[DoggyStyle82]

Originally posted by Wolfman
I'm not who works in this area but I do think that this has to be a multifaceted approach;for it's much deeper than an HIV/AIDS issue. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African American community is piggy backing on some deep social pathologies, providing fertile ground for chaotic sexual behaviour and other things. That's the major point I was making. It's as much about the break up and dissolution of the family and lack of sound parenting practices, where values of love, self-esteem based on people created in God's image, the wide availability of drugs, unemployment and the plight of the black male and prison indistrial complex, and the cultural decay associated with certain forms of popular culture. Nature abhors vacuums. Into this "wilderness" of anomie especially in many urban, inner city settings, this is where this epidemic can spread. I urge you to read the essay on male-female relationships in the excellent book, Rituals of Blood, by Orlando Patterson (Harvard sociologist) who tackles this state of sexual mores in the black community on an attitudinal level.

Now, what is "biblical." It's got to be more than a buzz word! Just proof texting the Bible does not constititue something being biblical. Sound doctrine and praxis is based on a deep reading of the narrative saga of the Bible and the overarching story of what God has done. Jesus reserved his harshest critique for those whose modus operandi was the "holiness" of Israel, the Pharisees. To them holiness comes from separating oneself from the contagion of sin and evil, thereby puttting oneself in position for God's blessing. Jesus, following in the path of many apocalyptic-minded Jews, as his /cousin/mentor John, taught that Satan hed sway over the nation and not just the pagans, or Jewish sinners. Everyone had to repent! (It's not just the HIV/AID crowd;it's you and I,too!)Those who saw themselves as righteous were in thrall too. (Remember Jesus was baptized too;he identified himself with the suffering and those in bondage to sin.) True biblical teaching, if it is anything, is incarnational: it costs something to be God our saviour. The price for wayward humanity to be reconciled is that God Himself puts himself on the line. In His son he pays for sin. In his context, Jesus, full of compassion, reached out to suffering humanity, under the power of the Satan, even giving up his life for us sinners. If there's a critique I do have for many churches is that they, unlike Jesus, want to criticize form the outside, giving fire and brimstone sermons without wanting to pray a price themselves. That's what the true God does, unlike the Pharisees, whom Jesus says put burdens on people but are unwilling to lift a finger to help alleviate the burden. The thing I appreciate about the Nation of Islam(which I disagree with wholeheartedly!) is that they understand this (how ironic!). They target young black men that many churches wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. They see the potential in these men, when many churches see thugs, drug dealers, low lifes,etc. For Jesus, holiness was an active presence,the presence of the Holy Spirit that emanted from him that made others holy. It was the healing presence of God at work. The Pharisees always saw "sinners" as sources of contagion;Jesus saw them as people in need of God's rescue. In the late '80s before I went to seminary, I used to participate in a prison ministry where we visited once a month, and I was involved in a program where I took prisoners out on for for a few hours to eat or some cultural activity or church. In my state, every county has a prison facility. In this program there was one black church participating. This is ironic in that many of the inmates were local men whose families were in the churches. We have work to do,bruh!

Its interesting how prescient your post was . My chapter visited a church yesterday so that we could worship together and the sermon was almost verbatim what you wrote!!!!

As I said, I don't disagree with you. It is the people quoted in the article and their agenda.

Rooo