HIV/AIDS: Are Our Churches Doing Enough?
Part Three of a Three Part Series on the Black Church
By Angela Bronner, AOL Black Voices
Historically, the "Black church" has been many things to the African American community -- literal refuge, political foundation, social safe harbor, economic center, and unequaled spiritual base.
Steve J. Sherman
Pernessa Seele, Executive Director of The Balm in Gilead, says, "The good news is that as devastating as AIDS is, it's become a common point of bringing people together from many walks of life, who never would come together before."
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When an issue arose in or plagued the community -- Jim Crow, Civil Rights -- more often than not, the black church was at the forefront, providing not only moral guidance, but many times, actual leadership.
And then, along came HIV and AIDS. Though initially not viewed as a black disease, at present, the rate of HIV and AIDS has reached epidemic proportions in the black community.
While only 13 percent of the American population, black people make up over half of all new HIV and AIDS infections. There is an obvious disconnect -- AIDS is the leading killer of African Americans ages 25 to 44, and over 82 percent of African Americans belong to a church -- yet the black faith community has been unusually muted for far too long around this issue.
Where is the black church in the midst of this AIDS pandemic?
"We initially responded in a negative way," says Pernessa Seele, Executive Director of Balm In Gilead, a not-for-profit which mobilizes the black church community around the virus. "It was a gay disease; it was about drug abusers and 'those people.' It was a wrath from God on people who didn't live right.
"In my opinion, [the spread of] HIV has its roots in how the faith community first responded to this epidemic 25 years ago," adds Seele. "Yet, as more and more churches and faith communities speak out against the disease and not just people living with HIV and or AIDS, the more the stigma decreases in that community. And that's one of the reasons the faith community is very important in this epidemic."
Beginning 18 years ago with only 50 churches, Balm in Gilead now works with over 20,000 churches and faith based communities, a significant increase to be sure, but still only about one fourth of the 85,000 black churches in the country. Balm in Gilead does everything from helping churches to develop HIV Ministries to organizing national testing campaigns to working within existing church structures (i.e., men's programs, women's programs, prison ministries, and youth fellowships.)
Bishop Yvette Flunder, pastor of City of Refuge Church in San Francisco, as well as the international AIDS non-profit, Ark of Refuge, says that there is something positive coming from this most ugly disease, but that shame has contributed to its rapid increase.
"We have two things that are making us have the big numbers in this epidemic. One is religion and the other is shame and denial," says Flunder. "The plus side of that, however, is that this is creating a need for dialogue in our community about where we are around the issues of sexuality and what I call a need for a non-punitive discourse."
This discussion (even acknowledgment) of sexuality has recently been embraced by prominent leaders such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, who in August 2005 launched a radio-based initiative to fight homophobia in the black community, an issue he says has contributed to the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Updated:2006-06-08 17:33:07
AIDS and The Black Church
By Angela Bronner, AOL Black Voices
"We need to struggle against the stigma that makes our churches not a safe place to land for people who consider themselves at risk or who are HIV positive," says Bishop Flunder.
Flunder's ministry has a rapid testing center at her church as well several living facilities for housing for people living with HIV (including one for women only, the first of its kind.) There is a primary clinic, a clinical pharmacy as well as an orphanage in Mutoko, Zimbabwe (Mother of Peace) which serves 175 children orphaned by AIDS.
To Flunder, it's not about proselytizing but about serving people and creating "safe spaces" in church.
"We need to create atmospheres in our churches where people can be honest. And that's a pulpit job, that's a preacher job to change the social norm in that church, to make it politically correct to talk about HIV and to care for people," she says. "Right alongside that is to overcome a spirit of fear."
Maria Davis, legendary hip-hop promoter and now motivational speaker, had that spirit of fear when she first found out that she contracted the HIV virus in 1995. The woman many know as the take-no-prisoners voice on Jay Z's epic debut, 'Reasonable Doubt' ("Who told me to shut the f... up?"), said she overcame her shame and fear through prayer, good friends and a strong pastor.
"You know, prayer is very powerful," says Davis. "I don't care what people say, people in church act this way -- yeah -- I've gotten a lot of discrimination. But you know what? All you need is that one person which was the leader of my church to say you know what, it's about God."
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Initially, Davis said she like many others didn't want to speak about being HIV positive because of the stigma attached to the virus.
"Nobody really talked about it," she recalls. "Then I came along and said, listen, I have AIDS. You supposed to be the church, you need to stand up, step up."
The mother of two teenagers says that when she was hospitalized for six weeks with an opportunistic infection, her pastor, prominent civil rights activist Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, came to visit her twice which set the tone for the rest of the church.
"It played such a major role with the deacons," she says. "I remember them coming by my house bringing me money that they had collected up to help me with my kids. I tell people this all the time, if it wasn't for the Lord on my side, where would I be?"
Furthermore, Davis says she noticed in the hospital, a lack of people of color and church groups visiting, though many patients were black.
We are a church family and we need to be up in the hospitals. Because most of the people in the hospitals are us," Davis says. "When I was in the hospital, LIFEBeat were the ones ministering music to AIDS patients. And I was saying to myself, where are all the black people? Where are the churches, where are the choirs? I'm black, where's my people?"
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