Commentary: Lift every hand in responding to AIDS
Globally, 17 million women and 18.8 million men between ages 15 and 49 live with HIV/AIDS. A UMNS photo by G. Pirozzi.
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A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Kelvin Sauls*
Feb. 7, 2007
Black History Month is not just another opportunity to look back and
celebrate our heritage. We also must critically survey today?s landscape and
consider present challenges. One such challenge is HIV/AIDS.
To change the course of this pandemic, we will have to do more than sing
?Lift Every Voice.? It will take more than wearing African attire and
romanticizing about the ?underground railroad.? To turn back this pandemic, we
will have to lift every hand to build a railroad of compassion and acceptance
above ground.
The faith community must lead the way! Churches, temples, synagogues and
mosques must walk in love and solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are
infected with ? and affected by ? HIV/AIDS.
The time has come for Christians to be intentional about demonstrating faith
rooted in compassion. In our walk, we can exclaim with the apostle Paul that
?nothing can separate us from the love of God? ? not even HIV/AIDS.
Too many lives are being lost, while too many people are doing too little.
The facts and fears are real and overwhelming! There is still no cure or
effective vaccine.
The Rev. Kelvin Sauls
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More than 40,000 people are infected each year. AIDS is the No. 1 killer of
African-American males ages 15 to 45. Two teenagers are infected every minute in
the United States. Nobody has been cured to date.
There are also signs of ?feminization? of the disease, with minorities
particularly hard hit.
According to the 2004 collaborative report ?Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting
the Crisis,? African-American and Latina women represent less than a quarter of
all women in the United States, but together they account for up to 80 percent
of the nation?s AIDS cases among women.
Globally, 17 million women and 18.8 million men between ages 15 and 49 live
with HIV/AIDS. However, since 1985, the percentage of women among adults living
with HIV/AIDS has risen from 35 percent to 48 percent.
In its 2004 report, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS observed:
?Nowhere is the epidemic?s ?feminization? more apparent than in sub-Saharan
Africa, where 57 percent of adults infected are women and girls.?
In the face of this challenge, people of faith are called upon to walk the
talk and display compassion and care for all who are infected with and affected
by HIV/AIDS. To change the course, we must move from stigmatization to
mobilization. It?s time to take our heads out of the sand and allow our homes
and congregations to become places where people with HIV/AIDS can experience
acceptance, peace and love.
The time for lip service is long gone. With every crisis comes an
opportunity. Our opportunity is to practice hope and love through prevention,
intervention and mobilization.
Prevention can come in the form of blunt, compelling and innovative education
forums to stem the tide of ignorance, arrogance and stigmatization.
Hence, our faith education must include preventative health education. We must
invite, teach and challenge people to make the necessary behavioral changes to
end the spread of this preventable disease. Intervention can include making our
congregations available as testing sites for HIV/AIDS, hosting support groups,
collaborating to provide life-sustaining services for HIV/AIDS patients, and
coordinating opportunities for retreat and respite.
We can mobilize our congregations, districts and conferences to influence and
direct policy at the local, national and international levels. When our
congregations commit to be centers of wellness, Christianity can once again
become a bedrock for communities to move from disparity to vitality. We must
fight to ensure that funding and HIV medications are available to all who need
them. Accessibility, understanding and elimination of health disparities are
keys to turning the course of the pandemic.
My brother and sister with HIV/AIDS are still my brother and sister. Now is
not the time to be a spectator. Become a participator. Move from stigmatization
to mobilization and make God?s love, care and compassion visible and viable.
Remember, ?nothing can separate you from the love of God? ? not even HIV/AIDS!
May God?s compassion ignite us from within so we can practice a vital faith
with open hearts, open minds and open doors.
*Sauls is a native of South Africa and serves as director of congregational
development for the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn.
Prior to his appointment, he was a pastor in Virginia, Ohio and California.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
UMCOR: AIDS in Africa
Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance
General Board of Discipleship |