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HIV/AIDS: Are Our Churches Doing Enough?
Part Three of a Three Part Series on the Black Church
AOL Black Voices
June 12, 2006
By Angela Bronner
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| Bishop Yvette Flunder |
"We need to struggle against the stigma that makes our churches not a safe
place to land for people who consider themselves at risk or who are HIV positive," says
Bishop Flunder.
|
Flunder's ministry has a rapid testing center at her church as well
several living facilities for housing for people living with HIV
(including one
for women only, the first of its kind.) There is a
primary clinic, a clinical pharmacy as well as an orphanage in Mutoko,
Zimbabwe (Mother of Peace) which serves 175 children orphaned by
AIDS.
To Flunder, it's not about proselytizing but about serving people
and creating "safe spaces" in church.
"We need to create atmospheres in our churches where people
can be honest. And that's a pulpit job, that's a preacher job to
change the social norm in that church, to make it politically correct
to talk about HIV and to care for people," she says. "Right
alongside that is to overcome a spirit of fear."
Maria Davis, legendary hip-hop promoter and now motivational speaker,
had that spirit of fear when she first found out that she contracted
the HIV virus in 1995. The woman many know as the take-no-prisoners
voice on Jay
Z's epic debut, 'Reasonable Doubt' ("Who told
me to shut the f... up?"), said she overcame her shame and
fear through prayer, good friends and a strong pastor.
"You know, prayer is very powerful," says Davis. "I
don't care what people say, people in church act this way -- yeah
-- I've gotten a lot of discrimination. But you know what? All
you need is that one person which was the leader of my church to
say you know what, it's about God."
Initially, Davis said she like many others didn't want to speak
about being HIV positive because of the stigma attached to the virus.
"Nobody really talked about it," she recalls. "Then
I came along and said, listen, I have AIDS. You supposed to be
the church, you need to stand up, step up."
The mother of two teenagers says that when she was hospitalized
for six weeks with an opportunistic infection, her pastor, prominent
civil rights activist Rev.
Wyatt Tee Walker, came to visit her
twice which set the tone for the rest of the church.
"It played such a major role with the deacons," she
says. "I remember them coming by my house bringing me money
that they had collected up to help me with my kids. I tell people
this all the time, if it wasn't for the Lord on my side, where
would I be?"
Furthermore, Davis says she noticed in the hospital, a lack of
people of color and church groups visiting, though many patients
were black.
"We are a church family and we need to be up in the hospitals.
Because most of the people in the hospitals are us," Davis
says. "When I was in the hospital, LIFEBeat were the ones
ministering music to AIDS patients. And I was saying to myself,
where are all the black people? Where are the churches, where are
the choirs? I'm black, where's my people?"
Though her church home has been very supportive, Davis admits that
stigma is still alive and well. Since Rev. Walker became ill, Davis
fellowships at another Harlem church, First Corinthians, where she
is setting up an AIDS Ministry and bringing her firebrand activism
to the church.
"The pastor let me do my testimony on Easter Sunday," she
says. "When I did the AIDS
Walk, people were whispering all
in my ear, 'Girl, I can't tell nobody yet, but I have the virus.
I'm not as vocal as you, but I just want to thank you for putting
that out there.' Because people are afraid to say something because
they think they'll be ostracized. Even in the church.
"We need to understand what it means to be a Christian, but
we're not," adds Davis, who says she too struggles with her
own prejudices. "We're Christians to what we feel a Christian
should be, not what God says. And being a Christian means not judging
at all, period."
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