Black Churches Work to Increase HIV/AIDS Awareness

As part of National HIV Testing Day on June 27, The Balm in Gilead, a New York City-based organization that mobilizes black churches to help combat HIV/AIDS, gave churches information on how to encourage black people to get tested. CDC says that more than a million people in the United States are living with HIV, and it estimates that 25 percent do not know they are infected.

The latest CDC estimates show blacks accounting for 47 percent of HIV cases, and gay and bisexual men making up 45 percent. Theresa Holmes, spokesperson for The Balm in Gilead, said that when the disease first emerged, many black church leaders thought it was a problem mainly for gay white men.

Since HIV/AIDS has moved into the black community, churches have begun to address the issue, with levels of involvement differing from church to church. The Rev. Carey G. Anderson, senior pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Seattle, said compassion is key. His church has an AIDS Care Team Program, a wing of the city's nonprofit Multifaith Works, which partners HIV-positive community members with volunteers who provide support. Anderson believes in advocating abstinence and safe sex as part of educating the public.

Dr. DeMaurice Moses, health care coordinator at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, said it is necessary to acknowledge that black people are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, but he is concerned about stereotyping. He said people too often associate HIV/AIDS with black Americans and Africans, much as they once associated it with gay men. He said AIDS is a problem for the whole world.

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