MCC HIV/AIDS Advisory Council
WORLD AIDS DAY 2015
HIV/AIDS & Faith
Content
Covenant
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
by Professor Thomas H. Troeger
Statistical Data
• The Numbers of People Living with HIV/AIDS
• The Top Ten Countries with HIV
Recent Medical Developments
HIV and Faith
Page 3
Pages 4-11
Pages 12-13
Pages 14-18
Pages 19-21
• HIV and Human Rights
• HIV+ Faith Response
Case Study
Stigma
What Would Jesus Do
Good News
Works Cited
Pages 22-30
Pages 31-33
Pages 34-35
Pages 36-39
Page 40
Covenant Statement
We believe that God created all human beings in God’s likeness,
and therefore all of God’s children should be entitled to love,
compassion, kindness and forgiveness.
We believe that all persons are deserving of the love and
kindness God so richly provides to us all.
We are the agents of God’s love and compassion and are
committed to providing ministry, spiritual and medical, to those
with HIV/AIDS.
Clergy Advisory Board
HIV/AIDS Ministry Toolkit
Hyacinth AIDS Foundation
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
– Thomas H. Troeger
Praise the source of faith and learning
that has sparked and stoked the mind
With a passion for discerning
how the world has been designed.
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
Let the sense of wonder flowing
from the wonders we survey
Keep our faith forever growing
and renew our need to pray:
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
God of wisdom, we acknowledge
that our science and our art
And the breadth of human knowledge
only partial truth impart.
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
Far beyond our calculation
lies a depth we cannot sound
Where Your purpose for creation
and the pulse of life are found.
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
May our faith redeem the blunder
of believing that our thought
Has displaced the grounds for wonder
which the ancient prophets taught.
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
May our learning curb the error
which unthinking faith can breed
Lest we justify some terror
with an antiquated creed.
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
As two currents in a river
fight each other's undertow
Till converging they deliver
one coherent steady flow,
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
Blend, O God, our faith and learning
till they carve a single course,
Till they join as one, returning
praise and thanks to You, their Source.
The Numbers
Top 10 countries: People living with HIV
Source: UNAIDS Global Report 2014
1
2
3
4
5
South Africa 18%
Nigeria 9%
India 6%
Kenya 5%
Mozambique 4%
Remaining countries 39%
6 Uganda 4%
7 Tanzania 4%
8 Zimbabwe 4%
9 USA 4%
10 Malawi 3%
Recent Developments
• PrEP (Pre- Exposure Prophylaxis)
• PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis)
• Significant reduction in transmission in serodiscordant
partners
• Thailand Is Trailing a New Anti-HIV Sex Gel for LGBTIs
Recent Developments
• New proof that passing on HIV while undetectable is very
unlikely in both heterosexuals and gay men
• IAS 2015A major study examining how anti-retrovirals (ARVs)
reduce the risk of HIV transmission among heterosexuals has
found that no participant with a fully suppressed viral load
infected his or her long-term HIV-negative partner.
Recent Developments
• These final results from the HPTN 052 study of 1,763 mixedHIV-status heterosexual couples were presented at the Eighth
International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis,
Treatment and Prevention in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Recent Developments
• An ongoing study of gay mixed-HIV status couples has seen
no transmissions within the couples at its interim two-year
analysis, according to aidsmap.
In May 2012, researchers from the Opposites Attract study
began recruiting gay male couples in which one partner is HIV
positive and the other HIV negative. There were no restrictions
as to whether the HIV-positive men had an undetectable viral
load or whether the men used condoms. The investigators
presented their findings at the 2015 Conference on Retroviruses
and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle.
Recent Developments
• Depression and Risky Sex Strongly Linked in UK Gay Men
There is a strong connection between depression and having sex
without a condom among men who have sex with men (MSM) in
the United Kingdom, aidsmap reports. Researchers analyzed
recent survey data from 1,173 HIV-negative or untested MSM
attending sexual health clinics in the UK.
HIV/AIDS and Faith
• Pew Research estimates 84% of the world’s population
identifies with a faith community
• WHO estimates 40% of Sub Sahara Africa’s HIV/AIDS
treatment and care provided by Christian hospitals and health
centers
• 60% of HIV/AIDS services delivered by FBOs in some areas of
the world (UNAIDS)
• ELIMINATE STIGMATIZATION!
HIV/AIDS and Human Rights
• Poverty: 30 million with HIV/AIDS in low/middle income
countries
• Food security: Nutrition is vital in the fight against HIV/AIDS
and treatment
• Gender inequality: Violence against women and lack of
protection
• Incarceration: 30 million people entering/exiting prison
worldwide a year
• Discrimination: Race, LGBT, sex workers, IDUs
What is and HIV+ faith response?
•
•
•
•
Inclusive and affirming ministry!
Let's talk about SEX, baby!
Preach Prevention from the Pulpit to the Pew!
Reduce stigmatization, don't produce it!
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
In 1994, Pastor Jeff became pastor of Metropolitan Community
Church of Philadelphia.
One of the first ministries he started at the church was an HIV
support group called “Prayer and Praise HIV Support Group”.
Approximately 10 members of the congregation started to hold
group meetings twice a month.
Monthly, on the second Tuesday the members of the groups
would get together to read the Bible, share stories (good and
bad) with one another and pray for each other’s healing.
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
Later in the month, the group would find a seminar or workshop
to attend together. These “brothers” were determined to grow
strong together and learn as much as was available about the
disease which they had in common.
They taught each other and the church about only drinking
filtered water, herbal remedies to treat the side effects of their
medicine, the power of touch, and much more.
Although Pastor Jeff never attended the group meetings, he
supported the group 100% and encouraged the congregation to
do the same.
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
In 1998 after experiencing a bad cold for over two weeks, Pastor
Jeff went to the emergency room with a temperature of 105
degrees.
It was then that the doctors diagnosed Pastor Jeff with
Pneumocystis pneumonia.
Immediately, the brothers of Prayer and Praise went into action,
Many congregants came to visit Pastor Jeff but it was the
“brothers” who made sure that their pastor was getting the best
treatment, never left Pastor Jeff alone in the hospital, and
cooked and cared for Pastor Jeff’s partner.
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
People infected with HIV are often treated like the woman with
the issue of blood (unclean). They often face being outcast and
stigmatized. Because HIV is usually transmitted through
intercourse or the injection of illegal drugs, often churches brand
HIV positive individuals as reprobates not worthy of God’s love.
As Christians however, we must strive to be representatives of
Christ. The Christian New Testaments scriptures are full of
examples of Jesus showing love to and embracing, (both
physically and spiritually) people whom society labeled as
unclean.
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
It is God’s calling to today’s church to embrace those infected
with HIV and to be educators of those whom we encounter in
order to prevent the spread of this life threating illness.
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
Finally, let’s look at one more scripture which illustrates what
God expects of us.
“When the Son of Humanity comes in his glory, and all the
angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All
the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate
people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep
from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand
and the goats at the left. Then the Christ will say to those at
his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by the Creator,
inherit the dominion prepared for you from the foundation of
the world;
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
for I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me, I
was in prison and you visited me.’
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘When was it that we saw
you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you
something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a
stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited
you?’ And the Christ will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as
you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my
family, you did it to me.
Matthew 25:31-40
A Case Study: Pastor Jeff has AIDS
The care for Pastor Jeff did not end at the hospital. The
members of the Prayer and Praise HIV Support Group nursed
their pastor back to health.
Stigma
An overview
Stigma
In the Bible we meet lepers, who were isolated outside the
towns and villages, and they had bells attached to their clothes
to warn others about their presence.
Stigma
Today we stigmatize in a more subtle way – more psychological:
we avoid, reject, blame, shame, judge, insult, condemn etc.
What Would Jesus Do?
The question every pastor, church leader, or member should be
afraid of today is not whether a member of their church is HIV
positive. Instead, the most dreaded question is:
“when I was hungry, why didn’t you feed me;
when I was thirsty, why didn’t you give me drink;
when I was homeless, why didn’t you help house me; when I
was HIV positive, why didn’t you minister to me?”
(paraphrase of Matthew 25:35).
The Answer
God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a spirit to be more
than conquerors, to weep with those that weep, help the fallen,
the downtrodden, helpless, hopeless, the Samaritans, the
unchurched, the lepers, the prisoners, the orphaned, the
widowed, and those with HIV.
The Good News
Providing Ministry for People Living With HIV/AIDS IS NOT AN
OPTION!
Education and awareness are empowering. You can engage at a
different level, no matter whom, no matter what the disease.
Why should we feel a certain way when we are next to someone
with HIV?
The Good News
Globally, we must examine the intersections between poverty,
immigration, class, race, sexism and other “isms” that contribute
to new diagnoses.
We must also understand the intersections between drug use,
specifically Crystal Meth use and new diagnoses.
The Good News
We must understand the religious connections between a sexnegative approach to HIV status and human sexuality, which still
exists in our churches.
We must not be afraid to confront these issues and their
intersectionality.
The Good News
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God.
1 Peter 2:16
Works Cited
• HIV Vaccine Trials Network
• One Conversation –Community Forums on HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS Ministry Tool Kit”
Hyacinth AIDS Foundation, Available online
• P.I. Perspective –Project Inform’s Treatment Journal – March
2014
Project inform, Available online
• MCC HIV/AIDS Advisory Council Recommendations –
February, 2014