From swillis@mail.awinc.comSun Feb 25 13:20:56 1996 Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 16:39:28 -0600 From: Steve Willis Reply to: garyslist@jackson.freenet.org To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: A> AIDS, Do you believe in Magic? Steve Willis here, THREE ARTICLES. Recently, someone on one of the lists asked for some AIDS information. A few years ago, when "Magic" Johnson revealed he had AIDS, I wrote this article. Some of the information may be a bit dated. There are a few references to things in the media at that time. I would have thought it all out of date, but behold, Mr. Johnson has returned--again. Below is that article, another text-in-box article on Wilt Chamberlain, and yet one more on Fornication. They were all published in one issue of "The Hearken," a local-church bulletin. WARNING This Hearken deals with AIDS and how it is acquired. PARENTAL GUIDANCE IS SUGGESTED Do You Believe In "Magic" ? On November 14, 1991, basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson announced to the world what he had learned from his doctor on October 25. Dr. Michael Mellman told Johnson, "You're HIV-positive. You have the AIDS virus." Johnson's announcement was, "Because of the HIV virus I have obtained, I will have to announce my retirement from the Lakers today." He added, "Here I am saying it can happen to anybody, even me, Magic Johnson." Johnson went on the Arsenio Hall television program to kick off his campaign as a spokesman for HIV and "safe sex." He said, "I'm not fearing it, I'm not down, I'm here saying I got it." He with Roy S. Johnson (no relation) wrote and article "I'll Deal With It" for Sports Illustrated (November 18, 1991). There he said, "Not that being HIV-positive had been easy to accept. Not when I could easily have avoided being infected at all." He went on briefly to describe the "how" of "safe sex." Johnson continued, "I am certain that I was infected by having unprotected sex with a woman who has the virus. The problem is that I can't pinpoint the time, the place or the woman." The news caught much of the nation off-guard. Almost one million Americans are HIV-positive, and some 200,000 have the AIDS disease. More than 125,000 have died of the disease in the last ten years. Though these numbers have been available and published by the press, people said that with "Magic," everyone now knew someone with the AIDS-causing virus. Some considered this to be the biggest thing to happen to AIDS since Rock Hudson. Arsenio Hall went on for several nights about the matter. He had been one of five best friend of Johnson. Hall called for "Schwarzkopt-Dollars!" to fund the battle against AIDS. Early on he too had discussed "safe sex," but later began to say that "protected" was not really "safe sex" but "safer sex." He said the news of "Magic" Johnson should be America's alarm-clock. Indeed, when some tout "safe sex" by using some birth control devices, they seem to forget that ten per cent of the time these devices fail and pregnancy does occur. This is the time that the HIV-AIDS virus can still be transmitted. At first, the press applauded "Magic" Johnson because he had come out into the open with his medical news. Some considered him heroic because he was taking on the "cause" of "safe sex" education. Interviews in the press and on television expressed the view of the public: "Magic" was believed in; "Magic" was worshipped; "Magic" was adored; "Magic" was revered; "Magic" was loved; "Magic" was idolized. Words like that about anyone should bother the Christian. Do you believe in "Magic"? After a few days, the public discussed another view. Tom Callahan, columnist in the Washington Post wrote: "Lost in Magic Johnson's grace has been the unspoken word in this sadness; the unspeakable word is promiscuity and it is the byword of professional sports and not only professional sports" (11/10/91). Kevin Johnson, point guard for the Phoenix Suns remarked, "As you heard Earvin's statement, he's saying that, you know, if you are going to participate in sexual involvement, then you need to be protected. But I think another view is that we need to take it back to our traditional values as well, that--you know--it [sexual union] can be treasured in a sacred act in itself." "And maybe abstinence is the safest way." Even Sam Donaldson, of ABC News, would find himself asking, "Is there a religious aspect?" Yes, Sam, there sure is! AIDS and Behavior Promiscuity is not limited to sports professionals. Geraldo Rivera recently published a book in which he chronicled his affairs while still single. Promiscuity is the lifestyle of many film and TV stars. Male and female Rock and country music performers have their share of the promiscuous. Some politicians are noted for their philandering. It is not only these public people who are promiscuous, for often their affairs occur with "groupies"--people who are not famous, but want to be with the famous. The AIDS virus first spread in America among an especially promiscuous bunch: male homosexuals. Promiscuity in their "bath houses" became so appalling that by December 1982, some homosexuals were writing, "If going to the baths is really a game of Russian roulette, then the advice must be to throw the gun away, not merely to play less often." (Callen and Berkowitz in the Native, quoted in And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts). They were attacking the "lifestyle" of promiscuity. Soon, another article appeared in the Native titled "In Defense of Promiscuity"--The title speaks for itself! Shilts' book, And the Band Played On, was his was of saying "this is America's alarm-clock," but few among the homosexuals heard--nor did they want to. ITEM: Of people with AIDS, 58.6% are homosexual or bisexual males. Another group of indiscriminate people is intravenous drug users. They use and reuse needles and then share the same needle with others. All it would take is sharing a needle with one person with AIDS, or the HIV virus, and the virus is spread. ITEM: Of AIDS patients, 22.4% are heterosexual intravenous drug users; another 6.5% are homosexual or bisexual intravenous drug users. "Magic" Johnson claims to be in the next group: Heterosexuals. 5.7% of AIDS carriers are heterosexual. (Note: 2.2% have gotten AIDS from blood transfusions; .8% of Hemophiliacs have AIDS; and there are 3.7% of AIDS patients for whom it has not or cannot be determined how they got the disease.) AIDS is primarily spread by behavior--behavior that can be stopped; behavior that is sinful; behavior that must be stopped if one would be right before God. Promiscuity and Sports "Promiscuous" is defined as, "1. characterized by or involving indiscriminate mingling or association, esp. having sexual relations with a number of partners on a casual basis" (Random House Dictionary of the English Language). Earvin Johnson, by his own admission, was promiscuous. He said, "Before I was married, I truly lived the bachelor's life. I'm no Wilt Chamberlain, but as I traveled around NBA cities, I was never at a loss for female companionship....I confess that after I arrived in L.A., in 1979, I did my best to accommodate as many women as I could--most of them through unprotected sex." (Quoted from Sports Illustrated) Pamela McGee, who knows Johnson and played on the women's basketball team at USC wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times in which she described Johnson as a friend, but also a womanizer who has had numerous one-night stands with "what he calls `freaks' across America." Newsweek says she speculates that Johnson revealed his HIV infection "to warn the thousands of women he slept with." Johnson wrote, "As soon as the test results were confirmed, I started calling some of the women I used to date and telling them that I am HIV-positive." If he is "heroic" for coming forth with his HIV, will the women who slept with him be "heroines" or has-been's? Johnson's reference to Wilt Chamberlain seems poignant. Chamberlain has just had a book published claiming to have slept with many women. Since he has been on a "book tour" during the time of Johnson's revelations, Wilt has had some explaining to do. Chamberlain explained his promiscuity (without using the word): "Yes, that's correct--20,000 different ladies. At my age that equals out to having sex with 1.2 women a day, every day since I was 15." [See accompanying article on Chamberlain--sw.] Another article in the same issue of Sports Illustrated dealt with the issue of promiscuity in sports. Seattle Supersonics forward Eddie Johnson said, "Let's face it athletes are whores. We're paid to use our bodies. So sex becomes the same thing after the games." I'm glad not all athletes feel, or act that way, but enough must for him to believe it. New York Mets infielder, Kevin Elster said, "You can get sex every night. On the road. At home. It doesn't matter. We're the next in line, I guess after the gays and drug users. The Magic thing has put fear into all of us." "Magic" Johnson's agent, George Andrews, was quoted regarding about how sick five or six other players must feel, "...what with the way some of these guys share women." He is saying that it is likely some of "Magic" Johnson's teammates will get the same deadly virus. Atlanta Hawks forward Dominique Wilkins said, "This has to scare everybody. The more I think about it, the more scare I am. In fact, I'm scared to death." When Johnson says, "Here I am saying it can happen to anybody, even me, Magic Johnson," he's really saying, if you're promiscuous like me, you too can get it, like me! A Change of Behavior or America's Snooze Alarm? Arsenio Hall wanted to "wake up" America. As long as America pushes the limits in television, movies, print and music, we can expect "Magic" Johnson's efforts to be America's snooze alarm--wake up? "No, give us another seven years. Let us try `safer sex' " seems the cry. Some athletes are reassessing their sexual habits. Mike Lodish of the Bills said, "What happened to Johnson has opened my eyes in a major, major way to the point of becoming celibate until I choose to get married." Sports Illustrated also reported, " `They keep talking about safer sex,' " says linebacker Matt Millen of the Redskins. "I think that's a joke. What you have to start talking about is abstinence and a little morality, maybe." Vice President Dan Quayle had spoken to this issue, "If there is something that I can personally do to encourage young people," Quayle said, "I would not say `safe sex.' I would talk about abstinence." Commenting on these remarks, Arsenio Hall and his TV audience affirmed their rights to party. "Magic" will only be American's snooze alarm. The media "heros" may be respectable in their own areas of sports, writing, music, politics, et. al., but they usually fail as good moral examples. Do you believe in Magic? Wilt Chamberlain On "Respect" and "Fidelity" When the temptation to sin sexually comes, it often arrives with the question of respect." Will he respect me?" "Will she respect me?" Wilt On Respect: When he was asked about paternity suits,Wilt Chamberlain said, "I've been fortunate, but not just fortunate; I've been also very, very selective, and I want to say this to you very strongly: You can have a short relationship and it can be a quality relationship and a respectful one. People think too often long relationships are the only ones that are any good. And you have these long relationships where no one has any respect for each other at all. So don't think because I was involved with a great many, and they were short, that it wasn't respectful" (from an interview on B.E.T). Does committing fornication with 20,00 women give him God's view of respect? I wonder how "quality" or "respectful" it would have been if he were carrying a virus as "Magic" did? Is this the kind of respect promised when the temptation to sin comes? Is this the kind of respect you want? Is this the kind of respect God wants? Chamberlain was asked about "fidelity"--faithfulness. He commented about his parents' being married many years. Then he added, "I believe in fidelity." What is his view of fidelity? Wilt on Fidelity: "In all those 20,000 women, and we discuss and we talk, none have ever been married that I know of. I mean, that's how strong I believe in that, you understand--really!" "To have a girlfriend for months or whatever, that's the same to me as being married. When I commit, I'm ready to commit. My relationships have been of a good nature and a good time, but not of a commitment of time." America is suffering from sin and disease because of this kind of "fidelity." Chamberlain admits to having shots of penicillin to deal with other diseases from the same behavior. Unfortunately many other NBA hopefuls might look up literally and figuratively to such views of fidelity. Joan Beck, writing in the Chicago Tribune regarding Earvin Johnson's infection, cited disease, emotional, and social costs of the "sexual revolution": "They include the disastrous rate of pregnancy among unmarried teenagers, the increases of families headed by low-income single women, the high rate of divorce and abortion. They also include the devaluation of commitment, fidelity, trust and the blessings of forsaking-all-others love. Sexual permissiveness is a hollow substitute for love and often precludes it." Flee Fornication In the preceding articles, I have detailed the events and reports of sexual sin--fornication. I have had quotes from men, and not from God's word. I do not trust men's wisdom to get it right. I cannot vouch for the fact that although a man might be outraged over the promiscuous life of another, that he is living the right life himself. That is why we need God's counselling. Jeremiah said, "I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself; Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O Lord, but with justice; Not with Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing" (10:23,24). Let us hearken to God's correction. Fornication is Sin The Bible defines sin as "lawlessness," or "transgression of the law" in 1 John 3:4. "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John 5:17). Sins such as fornication are committed when one is "tempted...carried away and enticed by his own lusts. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death" (James 1:14,15). "Fornication" is the general word for all kinds of sexual sin: single with single persons; single with married or some divorced-whom-God-has-not-separated persons; married with other married persons; homosexual or heterosexual. There were other words that are more specific to some variations of this sin. Some are: adultery, homosexual, effeminate [by perversion], "kidnapers," (this describes child molesters). Fornication is a work of the flesh, not of the Spirit. Galatians 5:19-24 contrasts the deeds, or works, of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: [adultery, KJV] immorality, impurity, sensuality...and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (vs. 19, 21). The New American Standard Bible translates "fornication" rather consistently as "immorality." It often includes the footnote (as it does here): "I.e., sexual immorality." This is sowing to the flesh, of which Paul said one committing such sins will reap corruption (6:8). 1 John 2: 15ff described the love of the world. John said, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever" (vs.16-17). We can easily identify fornication as "a lust of the flesh" and even "lust of the eyes." To read some of the reports recently published, we might also recognize "the boastful pride of life." It is of the flesh and the world and is passing away. Fornication is a sin against your body. "he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body" (1 Corinthians. 6:18, KJV). Proverbs describes fornication and adultery as giving "your vigor to others, and your years to the cruel one...And you groan at your latter end, When your flesh and your body are consumed" (5:9, 11). "For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? So is the one who goes in to his neighbor's wife; whoever touches her will not go unpunished" (6:26-29). "The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; he who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out" (6:32, 33). The Proverbist describes sexual temptation and the following destruction: "With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly he follows her, As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool. Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hastens to the snare, So he does not know that it will cost him his life" (7:21-27). Fornication is a sin against the soul. This is the lesson so many miss. Some only consider a change when pregnancy or disease affects the body. The soul of man is also damaged by sexual sin. Another translation of Proverbs 6: 32 is, "The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; he who would destroy his soul does it." The soul, or spirit, is that part of man that sets him above the animals. In one sense both man and the animals are "a living souls." But it was of man that God said, "Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness" (Gen 1:26). Sometimes we call this "the heart." Jesus said, "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man" (Matthew 15:18-20). Fornication by the Christian is a sin against the body of Christ. The Christian is no longer his own man or woman. "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The context of this passage is fornication. Paul said, "Yet the body is not for immorality [fornication], but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body...Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For he says, `The two will become one flesh.' But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality [fornication]" (6:13-18a). The Christian is part of the body of Christ--the church of Christ! Paul did not want the church "leavened" by the sin of fornication, so he, in the name of the Lord Jesus commanded the church to "put away" (KJV) the sinner from the church. This included association such as eating. (See 1 Corinthians 5). The brother or sister who commits such sin has sold the birthright of the Christian for the passing pleasure of sin (Hebrews 13:14-17). They fall short of the grace of God. They have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ if they continue in that sin (Ephesians 5:5). Fornicators and Adulterers God will judge. Hebrews 13:4. "You adulteresses, do you knot know that friendship with the wold is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4). God's righteousness is revealed in the Gospel. His wrath is also revealed in scripture. It tells of men acting in stubbornness and unrepentant hearts. Romans 2:5,6 tell the sinner, including the fornicator, "you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God who will render to every man according to his deeds." The Forgiveness of God Before conversion the Corinthians had been fornicators, idolators, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers and swindlers. They could not continue to live in that "lifestyle" after their conversion. Conversion implies change. Change implies repentance. One cannot continue in the sexual sins of fornication, adultery and homosexuality if they truly repent. The Corinthians were washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus Christ. They were baptized to a new life. They could not continue the old life. Here is God's advice: Flee Fornication. 1 Corinthians 6:18. Very simply avoid the times, the people and the lasciviousness that leads to fornication. To heed the advice of "safe sex" does not lead one to "Flee fornication." In fact, teaching "safe sex" is probably "teaching fornication"! Churches in Asia Minor had some with the teaching of Balaam and Jezebel: idolatry and committing acts of fornication. (Revelation 2:14, 20). God commanded them to repent and keep His deeds. Get Married. 1 Corinthians 7:1,2 teaches if single, "don't touch," but "because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband." They should not deprive one another of sexual fulfillment--this is one purpose of marriage. This is how they become "one flesh." "Casual liaisons" are not scriptural and are antiscriptural teaching concerning marriage. "It is better to marry than to burn" (7:9). This is not to demean marriage to just one act, but the Bible commands, "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4). Let the older women teach the younger women "to love their husbands, to love their children" (Titus 2:3, 4). Do not let fornication be named among the saints. "But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints" (Ephesians 5:3). This reminds me of "Abstain from every form [appearance, KJV] of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22). God knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment (2 Peter 2:9). It is not in man to direct himself. We need the direction of a righteous Father in heaven. --Steve Willis Originally printed in The Hearken, Vol. 2, No. 12, December, 1991; The Hearken is the monthly teaching bulletin of the Hobart IN church of Christ, where I was working then.