District of Columbia: Churches "Silent" on AIDS

At a recent HIV/AIDS symposium for District of Columbia faith leaders, the featured speaker criticized clergy members and the federal government as being "silent for too long" about the epidemic. On Nov. 7 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the D.C. Department of Health sponsored the gathering to discuss HIV/AIDS, build a community-based response, and promote faith-based networking to fight the disease.

In the early 1980s, actress Sheryl Lee Ralph was starting on Broadway. "In the midst of one of the best times of my life came the worst," she told attendees. "And the worst was when men, up and down Broadway, just started dropping dead of a mysterious disease."

"Most of them died of the stigma, shame, and silence, because we don't talk about that," Ralph said. "One by one, my friends just died."

"We can be in our nation's capital, where everybody knows the facts, everybody knows what's going on, and everybody has decided to do absolutely nothing," Ralph said.

In addition to Ralph, speakers included Dr. Beny Primm of the Addiction Research Treatment Corp. Workshops addressed the disease and issues specific to women, men, youths, and seniors.

Some clergy agreed with Ralph's sentiments.

"If the church had jumped in and really spoke up 15 or 20 years ago and looked at this as a health issue and not dealing with sexuality and all of the other myths that went along with this, we would be much further along than we are now," said Bishop Kwabena Rainey Cheeks of the Inner Light Ministries in Southeast Washington. "In 2009, we still don't have all the churches involved."

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