While media coverage of AIDS has diminished in recent months, the epidemic continues to grow. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the number of people who test positive for the AIDS virus doubles every 16 months. Those numbers, along with the fact that persons with AIDS may also be church members (CT, Feb. 3, 1989, p. 56), help explain why pastors, health-care professionals, and parachurch leaders met in Washington, D.C., last month for the Mid-Atlantic Conference on AIDS Ministry. Sponsored by Love & Action, an Annapolis, Maryland-area outreach ministry to AIDS victims, the conference is one of only a few such efforts among evangelicals.
Not Leveling Off
That the church will face more challenges associated with AIDS is almost certain. Frank E. Young, commissioner of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reviewed the state of the epidemic. By 1992, he said, the United States will have a cumulative total of 365,000 persons afflicted with AIDS, 263,000 deaths due to AIDS, and about 172,000 AIDS patients in need of medical care—all at an estimated cost of between $5 and $13 billion. Young said that contrary to recent reports, “there is nothing that lays credence to the assertion that AIDS is on the wane or leveling off.”
Young said the FDA has encountered no drug that it considers to be a cure for AIDS. He stressed the importance of AIDS-prevention education, particularly for people entering “high risk” categories, such as persons 20–29 years of age who are sexually active.
Elizabeth Moberly, director of psychosexual education and therapy at the Institute for Christian Counseling and Therapy, said the issue of homosexuality and AIDS is especially difficult for the church. Referring to what she sees as a misunderstanding of homosexuality in the counseling community, Moberly said the tendency is to focus only on homosexual behavior and to ignore underlying psychological problems that homosexuals may have.
A general affirmation shared by conference participants was that AIDS offers the church a unique opportunity to present the gospel. Lon Solomon, pastor of McLean Bible Church in northern Virginia, said the church is “the only institution” that can help AIDS victims. “We can give them eternal life through Christ,” he said. But Solomon feels most churches would prefer not to deal with the disease.
What The Church Can Do
Several participants stressed the need for churches to develop an AIDS policy before they are confronted with the problem. Shepherd Smith, of the Washington-based Americans for a Sound AIDS Policy, said any AIDS guidelines should begin with a focus on abstinence for singles and on long-term marriage relationships. “AIDS is not a rights issue,” he said. “It is first a medical and public health issue.”
Prayer was another common theme. Jonathan Hunter, of AIDS Resource Ministry in Los Angeles, said that both intercessory and meditative prayer should be used on behalf of AIDS patients. In addition, Hunter said, “We should pray for people with AIDS so as to empower them to turn around and minister to others.”
Hunter also reminded the church not to limit itself strictly to evangelization. New Christians must still be discipled, he said. “Homosexuals still have to unlearn former bad habits once they become Christians.”
In all aspects of the disease, Solomon asserted, the church should feel compelled to take a leading role, adding that “no one else in society wants to deal with AIDS.”
By David Porter in Washington, D.C.
