Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Why AIDS is NOT a Punishment From God

Ted Koppel: Sometimes people say that AIDS is God's punishment for either sexual promiscuity or drug use.  What is your answer to them?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: That is a horrible God.  If that was the kind of God we were told to worship, I would reject that God.  My God is not a God who is so sadistic.

Why punish innocent children?  If it was to be true that AIDS was punishment, why should innocent babies be targeted?  It makes no sense at all. It makes me more just than God.  And I can't be more just than God. 

It is a disgrace to religion to have some people say something as awful as this, that AIDS is God's punishment for some sin or other.

Nightline, March 10, 2000