Current Articles |
Press Archives
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
Meeting on AIDS gets scant attention
Black churches' apathy is cited at Emmanuel Baptist
Winston-Salem Journal (WWW)
Winston, NC
By John Railey
02.22.02
A slender young woman stood in a local sanctuary yesterday and
talked about how she and millions of other anonymous people living
with HIV struggle with indifference from many church folks.
The people in her audience listened intently - all 15 of them.
Her pastor is there for her, the woman said, but many other pastors
aren't as receptive.
When she finished speaking at Emmanuel Baptist Church, the people
in the audience looked past their own seats, down a long table with
empty chairs and untouched bro-chures about AIDS and HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS. And the members of the audience wondered about
the whereabouts of the pastors who had said that they were coming
to the session aimed at raising AIDS awareness in Black churches.
"Forty-five ministers said they were coming, and you look
around at this table and you don't see 45 ministers," said
Irene Phillips, an Emmanuel member and one of the forum's planners.
"My question is 'How do we get that collective voice?'"
she asked.
Phillips and other organizers agreed that the absence of the ministers
underscored one of their biggest problems: The indifference that
keeps church people from joining the fight against AIDS, the indifference
that keeps church people from realizing the critical nature of the
problem.
From 1995 to 2000, almost 900 cases of HIV and AIDS were reported
in Forsyth County.
In black communities in Forsyth County, AIDS is spreading to everyone
from baby boys to elderly women - most of them poor.
The Rev. John Mendez said that, in more than 20 years at Emmanuel,
he has buried about six AIDS patients, including some he had baptized.
"It is one of the primary killers of our people right now,"
Mendez said. "It's not something we can ignore."
Forsyth had the second-highest rate in the state of new cases of
AIDS infection in 2000, and blacks made up 72 percent of those cases,
said Donna Budde. She is the executive director of HOPE, a local
nonprofit group that helps people living with AIDS and HIV.
Budde attributes the increase in local cases to increased exchange
of sex for drugs or money and unprotected sex in general.
In addition, she said, more cases are showing up because more people
are getting tested.
Yesterday's program was sponsored by HOPE, Emmanuel Baptist and
The Balm in Gilead, a national group that works with Black churches
and nonprofit groups in fighting AIDS.
Worldwide, such activists as Franklin Graham are trying to revive
the fight against HIV and AIDS, which have grown to an estimated
40 million cases worldwide since first being detected more than
20 years ago.
Locally, several black congregations have sponsored AIDS-education
programs and started AIDS ministries, but many more have not.
Program participants said that one reason for the void is that
black pastors, fighting for such issues as working wages for their
congregation members, don't see AIDS as a survival issue as well.
And they said that there is sometimes a taboo about dealing with
sexual issues that leads to fear of AIDS.
They told stories of pastors who turned away people living with
AIDS, including one pastor who refused to baptize a person with
the disease.
"They're just as ignorant about this as they were about lepers
in Jesus' day, but they just aren't picking up stones and throwing
them as they did in his day," Mendez said. "We have to
attack the taboos."
* There will be a national Black Week of Prayer for the healing
of AIDS March 3-9. Mayor Allen Joines will issue a proclamation
honoring that week. For more information, call Donna Budde at 722-5735.)
* John Railey can be reached at 727-7288 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com
(c) Winston-Salem Journal. The Winston-Salem Journal is a Media
General newspaper.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................
Current Articles |
Press Archives
|
