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AIDS in the Black Community: A Voice in the Wilderness
CBN Online (www)
Virginia Beach, VA
07/13/2001
Source Website: http://www.the700club.org
By George Thomas CBN News Reporter
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CBN.com - In part two of his report, CBN News reporter George Thomas takes
a closer look at one woman's efforts to challenge the church to end its silence
on AIDS.
HARLEM, NY It is a subject that black churches in America have refused to talk
about for years: HIV and AIDS. But that is slowly changing. New research shows
that the epidemic continues to ravage the black community at disproportionate
rates, and some people are saying enough is enough.
Pernessa Seele is one such activist who is committed to fighting the AIDS epidemic
and the silence that enabled it to thrive in black America.
"When you look at one in every 50 black men infected, one in 160 women,
we have a major crisis in our community, and I don't know what to do except continue
to do what I do to get people to understand that we are in a race for our lives
right here in this country," Seele said.
For Seele, that race began 12 years ago while working in the AIDS ward at Harlem
Hospital in New York.
"I was just devastated by the number of black men and women dying in Harlem
Hospital, a central institution in a community with 352 [black churches]. I did
not see one pastor by the bedside, I did not see anybody from the church coming
by. This was just not my understanding of church as I knew it growing up in Lincolnville,
South Carolina," Seele said.
And so, in 1989, Seele began a campaign to end the silence of [black churches]
on HIV and AIDS. Prayer became the catalyst for change.
"An idea came to do a Harlem week of prayer for the healing of AIDS…
because black folk, we know how to pray. When we say let's come together and pray
people drop everything, and that's what happened," Seele said.
50 churches joined that effort.
Pastor Melvin Wilson of St. Luke AME Church is one leader who has stepped up
to the challenge of helping African Americans break the silence.
"I am going to invite those of you who know someone living with the virus,
know someone who has already died from the complications related to the virus...and
believe in the power of prayer...I am going to invite you to stand right where
you are," Wilson said.
On March 4th, 2001, more than 10,000 churches across America took part in the
12th annual week of prayer.
"We have churches now in this country who started with prayer but today
they have bought buildings down the block, they are providing housing for people
with HIV, they have changed their basement from a basement that was just bare
to a clinic. Churches are now doing some extraordinary things around HIV, but
it started 12 years ago," Seele said.
Seele believes every black church must become a center for AIDS education and
compassion. It must start with the man behind the pulpit.
"Our job, as was the prophets of old, is to stand up and tell it, Wilson
agreed. Now the folk didn't like it when Jeremiah told it, the folk didn't like
it when Isaiah told it, they didn't like what a lot of Malachi said, but the prophet
stood and proclaimed the word and that is what we must do."
Wilson explained to his congregation why the silence has lasted so long. "One
reason the church doesn't talk about it is because it's hard to talk about."
He acknowledges that, in the past, it was actually easier to discuss economic
disparities or racial discrimination than it was to talk about AIDS from the pulpit.
Initially, AIDS and HIV was a very hands-off, taboo subject, and we didn't
know how our people were going to respond, so many pastors chose the road less
traveled and chose not to say anything," Wilson said.
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