Keeping us safe has become a global business, with products ranging from security alarms and rapid response teams to face masks and capsicum spray. When I’m preparing to travel, someone inevitably asks me, “Is it safe?” Although others think I’m a high risk-taker, I do admit to conscientiously locking my luggage, wearing my seat belt, taking anti-malarials, and keeping a water bottle at hand.

However, behind the caring question, "Is it safe?" often lurks a deeper concern. Is it OK to engage with people living with HIV and AIDS? What about our long-term emotional health as we deal with sexuality, disease, and death? Will God look after us, and where does all this locate us theologically in terms of suffering and justice?

Uncertainty and "Autopilot" Responses

Exploring such issues certainly takes us into uncomfortable places where we are confronted with our own mortality, fears, and failure. Of course we know that "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear" (Psalm 46:1-2). Yet in threatening situations, we tend to switch to "autopilot"—our inbuilt human tendency to make snap judgments and stereotype others to quickly bring order back into our confused world.

Autopilot reactions can protect us; they can also lead us into negative and ungodly behavior. We may silently disapprove, blame, or avoid people known or suspected to be living with HIV and AIDS, along with their relatives. In order to disassociate ourselves, we may simply withdraw or ignore them. We may make inappropriate comments associating HIV infection with irresponsible sexual activity or drug abuse, poor choices, or spiritual waywardness.

In the mental scramble to "feel safe" in such a context, we may inadvertently fuel stigma, discrimination, shame, and HIV and AIDS is “a problem of others,” creating an us-them divide which operates at multiple levels: individual; family; communities (workplaces, schools, churches); national (policy formulation, strategic planning, resource allocation); and global (human rights, international funding).

In SIM-related ministries we are most familiar with strategies to combat stigma and discrimination at the individual, family, and local community levels. We utilize personal stories and testimonies; we train and empower church leaders (communication and counseling); and we promote comprehensive responses involving prevention, care, treatment, and income-generating activities.

Fostering Healthier Environments

While this is helpful, much more can be done to understand HIV and AIDS and to influence the way people talk about it in everyday conversation. We know that to decrease stigma is to foster healthier environments. Then we can more easily dialogue in a biblical way around issues such as sexuality, marriage, poverty, violence, gender, and injustice.

While a few Christians at national and global levels are taking initiatives to address unjust social structures impacting HIV and AIDS, in SIM we have tended to make small and isolated forays at these levels. Some of us in prevention, care, and treatment programs, for example, know what it is to wrestle with difficult government demands, while those around us may be asking, "But is it safe?"

As we seek the physical and spiritual transformation of whole communities (as well as individuals)—transformed by Jesus the King and his kingdom values—we need to creatively explore new partnerships and learn from those with more experience in working at these levels. Like Jesus, we will face huge risks in doing this. We may face the tension of "obeying the authorities" (Romans 13:1) or doing what God approves (Acts 5:29).

So, is it safe? To what extent do our concerns for feeling safe impact our ability to minister effectively in the context of HIV and AIDS? Like Joshua, who encounters a man with a drawn sword on the road to Jericho (Josh. 5:13-15), we need to look beyond our own preferred strategies to ask, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"