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Black Churches Focus on Ravage of AIDS in Community
Greenville News
Greenville, SC
03.04.01
By Deb Richardson-Moore Staff Writer
Disease is becoming "epidemic of color"
Twelve years ago, Pernessa Seele was working in Harlem Hospital
and saw AIDS sufferers dying in isolation, hidden away by their
families, deserted by their peers.
How could black America, she wondered, turn away from brothers
and sisters in crisis? Why was the response to this medical dilemma
so different from previous crises such as slavery, lynching and
discrimination?
Seele sought the answer of her religious faith, founding a national
organization to enlist the all-important black church in the fight
to reverse AIDS' ravages in the minority population. She christened
it The Balm in Gilead after Old Testament references to the revered
healing ointment from ancient Gilead.
Healing is still on her mind today as the national group kicks
off its annual Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS.
The Rev. Vincent Thomas, pastor of Greenville's Tabernacle Baptist
Church, will be one of those preaching for people who aren't afflicted
and compassion for people who are.
"We're a sleeping giant," Thomas said of the black church.
"If we can ever wake this giant, we can see the kind of reversal
in infection rates that has happened in other communities."
Indeed, the disease is infecting African-Americans at a disproportionate
rate, according to U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher.
"I don't think there is any question that the epidemic in
this country is becoming increasingly an epidemic of color,"
he has said.
South Carolina DHEC counts 16,353 cases of HIV infection, and 10,271
cases of AIDS, since it began keeping records. Black people account
for 73 percent of the state's new HIV cases, though they account
for just 30 percent of the population.
"The black church, the black community, doesn't speak openly
about sexual issues," Tabernacle's Thomas said.
Thomas is part of a local Clergy Task Force enthused about bringing
The Balm in Gilead message to Greenville. Later this month, he and
other clergy and AIDS activists will travel to Brooklyn to talk
to members of Rehobeth Fire Baptized Church, which has been experiencing
some success in reversing infection rates in its community.
Deb Richardson-Moore can be reached at 298-4127.
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