So when I first read the news report about American Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s unfortunate remarks about AIDS, I was annoyed. Saying in 1992 (and standing by those words in 2007) that AIDS patients should be isolated/quarantined because we don’t know how AIDS spreads is a bit out there. Perhaps if it had been 1982, it would have been vaguely understandable. But 1992, that’s just sad.
I don’t mean to pick on Huckabee. He isn’t my top choice among the candidates, but he isn’t my absolute last choice either. His statement was stupid and unbelievable, but it was just a mere blip on the sensational news radar. What I think made it continue to bug me is the underlying attitude of rejection of the Other that it conveys.
The messages of the culture I inhabit and the belief I follow teach me to be inclusive of the Other. Values of tolerance and respect are assumed in the postmodern climate of this globalized world. My faith encourages me to love my neighbor and my enemy, treating them as I myself would desire to be treated. I read stories of Jesus hanging out with the lepers and of him promoting the actions of a good Samaritan who helped out a bleeding and dying man. In essence loving people no matter what was wrong with them. Embracing the Other out of the command to love them instead of rejecting them out of fear because they are different.
So to hear politicians and those who claim to be Christian saying that people who are different or ill need to be isolated away from normal people (and for false reasons at that) doesn’t make much sense to me. Sure I understand safety and medical issues, but I don’t understand the mindset of rejection. Huckabee’s words were foolish and misguided, but they also departed from the type of lifestyle of love Christ calls us to live. And that is what makes those words most dangerous.