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March 2, 1999
Slowly Breaking the Silence on AIDS
By NADINE BROZAN
They baptize people, confirm them, preach to them, marry them, bury them, and
now, like it or not, in the face of AIDS, priests, ministers and other members
of the clergy are teaching parishioners about sex.
And nowhere is the need felt more urgently than in places black people worship,
whether Roman Catholic, Pentecostal or Muslim.
Despite successes in medical treatment, AIDS continues to pose a disproportionate
peril to blacks.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, in
1997, the most recent year for which data are available, a larger proportion
of blacks were reported to have AIDS than any other group in the country.
By the end of 1997, the center had received reports of 230,029 cases of AIDS
among blacks. That accounts for 36 percent of the cases, but blacks make
up only about 13 percent of the population.
"The African-American community has to understand that if we are going
to overcome this, the church will have to be involved," said the Rev.
George McRae, pastor of the Mount Tabor Baptist Church in the Liberty City
section of Miami. "Every hour we lose three people in this country."
Members of the clergy of all races have been hesitant to take up the role of
AIDS educators, but the black church, especially given the statistics, has
been exceptionally reluctant to tackle the issues, said those active in AIDS
education.
"From the beginning it was perceived as a gay white male disease,"
said the Rev. Rosetta E. Dubois-Gadson, whose son died of AIDS in 1996 and
who now has an AIDS ministry at St. Luke's A.M.E. Church in Harlem. "The
attitude was 'Thank God it wasn't us.' ' Many churches didn't want to deal
with the stigma or with drug abuse."'
But attitudes are changing. In growing numbers, black religious leaders are
speaking out, sometimes uncomfortably, teaching prevention for the healthy
and compassion for the stricken. They are transmitting from the pulpit, in
the classroom and in private counseling sessions the messages of abstinence,
monogamy, protection, including condoms, and avoidance of drugs.
Ten years ago, for example, only 50 churches participated in the first Black
Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS led by Balm in Gilead, a national
organization based in New York City that educates black churches on AIDS.
For this year's week of prayer, which begins Sunday, 5,000 churches have
signed up and are planning worship services, lectures and concerts, said
Pernessa Seele, the founder and chief executive of Balm in Gilead.
Despite that increase, Ms. Seele, said: "If churches were doing enough,
we wouldn't be in business. Some members of the clergy have been misinformed
that AIDS is a sin and that it only affects gays. Their position on homosexuality
becomes their excuse."
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