Elvin Adams, M.D., M.P.H., associate director of the Health and Temperance Department, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

The following books on AIDS have been reviewed for Ministry by Elvin Adams, M.D., M.P.H., associate director of the Health and Temperance Department, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

When AIDS Comes to Church William E. Amos, Jr., Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1988, 130pages, $9.95, paper.

The author was pastor of a Baptist church in Florida when AIDS came there in the fall of 1984. He first encountered the unwelcome guest when Dennis, an 80-year-old parishioner, lost his only grandson to AIDS. The old man posed many questions regarding homo sexuality, AIDS, and salvation.

The pastor's second encounter with AIDS occurred a month or two later when Tom, a married parishioner, developed pneumocystis pneumonia. Tom, a former alcoholic and drug addict, had recently been helped by AA and become an active member in the church.

This book covers in chronological order the steps taken by Pastor Amos, the families and victims of AIDS, and the 600-member congregation. There were periods of crises, testing, and compassionate caring, all of which resulted in strengthening the church and its minis try. The author tells of his own personal preparation and his theological inquiry. He outlines the ways in which the church ministered to their afflicted members and families and what pastors can do to prepare their churches to respond in a similar crisis. 

The book is easy to read, and in it the author/pastor demonstrates skill and tact in dealing with complex situations. His involvement was total, personal, and without reservation. I found the information about AIDS and its consequences to be accurate and complete.

The presence of AIDS in this typical middle-class church produced significant attitudinal changes in its staff and congregation. But the process has only begun, for Amos writes of only two or three cases of AIDS—there will no doubt be more. Unfortunately, the future will bring thousands of cases of AIDS to church, and the resources and ingenuity of pastors and congregations will be strained to their limits.

This book is a simple narrative of the steps taken by one pastor in dealing with the problem of AIDS. It can be a valuable primer for many more who will face the reality of AIDS in their churches in the months and years to come.

AIDS and the Church Earl E. Shelp and Ranald H. Sunderland, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1987, 150pages, $8.95, paper.

The first half of this volume is a factual but dated recital of the AIDS epidemic. The last half deals with illness from a Christian perspective and ends with a discussion of different types of AIDS ministries.

Though copyrighted in 1987, the information the book contains is from 1984 and 1985 and includes several serious in accuracies. In commenting on the AIDS test, the authors state "the test only indicates that a person has been infected. It is not a diagnostic or prognostic tool." Again the authors state, "The future for these individuals (those who test positive for HIV) is unclear. What number will progress to some form of clinical illness is not yet known." However, recent evidence indicates that 99 percent of those who test positive for AIDS will eventually develop the disease and die.

The authors take a liberal view of Christian sexuality, accepting the unhealthy sexual practices of modern society as normal. They also seem to consider many of the ethical and moral positions of conservative Christians as damaging and outdated. For this reason, and the serious flaw of being scientifically outdated itself, I would not recommend this book as a resource for AIDS education.

Mortal Fear—Meditations on Death and AIDS John Snow, Cowley Publications, Cam bridge, Massachusetts, 1987, 92 pages, $6.95, paper.

This small book is easily read in an hour and is divided into two parts. The first, a series of meditations on AIDS, contains no useful information on the subject but much on the frailty of life. The second section concerns the victim's fears of mortality, which this reviewer found difficult to follow because of a flight of seemingly unrelated ideas that ran on page after page. The book could help some understand the plight of the AIDS victim psychologically, but it reveals little about the disease itself.


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Elvin Adams, M.D., M.P.H., associate director of the Health and Temperance Department, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

May 1989

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