Florida: "Silent Far Too Long," Churches Address AIDS

Friday is the launch date of a Tampa Bay affiliate of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, a New York-based group that targets cities with high HIV/AIDS rates.

A daylong program at St. Lawrence Catholic Church's Higgins Hall will feature discussions of the disease's local impact, legislative measures, and an action plan, as well as personal testimony from people living with HIV/AIDS. The newly formed chapter plans to reach out to elected and religious officials, medical providers, business professionals, and social policy experts.

Florida's AIDS case rate, 21.7 cases per 100,000 residents, is almost twice that of the United States as a whole, 12.5 per 100,000. Hillsborough County has nearly 6,000 HIV/AIDS cases, and Pinellas County has around 3,500. But "you wouldn't know it in the church community," said the Rev. James Favorite, pastor of Tampa's Beulah Baptist Institutional Church.

HIV/AIDS is a taboo topic in religious circles, said Favorite. "We've looked at it as a disease of promiscuity. And when family members were affected, they felt too guilty to come and talk to their pastors about it," he said. "It's time to take the curtain off this mystery. We have to help save a person's physical life before we can save a soul."

Local religious leaders should work together in combating the disease, said Favorite. "[HIV/AIDS] affects every religion, every color," he said. "So we need collaboration across all religious lines. Whatever we're doing now in our community isn't working, so we have to find another way to turn this around. I think the church can make the impact we need."

For more information, telephone Mac MacDowell at 813-786-8872 or visit www.nblca.org.

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