Balm for Body and Soul: Black Churches Take Lead in AIDS Outreach

The New Crisis
Issues and Views
by Tonya Adams
January/February 2001

In the United States, African Americans account for 38 percent of all Aids cases. Blacks make up 52 percent of all HIV infections in this country, while representing only 12 percent of the population. Sub-Suharan Africa claims 71 percent of the world's HIV positive people while making up only 11 percent of the world population. And sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where the impact of AIDS is greater than it is in the Caribbean. Throughout the African Diaspora, Black people are affronted by this disease, showing the most increased number of HIV infections among any group.

But why? In recent years, efforts to curtail the epidemic have been successful among other groups. In 1987, white Americans accounted fro 60 percent of all AIDS cases, but by 1995, they accounted for only 40 percent. Gay white men, who were initially (but mistakenly) viewed as the only susceptible group, are now diagnosed with AIDS at a significantly lower rate than they were in the 1980s, while the rates among Black gay men continue to climb. A recent New York City Department of Health survey found that in New York a startling 33 percent of young, gay Black men tested positive for HIV compared with just 2 percent in a similar group of white men. The figures fro White women have dropped considerably, but African American women account for more than half (57 percent) of all women in the U.S. with AIDS. And the legacy is being passed to the community's babies. Black children make up 58.7 percent of pediatric AIDS cases in this country.

Early in the epidemic, ignorance fueled the spread of the disease. But now, more than 20 years later, nearly all Americans know the basic fact about AIDS. Most people know how the virus is spread - through sexual contact, sharing needles when using intravenous drugs and mother to-child transmission during pregnancy. How is it that with HIV education and prevention that has permeated our society, Black infection rates are not decreasing?

A primary key to a successful intervention in the HIV epidemic in the Black community has been under our noses all the time- the church. It may seem an unlikely choice in public health circles, but in the Black community it is no surprise.

"Historically, our churches have demonstrated responsibility for the care and leadership of the African American community", says Maurice Franklin, director of the faith based HIV/AIDS technical assistance center at the Balm In Gilead in New York.

Critics have scolded the church for years, saying it wasn't there for Black folks as HIV and AIDS ravaged our community. But now, the Black church is at bat standing ready to knock AIDS out of the ballpark. The church becoming involved in the fight against AIDS is tearing down the stigma that has fueled its own lack of involvement and community division on whether the church should address AIDS.

And now, public health institutions are glomming onto the notion that to make a real impact on the HIV epidemic in the black community, the church must be involved. Realizing that African Americans were disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the latter half of the last decade began building partnerships with state and local health departments and faith communities to reach African Americans at risk of infection.

CDC funding has supported the Balm In Gilead, the premier organization dedicated solely to mobilizing Black churches to become centers of compassion and care for those infected with or affected by HIV and AIDS.

That feeling pushed Seele to knock on the door of every well-know pastor in Harlem, asking each to support her idea for the Harlem Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. The week (which was later renamed the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS) is the flagship program of the Balm In Gilead, and it encourages church leaders to preach sermons, hold prayer vigils, and provide information and e=education in the church about AIDS.

It was 13 years ago that Seele and church leaders representing more than 50 churches marched the streets of Harlem during the first Week of Prayer to raise awareness of AIDS in the Black community. Seele felt that this would move churches beyond their theological positions on homosexuality and drug abuse and own up to their responsibility to address human suffering.

With that "little idea", as she refers to it, Seele laid the foundation for an organization that today engages more than 10,000 churches in the United States and abroad to take action against AIDS in Black communities. The Balm In Gilead, which takes its name from the question, asked Jeremiah 8:22 provides and develops leadership and assistance for Black churches that commit to addressing AIDS.

And churches have answered the call to do AIDS ministry when they can no longer turn their heads. "We have seen the unavoidable impact of this disease on the community," says Pastor Rudy Rasmus of the 5,400-member St. John's United Methodist Church in Houston. He continues,"Just in the last few weeks, we have buried 14 people who were under 40 years old, half of them were AIDS-related deaths." Like Rasmus, many pastors are performing funerals for folks who are still young.

At Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, the pastor was moved to do something about AIDS after a number of women came to him for counseling and admitted that they were infected with HIV. Deacon Kelvin Berry, director of Antioch's HIV/AIDS program, AGAPE (Action, Growth, Awareness, Prevention, education) recalls why the 1,200-member church decided to begin this program.

"Once we (the church leadership) were aware, we wanted to start a program that would create awareness of AIDS", Berry says. " We felt that an unmet need in the community in regard to AIDS was a program specifically for women." While the AGAPE program (agape is also the Greek word for love, kinship and compassion) was initially set up to address the needs of women who are dealing with HIV, the program does not refuse anyone. In fact, in 2001 alone, the AGPE program tested more than 900 people for HIV. They also provide pre and post-test counseling.

Other churches have focused on the children in their communities. St. John's in Houston started the Bread of Life program. In this program, the church provides daycare and programs for children whoa are infected or affected because a parent is infected or has died from AIDS. The program was initially an extension of the church's homeless ministry.

"We offer clothing on a daily basis, and a full- service salon for homeless folks. We wash their hair and, like Jesus did his disciples in the Bible in John 13:5, we wash their feet," Pastor Rasmus says. "We provide meals seven days a week, and when people come in for a meal, we take that as an opportunity to talk to them about getting tested for HIV".

Another church that is doing extraordinary work in AIDS awareness and prevention (including needle exchange and programs for Black gay men) is the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville. Reverend Edwin C. Sanders II, senior servant of the 700-member church, explains why the church is perfect institution to address this health crisis: "In the church, things are done in a communal way, and HIV requires a communal response." Metropolitan actually its HIV prevention efforts 15 years ago, when one of the founding fathers of the church died from the disease. For more than eight years a formal program has existed at the church.

The church's involvement in AIDS prevention in the Black community is also necessary on a more personal level; with a church being them, people who are dealing with the disease feel more fortified in their struggle.

"Church support represents spiritual support, which translates into hope. The church has helped people with hope move beyond the limitations of logic," Sanders states. As a people, Black folks have moved through many trials in this country on our faith.

Prayer's Place in Medicine

Religion in medicine and healing is no longer a medical anomaly.

"There is a small body of (medical) literature that talks about spiritual beliefs having an impact on a person's ability to take control of their health, " says Gail Wyatt, a psychologist, sex therapist, sex researcher and associate director of the UCLA AIDS Institute. "We know that a positive attitude about health and survival boosts a person's immune system. When a sick person becomes depressed, loses hope and ignores his health, he gets sick faster, dies sooner and has a marginal quality of life." The explanation for faith helps when an individual has a health crisis is not so obscure: "Belief in God gives a person the power to act on their beliefs. If they believe they are suppose to live, then they take action, "Wyatt says.

One such story is that of Norma Coleman. For almost 30 years, she a was an intravenous drug abuser, and for a time supported her habit by prostitution. On top of those issues, Norma had extensive health problems, including congestive health problems, high blood pressure and gastro esophageal reflux disease. Then at age 46, Coleman was diagnosed with HIV. "I was asking, is this true? Is this a nightmare? Am I hallucinating?" she recalls. Coleman, now 54 and living in Nashville, had been going to a church that she continued to attend after her diagnosis. But things were different.

"Members of the church were with me as I went through my bypass surgery; they were attentive to me. But once I announced that I was HIV-positive, church members started backing away from me. It dampened my spirit; I was mad at God for a while."

Coleman became very guarded and deeply depressed. " I was all alone. I didn't want to wash my face or change my clothes," she remembers.

Through a friend who was concerned, Coleman found out about the program at Metropolitan International Church. Now, she says, "I am blessed. God put me in the midst of people who are there for me. If it had not been for the church, I might have OD'd. I know now that the Lord has a plan for me, and Metropolitan church is helping me identify it".

There's no doubt that churches may be important to a person's health because of the spiritual fortification they provide. But religion isn't for everyone. The Black community has recognized that churches are supplying more than spiritual guidance; they offer services ranging from counseling and HIV testing to helping people who are infected cover their rent, purchase food and pay their utility bills.

Sylvia, a woman from Cleveland who asked that her last name not be used, turned to the church when things started falling apart. The 46-uyear-old learned that she has contracted HIV from her ex-husband, from whom she had been divorced for 10 years. Her current husband didn't stay around after she broke the news to him. "My marriage started deteriorating after I was diagnosed", she says. "I couldn't pay my rent. My counselor at the clinic I attend suggested I come to the church to get help with paying my rent."

This movement is growing. More and more, Black churches are taking on the task of addressing HIV and AIDS. " We're getting an increasing number of calls and requests fro church leaders and churchgoers for support and information on addressing AIDS," says the Balm In Gilead's Franklin.

The organization presses on its conviction to get more churches to take up the torch. Balm In Gilead program are now in several African countries, including Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. And each year, more churches participate in the black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, which takes place this year March 3-9. The Week of Prayer is already established in the Caribbean and this year churches in Tanzania will participate for the first time.

"This year I've seen a tremendous change", says Rev. Smith of Interdenominational First Response Wellness Center in Nashville. "Last year when we did the Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS, we had enough churches participating to cover every hour. In the past we did n't have that. Now churches are realizing that they can do something."

 

 

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