged people to express great love and sympathy for all AIDS victims but particularly to those who innocently received the virus.
“In the Lord’s eternal plan, those who endure such suffering, pain and injustices, not of their own doing, will receive compensatory blessings through the Lord’s infinite mercy,” it stated.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, during his address in the April 1987 General Priesthood Meeting said, “I desire now to say with emphasis that our concern for the bitter fruit of sin is coupled with Christlike sympathy for its victims, innocent or culpable.
The First Presidency emphasized the importance of becoming informed about AIDS and to avoid actions that place oneself or others at risk.
“Laws and policies dealing with attempts to control the spread of AIDS are being adopted in many countries through out the world,” the statement…
Copyright Brigham Young University 30 Nov 2005
