AIDS Report Draws Hate Mail From Fundamentalists

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop says he has been barraged with hate mail from fundamentalist Christians over his report calling for sex education to curb the spread of AIDS.

“No conservative Christian leader, no conservative Christian publication, to my knowlege, has been critical of the surgeon general’s report or of me, but many constituents of those denominations and movements have been,” Koop said this week after appearing on “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

“I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of hate mail,” he said. “It’s vituperative. It again assumes, you know, that I’ve departed the faith, whatever that means.”

Koop, an evangelical Presbyterian, said he has been talking to fundamendalist Christians the last few weeks to dispel their misunderstandings of his October report on acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

In addition to his appearance on CBN, Koop has spoken recently at the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.

He said questions he has received from conservative Christians indicate that some of them still believe AIDS can be spread through casual contact. The disease is transmitted by blood or semen, primarily through sexual contact or sharing dirty needles, he said.

The best way to avoid contracting the fatal disease, Koop said, is to abstain from sex or engage in a monogamous sexual relationship.

The surgeon general said parents should take primary responsibility for teaching their children about sex and AIDS, but schools also must play a role and start sex education as early as the third grade.