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TRANSCRIPT:
Episode no. 430
March 23, 2001
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Coming up, how a small Muslim country has virtually escaped the AIDS crisis that is devastating sub-Saharan Africa.
And Mormon missionaries. Young people who go out seeking conversions anywhere in the world their church sends them.
MR. MICHAEL MCNIVEN (Served in Concepcion, Chile): I felt like I was on the frontlines in a war, and it was the war between good and evil. And I felt like I was right there, and that I was this soldier.
ABERNETHY: Plus, it covers 12 acres and costs $65 million. The John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.
ABERNETHY: Welcome. I'm Bob Abernethy. It's good to have you with us.
President Bush spent much of this past week reaching out to religious groups. On Wednesday, Bush hosted a White House meeting with Roman Catholic cardinals and bishops. He said America is undergoing a religious revival.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I think there's a great awakening under way in America. People are rediscovering the inspiration of faith in their lives and the importance of faith in our society.
ABERNETHY: The president also told the Catholic leaders America would do well to put the teachings of Pope John Paul II into action.
Also this week, President Bush met with African-American clergy to discuss his plan to expand government support of religious social service programs.
And in honor of Greek Independence Day, Bush hosted Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
On Thursday, the president participated in grand opening ceremonies for the new Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington. The capital's newest monument is a privately funded $65 million interactive museum and art gallery, dedicated to furthering the pope's ministry and message.
We'll have more on the center later on in the program.
ABERNETHY: The Vatican announced this week that John Paul will visit Greece on May 4th and 5th. Organizers hope the trip will help ease long-standing tensions between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches. The visit to Greece will be part of a pilgrimage to Malta and Syria where the pope will follow the missionary journeys of St. Paul.
ABERNETHY: Also this week, the Vatican acknowledged that some nuns had been sexually abused by priests, but the Vatican insisted the church is working to correct the problem. Vatican officials said the incidents were rare and limited to certain geographic areas, principally Africa. The National Catholic Reporter, an independent U.S. newspaper, reported that church officials in Rome had received reports of the abuse over the past five years. According to the newspaper, some priests who did not practice strict celibacy and who feared contracting AIDS took advantage of young nuns because they were seen as safe sexual partners.
ABERNETHY: In Washington, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban government defended its destruction of tens of thousands of ancient religious statues. Replying to international condemnation, spokesman Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi said the destruction of the statues was a reaction against international sanctions and the hardships they imposed on his people.
MR. SAYED RAHMATULLAH HASHIMI: If the world is destroying our present and future with economic sanctions, then who gives them the right to talk about our past or to worry about heritage?
ABERNETHY: Hashimi also accused the western media of distorted coverage of events in Afghanistan and of presenting biased views of its Taliban rulers.
ABERNETHY: Bread for the World, the Christian anti-hunger organization, called this week for the U.S. government to lead an international effort to cut world hunger in half by 2015. The group said the first step should be an additional $1 billion a year in foreign aid for sub-Saharan Africa. Bread for the World said a poll showed 83 percent of Americans support that idea and would be willing to pay for it.
ABERNETHY: The AIDS crisis has killed 17 million in Africa. It's created 12 million orphans. In some countries, more than a quarter of the adult population is HIV-positive. But in Senegal, a largely Muslim country in West Africa, the rate of infection is barely one percent. Public health programs get a lot of the credit, but so do personal behavior and religion. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Senegal has the kind of profile typical of African countries staggering under AIDS. Most of its people are poor, an annual pro capita income of just $600 and two-thirds are illiterate. Yet on a continent where AIDS has infected up to 30 percent of the population in some countries, Senegal's rate is barely one percent.
The Imams in Senegal's many mosques say there's one important statistic. The country is 95 percent Muslim, and they are devout. Homosexuality is outlawed by the Koran, they note, as is marital infidelity. AIDS in Africa is primarily a disease of heterosexuals.
MR. ELIMANE NDIAYE (Imam): Islam is a religion that prohibits sexual dealings. It does not allow taking liberties with your sex life. As a Muslim, you are obligated to choose your wife and stay with her.
DE SAM LAZARO: There's no question that Senegal's mosques are filled on Friday and life comes to a standstill each day during the calls for prayer. However, this former French colony also has a thriving commercial sex industry. Prostitution is tolerated, the only condition being that it keep a low profile. Senegal is alone among African nations to not only acknowledge the sex trade, but it's also taken elaborate steps to regulate it.
In a program that started way back in 1969 to control sexually transmitted diseases, Senegal began requiring its commercial sex workers - or prostitutes - to register themselves at places like the polyclinic here in Dakar, and to come in for regular medical checkups. That program is now key to monitoring the spread of HIV in the country.
About 1,000 women are registered at this clinic at the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
DR. ANTOINE MAHE: And so every month, she has to come here for an examination. And if it's OK, she has a stamp on her card. If the police goes to her on her days of prostitution, she has to show her card and the policeman checks the regularity of her visits.
DE SAM LAZARO: If she does test positive for HIV, she can continue to work - using condoms, it is hoped. Across the world, the sex trade is often the source of sexually transmitted diseases, so public health officials say the surveillance has been invaluable.
DR. SULEYMAN MBOUP (AIDS Researcher): I am military by training. I'm a colonel in the army. And I think that even in any war, you need to know first your enemy. Knowing the current situation, you can adapt to what you are doing.
DE SAM LAZARO: Mama Bambera became a sex worker eight years ago. She says the registration program has been a huge help, both in health care services and information.
MS. MAMA BAMBERA: This is a really good thing. I've learned how to protect myself. I didn't know anything about AIDS. Now I'm able to get information and pass it onto people with whom I work and my family members.
DE SAM LAZARO: Dr. Suleyman Mboup has studied sex workers in Senegal for 15 years. He says the awareness campaigns have paid off. The infection rate among registered prostitutes is a relatively low 15 percent and hasn't increased since the early 90s.
MR. MBOUP: We were able to document very high knowledge of this population and some behavior change - very high rate of usage of condom . While when you go to non-registered prostitutes, you have increase of this incidence rate of SDI, and you have lower rate of knowledge of usage of condom and also of HIV. So I think this has been very, very important factors.
DE SAM LAZARO: The challenge for scientists like Mboup is to reach so-called clandestined prostitutes, whose number could well rival that of registered sex workers. Because prostitution is socially taboo, many women work outside of the system. Many are also likely immigrants from surrounding countries.
Public health experts say it's difficult to accurately measure exactly what accounts for the low HIV prevalence, whether it's the sex worker registration, religious conservatism or other factors. Their big worry looking ahead is complacency, dangerous in the face of one of history's most tenacious epidemics. For example, in villages like Nyombre, people pride themselves on living by Islamic family values. Many here are in polygamist marriages where they quickly add, "Fidelity to one's spouses is still a basic value. AIDS," they say, "is a distant problem." We spoke with many women in this village. None had ever met a person with AIDS or even seen a condom, at least not outside a condom commercial.
Unidentified Woman: Only on television. You see, we have good family values. Being faithful to our husbands is protection enough for us. We're loyal to each other.
DE SAM LAZARO: However, many men in this village fit into a classic high-risk group for HIV. They are men who travel away for extended periods in search of work, prime customers for the commercial sex industry. That's what happened to "Amadou," who said a casual affair caused him to contract the virus. And although his wife has been tested HIV-free, Amadou feels condemned as a social pariah. The mosque, he adds, is no refuge.
MR. AMADOU: There are many Imams who say that it is written in the Koran that people who had adulterist relationships will suffer consequences, like incurable diseases.
DE SAM LAZARO: Religious leaders say they'll continue to admonish congregants to stick to Koranic teachings as the best prevention. But they insist they do not condemn those with HIV.
MR. AHMED MANDAME NDIAYE (Imam): When I meet someone who rejects people with AIDS, I remind them that they cannot be sure that the person contracted it by cheating on his wife. There are many other ways to catch AIDS, so we have to be careful. We also have to take into account that, according to the Koran, God is most merciful. If the person repents, God will forgive. So who are we to not give assistance to such a person?
DE SAM LAZARO: Still, Amadou, who says he practices safe sex, is not ready to seek help from the Imams.
MR. AMADOU: This is very difficult. This is a taboo here. If I went to see the Imams or a fellow Muslim, they would say, 'OK, this guy was coming here in the mosques praying with us, but he was a hypocrite. He engaged in bad behavior. Shame on him!"
DE SAM LAZARO: Successfully discouraging that so-called bad behavior will be key to keeping Senegal out of the path of the AIDS epidemic. It remains to seen in a few years whether Senegal's religious leaders will still mainly be preaching a message of marital fidelity in their efforts to combat AIDS, or whether they'll be forced to shift emphasis and talk about caring for people who have the virus. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro, in Dakar, Senegal.
ABERNETHY: Salt Lake City, home of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is preparing to host the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Although the church has agreed not to proselytize officially during the games, it has begun a campaign to educate visitors and the media about the Mormon faith. The LDS Church is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with more than 5 million Mormons in the U.S., 11 million worldwide. Our correspondent John Dancy takes a rarely permitted look at how the church trains its missionaries - 85 percent men, 15 percent women - and what these young people face in the field.
JOHN DANCY: They show up in suits and ties and Sunday best. These 19- to 21-year-olds have been called to serve as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons. Every Wednesday, about 500 new missionaries begin intensive instruction at the Missionary Training Center on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Yesterday they were wearing jeans and T-shirts. Today, they are referred to as Elder or Sister. Immediately they are thrown into an unfamiliar world.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I've got this.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: That's for your food.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Food would be nice.
DANCY: When they agree to serve a mission, they commit to go anywhere that the church needs them. Men serve two years; women, 18 months. They pay their own way, or their family or congregation does. The church now has missions in 120 nations and territories. The missionaries will spend three to eight weeks here, depending on the language they study, learning how to be missionaries. Training goes on from dawn to late at night.
MR. DAVID WIRTHLIN (President, Missionary Training Center): We have an advantage that you haven't had because we know where your missionaries are every minute of the day.
DANCY: As the moment arrives to say good-bye to families, the enormity of this commitment hits them. It will be two years before they come home again.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: You're on your way to building 11M. That is your next stop.
DANCY: The regimentation begins immediately.
ELDER EARL C. TINGEY (Executive Director, Missionary Department): You want them to leave home and go out and start this new venture, learning the language. It's not easy to be eight weeks and learn a foreign language. And to learn new techniques of meeting people, learn how to take care of yourself, learn how to wash your own clothes. All of that is new to most of these young men and young women. And by leaving their families and starting anew, they look forward, not backward.
DANCY: The Missionary Training Center teaches 48 different languages, more if necessary. That is because the LDS church believes every person should hear their message in his or her own language. Teachers are usually returned missionaries. Often in the early going the spirit is willing, but the tongue just won't cooperate.
But within a few weeks, missionaries have mastered basic conversation, enough to teach others about Mormon beliefs - that God appeared with Jesus to young Joseph Smith in a forest grove in upstate New York in 1820 and told him he was restoring the true church, originally organized by Jesus Christ. Mormons also believe Jesus appeared again after his resurrection, this time to an ancient civilization in the new world. The record of that event is contained in The Book of Mormon, which they believe is divinely inspired, like the Bible.
Training is sophisticated. Computers help students master pronunciation. The young missionaries are taped as they practice presenting their message to native speakers. The early going is painfully difficult. From now on, the missionaries get one personal day a week. Most use it to keep up the rigid personal appearance standards the church demands. Laundry and letters go together. Missionaries are encouraged to write home once a week. Cheerful, faith-promoting letters are preferred. Phone calls are not allowed here. In fact, over the next two years, missionaries will be allowed only one or two calls home a year. Often, tape cassettes are the only way to hear the sound of a girlfriend or boyfriend's voice. In this ecclesiastical army, just as in the real one, mail becomes a lifeline to home.
Serving a mission is voluntary, but the LDS culture exerts strong social pressure on young people to serve. About 40 percent of all young Mormon men agree to put their shoulder to the wheel.
GROUP OF MEN: (Singing) "We all have work, let no one shirk. Put your shoulder to the wheel!"
DANCY: Last year, the Mormon church had more than 60,000 missionaries in the field. How many is 60,000? Well, think of the BYU football stadium on a fall Saturday afternoon, and you get an idea. Now imagine all those people knocking on doors and you get a picture of the Mormon missionary effort.
(Clip from movie "God's Army" shown)
The kind of discipline and self-sacrifice involved in serving two years in a far away place is so extraordinary, it recently served as the subject of a small movie, "God's Army." The movie depicts one of the most controversial aspects of Mormonism: missionaries trying to convert members of other faiths.
Church leaders are unapologetic.
ELDER TINGEY: What we do is we, in effect, say to that person, 'Bring all the good-all the truth that you have, and let us see if we can add to it. And if we can, and if you're one who is attracted to truth, then we will teach you. We will help you.'
DANCY: If Mormon missionaries are God's army, then these are some of the better ones.
MR. MICHAEL McNIVEN (Missionary who served in Concepcion, Chile): I felt like I went from the make-believe world of a 19-year-old and got popped into reality. I felt like I was on the front lines of a war, and it was a war between good and evil. And I felt I was right there, and I was this soldier. I mean, that sounds almost romantic, but to me it was reality.
DANCY: All these returned missionaries admit now they entered the mission field with varying degrees of faith.
MS. NKOYO IYAMBA (Missionary who served in Sacramento, California): I came into the mission with-with questions. And with each - each objection from a knock at the door actually strengthened my faith.
MR. NATE MATHIS (Missionary who served in San Bernadino, California): I probably wasn't as strong going into the mission. I definitely had a desire to serve and a desire to learn, but my conviction and my testimony was definitely strengthened while I was out there.
DANCY: A problem for the church is that many new converts the missionaries make don't stay active. They drop out after the missionaries who converted them go home.
MR. MCNEVIN: You immediately want to write letters. You want - you want to go find them. You want to go revisit. You want to go back and say, 'Hey, don't you remember all those great experiences we had together? How can I help?'
DANCY: Missionaries, whether they serve on Temple Square in Salt Lake City or in outer Mongolia, must learn to deal with rejection. Most people they approach don't accept their message.
MS. HEIDI ANDERSON (Missionary who served in Stockholm, Sweden): Every door that slams in your face - or not - but every person that's not interested, it's almost a test. Do you really believe what you're saying? Do you really believe in this message of Christ, and that God has a plan for you? That there are prophets still on this Earth today? And I think that we have to confront those questions and answer them in our minds and in our heart every day.
MR. MICHAEL SMART (Missionary who served in Manchester, England): The hardest was when they had little kids. I would remember that I was a little kid - sorry - when the missionaries came and talked to my Mom and Dad. And I knew what I've gained and continued to gain from my parents accepting that message and teaching it to me. And I just wish they would do the same.
DANCY: Over the history of the LDS church, more than 600,000 young men have served as missionaries. In a sense, it is a rite of passage.
ELDER TINGEY: They go out as older boys and come back as young men with a great maturity, with purpose in life. They go back into school and they know what they want to do in most cases. That comes as a by-product. We don't want them to go out with that in mind, but it happens every case.
DANCY: Every Tuesday, a new group of missionaries leaves Salt Lake City. This one, for South America. For the next 18 months to two years, these young men and women will work 16 hours a day, six days a week. On average, each one will convert 10 persons during that period. But, with 60,000 missionaries in the field, that's enough to produce 300,000 new converts a year.
Unidentified Man #3: This is the best work on earth. What can I say? I'm excited!
DANCY: Through the efforts of missionaries, the Mormons expect to have 71 million members worldwide in another 50 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Love you guys! See you later!
DANCY: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm John Dancy in Salt Lake City.
ABERNETHY: As we reported earlier, the new Pope John Paul II Cultural Center officially opened in Washington, D.C. this week. Kim Lawton took a special tour.
KIM LAWTON: They call it a museum of faith. A high-tech facility designed to tell the story of the Roman Catholic Church and of the man that led the church into the new millennium. Organizers say that story has relevance for all people of faith.
REVEREND G. MICHAEL BUGARIN (Pope John Paul II Cultural Center): Even for non-Catholics, it's a great place to come and visit.
LAWTON: The center was spearheaded by Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, who had urged the pope to consider establishing a presidential library of sorts to preserve his legacy.
REVEREND BUGARIN: The more the Holy Father heard that idea, he didn't like it. He said it was focused too much on the man and not enough on the mission. His whole mission, actually - his entire pontificate is teaching - teaching the message of Christ. And so here, he didn't want a monument that was just dedicated to himself.
LAWTON: So Cardinal Maida and his team designed a multifaceted center that would focus on the themes of John Paul's papacy. The Pope began forwarding ideas.
REVEREND BUGARIN: In fact, he was the one that chose Washington, D.C. He was offered three locations. He was offered Washington, D.C., Rome and Krakow. And the Holy Father chose Washington D.C. almost instantaneously because he saw it as the crossroads of the new millennium - of technology and people.
LAWTON: All parts of this center bear the Pope's mark. The "Hands of Peace" exhibit does so literally with a bronze cast of John Paul's hand.
Reverend BUGARIN: This is actually the Holy Father's handprint. In fact, in a very tangible way, it connects with people from around the world that celebrate our faith.
LAWTON: The Pope insisted the center combine theology with state-of-the-art technology. The interactive multimedia exhibit gallery does just that. With the help of a bar coded swipe card, visitors can read the scriptures and learn about Catholic history and teaching. In another exhibit, visitors learn about stained-glass windows and make their own digital window that's projected on a wall monitor.
REVEREND BUGARIN (to Lawton): That was your creation.
LAWTON: An art gallery houses permanent and rotating exhibitions from Vatican museums. The center also has a scholarly arm, a think-tank that will study issues of faith and culture. John Paul conceded that one small exhibit could be devoted to memorabilia about his life, including a pair of his skis.
The $65-million center does have detractors who wonder whether the money could have been put to better use. Center officials say it's an investment in the future.
REVEREND BUGARIN: I like to tell people, "Give me $65 million today and allow me to spend it and I will not make much of a dent in the world. But give me $65 million and allow us to build an institution where we could actually have maybe 65 million visitors, one that will actively encourage them to go out into the world to make the world a better place, then I can make a dent in the world."
LAWTON: The center hopes to have a visit from the Pope himself, perhaps later this year. I'm Kim Lawton in Washington.
ABERNETHY: That's our program for now. I'm Bob Abernethy. To find out more about RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, log on to pbs.org or America Online. Keyword: PBS.
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© 2001 Educational Broadcasting Corporation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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