January 13, 1999
Some churches shun AIDS; some help
___By Kenny Byrd
___Baptist Joint Committee
___ATLANTA (ABP)--While many victims of the AIDS epidemic feel shunned and stigmatized by faith groups, others have found the strength to carry on through church ministries that rank compassion for the sick ahead of concern over issues such as homosexuality and drug use,said speakers at a recent conference.
___The AIDS and Religion in America Convocation, held at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, brought together nearly 200 religious leaders, theologians and representatives from the religion and secular media to discuss the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Participants included leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and other faiths.
___The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between 650,000 and 900,000 Americans are living with the human immunodeficiency virus--the virus that precedes and causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome. More than 40 million people around the world have been infected with HIV. That number is expected to reach 60 million by 2000.
___One speaker at the convocation, Emilie Townes of the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo., harshly criticized churches' silence on AIDS, terming it "hatred and fear masquerading as faithfulness."
___The ordained American Baptist clergywoman said that shortly before her favorite uncle died from AIDS, her aunt asked her to speak at the funeral because they did not trust their pastor to "put him away right."
___"What has it come to when a black church that has raised a man, loved him through thick and thin ... would not or could not be there in his death?" Townes asked.
___"Far too many churches live, breath and spew hatred and condemnation when it comes to those who have HIV and AIDS," Townes said. They use phrases such as "'God's judgment,' 'hate the sin, love the sinner,' ... as testimony to their vile theologies of loathing."
___And these phrases are "not just confined to talking about gay men who contract AIDS," she added, "but they mark children, substance abusers, hemophiliacs, heterosexual women, male and female prostitutes, those who received tainted blood through IV transfusions with this summary judgment."
___Sponsoring the four-day event was the AIDS National Interfaith Network, which works with 2,000 faith-based ministries across the country, providing care and support for victims of the disease. The network, established in 1988, supports community-based AIDS ministries; educates AIDS service organizations, the religious community and the public; and serves as public policy advocates.
___The organization's executive director, Kenneth South, said one of the difficulties about AIDS is that the core issues driving the epidemic are some of the most sensitive issues for religion in general--sex, death, drugs and, especially in this country, homosexuality.
___"Many religious groups have had to struggle with these issues, but those that have come out on the side of justice and compassion have realized this is about a virus just like every other medical tragedy, and they have been able to put that first and deal with the other issues in due course," he said.
___Contrary to popular perception that churches are doing little about AIDS, South said, the response of American faith communities to HIV/AIDS is the single largest non-governmental response in the history of the epidemic. Of the thousands of AIDS organizations operating in the country, 5,000 are believed to be direct efforts of people of faith and faith groups, according to a report compiled by AIDS National Interfaith Network and Public Media Center.
___While liberal and mainline religious groups were most heavily represented at the Carter Center meeting, the HIV virus does not discriminate between liberal and conservative, South said. CDC figures show that in the United States, AIDS is spreading most rapidly in the Southeast, a politically and religiously conservative region.
___Participants at the Carter Center gathering said a major obstacle to combating the epidemic is recent misleading media hype about new drugs that are enabling people to live longer with the virus. The media gives the impression that the epidemic is coming to an end, the religious leaders said.
___"There is a major paradox in the AIDS epidemic," South said. "While it is true there is a declining death rate in certain populations that have been devastated by the disease--particularly the gay male community--this decline gives the wrong impression to the American public that the number of AIDS cases is decreasing."
___The CDC estimates that at least 40,000 new HIV infections occur each year in the United States. In 1996, estimated AIDS incidents dropped for the first time, declining 6 percent. And deaths among people with AIDS also declined for the first time in 1996, dropping 25 percent.
___Michael Johnson, chief medical officer of the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration, said only half of the Americans who are HIV positive are receiving care. "Half of this population has a household income of less than $10,000 or is unemployed," he said. Women and minorities are less likely to receive new treatment protocols, he added.
___The CDC found that while AIDS incidence "remained highest among men who have sex with men, AIDS incidence increased most dramatically among women, African-Americans and people infected heterosexually and through injection drug use."
___Latino individuals make up 18 percent of all AIDS cases, while they represent only 12 percent of the U.S. population, according to the CDC. African-Americans, who represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 36 percent of cumulative AIDS cases reported through the end of 1997.
___One conference session highlighted racism and sexism as obstacles to certain populations having access to health care. Joseph Barndt, director of Crossroads in Chicago, said as the death rate of AIDS patients in the white community drops, whites will lessen their efforts to combat the virus by wrongly dismissing the disease.
___That may become an increasingly important factor as the AIDS epidemic continues to spread worldwide. The epidemic is just beginning in the most populated countries on the globe, reported Michael Merson of Yale University School of Medicine. In Russia, China and India, the virus is in its early stages. He predicted that by the year 2005, India will have 38 million people infected with the virus--more than all the HIV cases in southern Africa.
___Merson called on religious groups to include prevention in their AIDS ministries. "In some circumstances, this will require that religious communities confront their own fears and prejudices about those populations that are most vulnerable to HIV infection."Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!