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Black churches struggle with it
Charlotte (NC) Post - Print Circ 11,847 via World Wide Web 07/16/2001
07/16/2001
Source Website: http://www.thepost.mindspring.com
By Lili Beit
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INTERNATIONAL PRESS SERVICE
NEW YORK - In an era when AIDS is rising disproportionately in African-American
communities, a growing number of Black churches are taking a leading role in fighting
the epidemic.
But most churches - black and non-black - still shy away from addressing the
disease and the issues of premarital sex, drugs and homosexuality that surround
it.
"There are churches across denominations that have yet to face AIDS,"
said Frederick Streets, the chaplain of Yale University, a professor at the Yale
Divinity School and the former pastor of Mount Aery Baptist Church, an African
American church in Connecticut.
"There are so many factors that contribute to their resistance. There
is the stereotype that a carrier of the disease is gay or lesbian. There is just
the general ignorance and anxiety that churches in this country have had about
sex and sexuality," explained Streets.
About 20,000 African-Americans become HIV-positive each year, according to
the Centers for Disease Control, adding up to nearly half of the new HIV cases
that the CDC estimates occur each year, even though blacks make up only 13 percent
of the U.S. population. Slightly more than a third of infected African-Americans
are men who have sex with men (MSMs), according to the CDC's 2000 HIV/AIDS Surveillance
Report.
The Second Providence Baptist Church in Harlem is one of the many Black churches
hoping to counter these trends by providing HIV/AIDS education programs and spiritual
guidance to those who are infected or at risk, regardless of their sexual orientation.
"The Second Providence Baptist Church opens its doors wide to people with
the disease, because those of us who are not infected are affected," said
Laurence Graves, pastor of the church.
The Health and Wellness Ministry at Second Providence offers HIV/AIDS education
workshops about once a month, which are typically attended by 100 to 150 people
of all ages, including children, teenagers and senior citizens. Doctors, social
workers and health care providers speak at these workshops and answer questions
from the congregation.
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