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Holy Alliance Against AIDS
New York, New York
By Martin C.Evans
For the Rev. Marvin Dozier, pastor of the Unity Baptist Church of Mattituck,
the fight to boost AIDS awareness is a personal one.
His sister succumbed to the disease in 1989. Two years later, another member
of his congregation withered and died.
Caring for his sister in the final months of her life, then delivering the
eulogy at her funeral, helped persuade Dozier to use his influence as the leader
of a predominantly black congregation to fight against the deadly disease.
"That was how I learned to step across the line," Dozier said. "It
is not something I learned about or read about; it was something I experienced.
She taught me how God forgives."
As HIV steadily advances among the ranks of their congregants, the leaders
of some black churches have begun putting aside their preconceptions toward people
with the disease and their reluctance to use the pulpit to promote AIDS awareness
and prevention.
"Really, the turning point for me was when a young man who had helped
me start my ministry died," said the Rev. E. Lee Trollinger, pastor of Tabernacle
of One Accord, a Pentecostal church in Hempstead. "Basically, I've become
an advocate and an outright fighter for those who are afflicted and affected by
this disease."
Earlier this month, several East End churches participated in a coordinated
effort known as the [Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing] of AIDS. The
effort, through which church members received information on AIDS and training
on becoming AIDS counselors, was organized by Manhattan-based The Balm In Gilead,
which has rallied black churches nationwide in the fight against AIDS.
To make sure congregants understand the seriousness of the AIDS epidemic,
some church leaders are using language they say would have been unthinkable only
a few years ago. At a March 6 service at Unity, Dozier and the pastors of two
other churches listened as a deacon emphasized that HIV could be spread through
"vaginal, anal or oral intercourse," but not through hugging, holding
hands or visiting sick patients.
"Learn all you can about AIDS, because the more we know, the more we
know about protecting ourselves and each other," said the Rev. Cornelius
Fulford,pastor of the Full Baptist Church of Cutchogue, a guest preacher at the
service. "Everybody who gets AIDS doesn't get it from a sinful act."
Allen AME Church in Jamaica showed a five-minute AIDS awareness video during
each of its three services Sunday, followed by a question-and-answer period with
local physicians.
Many churches, including Allen and Unity Baptist, have programs that provide
support and information about AIDS to their congregations. Some have even begun
encouraging condom use as an alternative for at-risk people who choose not to
abstain from sex.
"We understand that abstinence is what we as a church are about,"
Dozier said. "However, we realize that there are people who are sexually
active, and condoms are one way of preventing the spread of this disease, so we
feel free to talk about it."
AIDS awareness is critical to the black community because about half of all
new HIV infections nationwide reported each year - and about two-thirds of new
HIV infections among women and children - occur among African-Americans, according
to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2000, 54.3 percent of newly diagnosed AIDS cases in Nassau, 31.5 percent
of AIDS cases in Suffolk and 48.6 percent of AIDS cases in Queens involved black
patients, according to state Health Department figures.
Although the black community has depended on the church for leadership on
social issues such as civil rights, literacy programs and even economic development
many believe it faltered in the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
Many ascribe that reluctance to the fact that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
is spread through the exchange of body fluids during sex without a condom or while
injecting drugs with a contaminated needle.
"I'll be honest with you, many churches are very, very shy about getting
involved in this," said the Rev. Charles Coverdale of the First Baptist Church
in Riverhead, who has used his church to promote AIDS awareness.
The Rev. John Boyd, pastor of Greater Bethel Ministries in Jamaica, said he
began speaking more openly about HIV prevention only a year or so ago, as AIDS
began affecting more and more church members.
"There was a minority in the congregation that thought it was too sexual,"
Boyd said. "But the Bible says, 'My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge.'"
Many black clergy members balk because they do not want to appear to condone
extramarital sex or homosexuality, said Dozier and others. Many early HIV activists
were from the gay community. Homosexuality often is rejected as ungodly by clergy
members from Baptist, Pentecostal and other denominations.
Maurice Franklin, director of technical assistance for The Balm In Gilead,
said the effort to engage black churches in the fight against AIDS got off the
ground in 1989, when 50 churches joined in the Harlem Week of Prayer.
Initially, other churches were slow to join. But the event was repeated and
expanded, eventually becoming known as the [Black Church Week of Prayer for the
Healing] of AIDS.
This year, about 10,000 churches participated in week-of-prayer activities
nationwide, according to The Balm In Gilead.
Far from dividing his church, Dozier said the decision to engage the church
in AIDS outreach has strengthened it.
"It was an ideal project," Dozier said of his church's decision
to involve itself in the fight against AIDS. "It wasn't the church here and
the community there. It connected us and gave us a moral purpose."
Copyright (C) 2002 Newsday, Inc.
Copyright (C) Newsday, Inc. Produced by Newsday Electronic Publishing.
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