Tyler Durden

WC Hall Of Famer

Sky News: AIDS Victims Risk Lives

Thousands of Aids and HIV patients are risking their lives by refusing medication in favour of holy water, Sky News can reveal.

The controversial treatment is offered by a church in Ethiopia which claims to have cured hundreds of believers.

Sky News correspondent Ian Woods reports on the practice doctors in the country say is extremely dangerous:

"It was a scene which reminded me of the holocaust.

Naked men, women and children, some of them in chains to prevent them escaping, cower in front of the men in charge in a dimly-lit room in the church of St Mary on Mount Entoto.

These people fear death, but they believe that coming here will prolong their lives. It is more likely to have the opposite effect.

The church is 10,000ft above sea level, where the air is thin. Climbing this peak takes your breath away, and so does the view over the sprawling city of Addis Adaba below.

As we approached the church, we were told both boots and socks had to be removed. This is regarded as sacred ground, and everyone must go barefoot.

Some are held in chains The church itself is more than 100 years old, a simple building painted in bright colours. It sits above a mountain stream, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believes the stream is holy water with the power to cure HIV/Aids.

Every day, thousands of people with the virus come here to be "baptised", though the act is performed without ceremony and in a way which seems brutal to outsiders.

Plastic jerry cans are filled with water from a pool, and passed along a human chain to priests dressed like deep sea fishermen. The bright yellow waterproofs protect them from the drenching they administer to their congregation.

Sky's Ian Woods They hurl the water over the mass of people kneeling in front of them who shriek and scream, either through devotion or the simple shock of the cold water hitting their naked flesh.

Some cried out for the demons to leave their body, while priests hit them with wooden crosses. Many of them clutched their babies while the water was is shaken from the plastic containers. It is an extraordinary sight.

Men and women are separated by a flimsy barrier. The men must be completely naked while the women are allowed to wear panties. They run from the room with their arms across their breasts trying to maintain their modesty.

Afterwards they get dressed and move into another room for two hours of prayers, sermons, ritual and testimonies from those who claim that the holy water has cured them. Some people have been coming here for years in search of a miracle.

I guess people get more dependent on their faith the worse off they are.....but what make you of this!!

Dakstang

WC's Resident Redneck

The way I look at it is that God gave man the knowledge to create treatments and medicine so we should use them.

However I don't think we should dismiss the idea of healing, but I do not believe that one should refuse medicine and treatments.

Griff0rd

I am going to back Dakstang here. I believe in "holy healing" but it is cemented deep into someone faith in God and His ability to do so. It's not as simple as slapping some holy water on someone and saying you are healed.

Gigglypuff

Exactly! If the water was such amazing stuff then why arent we bottling it and curing millions around the world??

molebeing

I don't have sympathy for people with HIV/Aids, they brought it upon themselves, don't heal them, let them die for their lack of purity and morals.

Tyler Durden

WC Hall Of Famer

Does that include the children born with the disease?

The people who believe their in a monogomous relationship only to find they have been cheated on (and infected)?

The people that have incurred the disease through unchecked blood transfusions?

Or are we just talking about the whores (men too, we can be whores!) and the druggies?

molebeing

The whores and the major heroin users, sorry I wasn't clear about that.

Gigglypuff

Thats the daftest thing Ive ever heard. Noone 'deserves' to get a terminal disease, no matter what their lifestyle entails. And who's to judge which person is a 'whore' and which person isnt??

Tyler Durden

WC Hall Of Famer

I'm not going to presume that I know what people on here mean in their posts, and sometimes humour (especially dark humour) is difficult to put across on posts, for example you can't see someone smiling when they say something!!

However, I like to think that what he means is that he has considerably "less" sympathy for whores (people that sleep around without using protection perhaps, or maybe even prostitutes that offer a "bareback" service) and drug users that have chosen their own risky lifestyle, than for those that I named above who clearly do deserve sympathy.

I could be completely wrong of course, and he could mean something completely different.

I have my rose tinted spectacles on today. And my yellow and pink polka dot y-fronts. So what would I know!!

Gigglypuff

I see what he means (I think), and I understand what hes saying, but still....... I dont think anyone deserves it.

But with Mole, you never know what he means And thats the way he likes it.