Out of Control: AIDS in Black America-- ABC special

Neosoulchild · #1 08-31-2006, 07:25 PM

I'm not saying that the church should remain silent on the issue at all. That was one of my biggest problems with the reasons/excuses they gave for AIDS being so rampant amongst blacks. The church should be doing more, and T.D. Jakes' remark about the church not being about to hone in on one issue is a load of crap to me. I know the church has addressed teenage pregnancy and drug use before, but I've never heard the church say the answer to teenage pregnancy is the practice of safer sex or the answer to drug abuse is clean needles. That's not addressing the issue of why those behaviors are taking place. If the church's stance is abstinence, I don't think they should compromise that just because society accepts fornication, homosexuality, or adultery. But that's just my opinion.

neosoul · #2 08-31-2006, 09:16 PM

I concur... Churches are suposed to deal with the issues facing the community... As a church elder you dont need to know how I got HIV, what you need to be worrying about is my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being.

I dedicate my community service hours to helping PLWA (Persons Living With AIDS) and the way black folks are treated is APALLING! (sp) they are the ones coming in to the clinic I volunteer with for housing, legal and financial help. I am trying to get certifed so I can give the HIV Oral test... I can count on my two hands how many black women have come in to get tested for HIV (which btw is free), and I've been with this clinic for about a year now...

p.s. I'm loving your name Neosoulchild

GodlyAspiringDr · #3 09-01-2006, 01:04 PM

My mom's church was having this same discussion recently and thus decided to read All I ever did was love a man by Sharon Denise Allison-Ottey, as a way to broach the topic within the christian women's book club...

If you haven't read the book - pick it up...

Here is the author's homepage...
http://www.allieverdidwasloveaman.com/book.htm

Be safe everyone... We all are at risk regardless of our marital status, sexual preference, and morality...
...

AKA_Monet · #4 09-01-2006, 06:01 PM

Then, I am unclear why folks tend to gravitate toward the church when they are in the most dire of circumstances...

I guess folks have a strong faith and believe that because Christ did miracles for those in need of health, that the church, especially the Black church will do the same.

IMHO, one of the most powerful "health-related miracle" of Christ out there is the one after crucifixion when the blood of Christ seeped down onto the leper colony and cured them.

IMHO, the second most powerful "health-related miracle" is the pool at Bethesda.

In fact there are many "health-related miracles" that Christ did in healing the sick.

With our new Westernized medical society, where proof of concept is key for the treatment of all diseases, folks afflicted with HIV/AIDS, especially the health disparity of African Americans, particularly women, it is no great wonder why folks always tend to gravitate toward the Black Church to find absolution.

So the key question is given the sordid causes how one actually gets infected with HIV, will they have salvation in their life or after they die?

Moreover, the other issue is that relatively younger African American women are becoming infected by HIV. I doubt the number is high due to IV drug use, which means that they probably getting it by unprotected sex. Moreover, the teenage pregnancy rate has been high in our community for awhile. It is not often that a girl becomes impregnated at first sexual intercourse encounter, although it happens. So essentially are we willing to agree that self-esteem is absent in our young ladies (meaning 9 years old)???

African American women's groups, including our sororities, have addressed these issues for over 20 years, and now we have the complexity of HIV/AIDS...

I think there does need a multi-prong attack to end this devestation in the United States of America.

And I think some groups are going to have to take some open-minded stances...

That includes the Church and its moral adjudication on people.

Because when you alienate people based on moral reprehension, groups of them start to die off like flies... And is that very Christian?

We are all our brother's and sister's keeper... That is what we call humanity... If we believe in a higher power, then we need to help others even when we abhor their livelihood. But "right action", folks less that able learn and build from that. Why should the Church be used as a destructive tool rather than to build up His kingdom?

BlessedOne04 · #5 09-01-2006, 08:48 PM

Aside from the statistics, the Presidential debate really angered me because of the lack of knowledge of political leaders to the AIDS epidemic in THIS country. We talk about other countries but people are dying right here and IMO it is just another way the government (Both Democrat and Republican) don't care about the African Americans unless it is election time.