Black Churches Urged to Do More in Fight Against AIDS

With AIDS gaining an increasingly strong foothold in the African American community, debate is also growing about whether black churches are doing all they can to address the problem.

Of all the jarring statistics chronicling the devastating path AIDS has cut through the black community, few are more staggering than this: Nationwide, 4,586 African American children have AIDS.

Accounting for nearly 60% of all pediatric cases, the number of African American children with AIDS, from babies to preteenagers, is more than the number of cases for whites, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans combined, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When AIDS burst onto the national consciousness more than a decade ago with the punch of a biblical plague, it was portrayed largely as a disease affecting gay white males.

And many in the African American community breathed a sigh of relief--for once, it seemed, the wolf was at someone else’s door.

In recent years, the face of AIDS has darkened considerably, with CDC figures now showing that even though African Americans make up only 12% of the U.S. population, they account for 35% of all AIDS cases.

The CDC makes no predictions for the future of the AIDS epidemic, but figures from the Harvard University AIDS Institute estimate that by the year 2000 more than half of all people with AIDS in this country will be African American.

To help keep that grim projection from becoming reality, a New York-based group is encouraging African American churches nationwide to host a week of prayer and education about AIDS, beginning March 1.

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The Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS is an effort to encourage African American churches to become centers for AIDS education and “compassionate care,” said officials with the Balm in Gilead outreach program, which is organizing the effort.

The group is being aided by coalitions of African American churches in about a dozen cities, mainly in the East and Midwest.

Thus far, no coalition has emerged in Los Angeles. Balm in Gilead organizers could list only one local church, Holman United Methodist, that they said had agreed to participate; they also said that Kevin Spears, a lifelong member of Holman who has AIDS, would be organizing the event.

But when contacted by phone, Spears said he had not planned any specific activities in connection with the week and was not at all certain that anything would be planned.

Some local clergy members attributed the apparent lack of local involvement simply to unfamiliarity. Though Balm in Gilead is 8 years old, it wasn’t until last year that funds were available for a national media campaign.

Officials of Balm in Gilead also said some Los Angeles churches may be planning events but have not notified the organization.

Beyond unfamiliarity with that group, though, some AIDS activists and a few clergy members asserted that the lack of participation is the result of a more serious combination of apathy and ambivalence.

By and large, black churches, they charge, have ignored the issue of AIDS in the African American community because of fundamentalists’ views on homosexuality.

“With a few notable exceptions, the black church has been missing in action on this issue,” said Phill Wilson, a nationally known AIDS activist and co-founder of the National Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum. “As one of the epicenters of the epidemic, L.A. has not been very progressive.”

Bishop Carl Bean, founder of the Unity Fellowship Church movement, said: “For me to say there’s this major push in the black church to take on the issue of AIDS is not the truth.”

Wilson, who has been living with full-blown AIDS since 1991, and Bean both listed a fear of dealing with human sexuality as the primary reason black churches have not been more active.

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“Part of that is tied to the struggle to find what is the right spiritual and theological position of the church on homosexuality,” said Wilson. “Quite frankly, [many] churches are very ambivalent because there are a lot of gay and lesbian folks that are active in their congregations.”

“Everybody knows who’s gay in the church, but it’s not talked about,” said Bean, who also founded the Minority AIDS Project. “They know who’s playing the organ and singing in the choir. You can be gay, but don’t say it. As long as that’s there, there’s a problem.”

Julia Walker, communications director for Balm in Gilead, an organization that takes its name from a Negro spiritual about healing, noted: “There still, very much, exists the view that this is God’s punishment.”

But that view, to the extent that it does exist, fails to recognize the new reality about the pernicious growth of AIDS. More and more, it is infecting women through heterosexual contact; it is also affecting their children, community activists said.

“For example, incarcerated men who are HIV-positive are getting out and coming back to their girlfriends and wives and having unprotected sex,” said Spears, of Holman United Methodist Church. “That’s not a good thing.

“So once again, the black church could be a model to help young people [modify] those behaviors.”

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Wilson said some Los Angeles churches are doing a “tremendous” job of AIDS outreach. He cited First African Methodist Episcopal, Holman and Bean’s Unity Fellowship Church. Others noted the work being done by West Angeles Church of God in Christ and Faith United Methodist, which operates the Imani Unidos food pantry specifically to serve AIDS-affected families in South-Central Los Angeles.

Mardra Paredes, who heads the counseling program at West Angeles, said she too was unaware of the Balm in Gilead program, but noted that the church is active in the AIDS ministry. It also is developing a pastoral care manual teaching other ministers how to develop AIDS ministries in their own churches.

Faith United’s Pastor M. Andrew Robinson-Gaither, who has been among the most active African American ministers in AIDS outreach, said he is planning several events over a two-week period to coincide with the national effort to emphasize the impact of AIDS in the black community.

Robinson-Gaither said that after the 11 a.m. service at Faith United Methodist on March 1, he plans to rehang a 6-foot-long red ribbon that was undone several months ago by rainstorms.

“We’re hanging it to show that there is an AIDS sensitivity here,” said Robinson-Gaither, who has been pastor at the progressive church for 12 years.

He also is planning an open house at the Imani Unidos food pantry on March 3 and 5. Finally, a gospel concert is planned at Holman for March 13.

“We’re going to encourage other [African American] churches to become centers of education,” said Robinson-Gaither.

But the challenge, he and other AIDS activists acknowledge, is great.

“There are churches where, if they see the word AIDS, they won’t even touch the paper [handout],” said Pernessa C. Seele, founder of Balm in Gilead.

That’s why the organization is asking for prayers, and at least one day of AIDS education.

“It’s comfortable, it’s non-confrontational,” said Walker, communications director for the group. “It’s a nice, easy way to get people to acknowledge that AIDS is having an impact in their congregations.”

Bean said events like the Week of Prayer are fine, but they do not go far enough.

“It’s not enough to do a service on World AIDS Day [in December] and act as if that’s effective outreach,” said Bean, who added that the nine churches in his movement “deal with AIDS every week.”

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Calling for more active outreach within the community, Bean added: “The bulk of the people who need the services are not going to be at any conference and they’re not going to meet you at your church.

“Everything that’s been done to date is good. What comes next is the walking, getting out of your safe space.”

Those interviewed about AIDS outreach and the African American church acknowledged that much more could be done. The fundamental question is how.

Given the volatile nature of the debate over homosexuality, Paredes, of West Angeles, suggested an approach based more on forward movement than any specific doctrine.

“Let’s not debate the physical or religious issues, and help where help can be given,” said Paredes.

“I’m saying let’s move beyond those differences [of opinion]. We’ll be told in eternity whether we’re right or wrong.”

* To organize a Week of Prayer at your church, contact Rosetta Gadson at the Balm in Gilead, (888) 225-6243.

* You can send contributions to Imani Unidos in care of Faith United Methodist Church, 1713 W. 108th St., Los Angeles, CA 90047. (213) 754-8453. The food pantry especially needs personal care items such as toothpaste, mouthwash and shampoo.

* You can send contributions to the Minority AIDS Project at 5149 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016. (213) 936-4949. In addition to cash, the center accepts gifts of clothing and food.

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AIDS and African Americans

AIDS has had a disproportionate impact on the African American community, as shown by statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Harvard AIDS Institute:

* African Americans make up 12% of the U.S. population but account for 35% of AIDS cases.

* African Americans accounted for 43% of AIDS-related deaths in 1996.

* More than half of all women with AIDS--55%--are African American.

* Nearly 60% of all pediatric AIDS patients are African American. There are almost 4,600 such cases, compared to 1,400 white children with AIDS

* From 1995 to 1996, the number of white deaths from AIDS dropped by 33%. The number of deaths of African Americans with AIDS dropped by only 12%.

* Among new AIDS cases, the number of African American women infected through heterosexual contact increased by 12% from 1995 to 1996. The rate for all women was 7%.

* AIDS has become the leading cause of death for African American men between the ages of 35 and 44.