AIDS challenges the church

Charlene wasn't sure when she first be came aware that Rob was not feeling up to par. But his failing health came into fo cus the day a severe coughing spasm sent him reeling to the hospital. Pneumonia. Despite medication, Rob was unable to shake his sick ness. Test followed test. Finally a diagnosis: AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome).

Charlene dropped into the overstuffed recliner in the living room, totally ex hausted as her mind churned through the events of the past days, weeks, and years. Life could change so fast. River City, U.S.A., had been good to her and Rob. Rob had satisfying work that paid well. They lived in a comfortable home with three children, ages 4, 3, and 1. They had good neighbors. But that was before, when life had been good. Before AIDS.

After AIDS life changed. First came the problem of AIDS phobia. The baby sitter was frightened and refused to con tinue caring for the children. Rob's em ployer was afraid of AIDS, so Rob lost his job. Rob had always taken care of the family finances and paid the bills now he was often too sick to do anything about them. As the money dwindled away, Charlene had to plead with the collectors for grace, but eventually even that grace was inadequate. She was forced to apply for welfare, and then government housing.

Charlene spent as much time as she could at the hospital when Rob was there, and even more time with him when he was sick at home. When she wasn't with Rob, she had to care for the children, purchase and prepare food, and keep the house in some semblance of or der under the difficult circumstances of an unpleasant move. At times it seemed she faced an impossible task.

In their sorrow and confusion, Charlene and Rob turned to God and to a caring minister who led them to surrender their lives to God. They were bap tized and accepted as part of the church group. Not wanting to face the awful pain of rejection again, they debated whether they should tell the members Rob had AIDS. Painfully they decided to take the risk.

Fortunately, instead of rejecting them, the church members opened their hearts and loved them. When Rob was hospitalized, church members cared for the children so Charlene could visit him. The members went grocery shopping. They prepared food. They cleaned the house. Most of all, they reassured Rob that God would forgive him for doing drugs.

In less than a year Rob died, at peace with family, friends, and God. And Charlene? Charlene is HIV (human im munodeficiency virus)-positive. The children? No one knows how long Charlene has been HIV-positive. Did she pass the virus to the baby during the birth process? Will the baby become HIV-positive? Will Charlene develop the symptoms of AIDS? If she does, what will happen to her children?

As Charlene (a pseudonym) told me her story, she concluded, "This was a difficult year. There were times when I didn't think I could live through another day. But the church members cared for us, and because they cared, I knew that God did also. Their love and acceptance helped me to forgive Rob for bringing the virus home to me. And I know that if I develop the symptoms of AIDS, they will continue to care for me."

I wish I could say that the church where Charlene and Rob found this sup portive group of friends was a Seventh-day Adventist church, but I cannot. Since hearing her story, I have often wondered what response Charlene and Rob would have found at an Adventist church. Because of its entwined moral issues, AIDS can present a dilemma not only to the church as an institution, but to individual members and pastors as well. Someday in the near future you will have to deal with someone who has AIDS. How will you respond?

It is easy for many of us to read about AIDS in New York or San Francisco and say "But this problem will never touch me." However, statistics predict that each of us will have a closer brush with AIDS than just reading a news story. It is predicted that by the year 2000, AIDS will have killed more people in the U.S. than all our wars combined. Because AIDS often kills both parents, it is also projected that thousands of children will be left parentless. Already AIDS cases have been reported throughout the United States and in most countries of the world.

Media attention often focuses on high-risk groups, but it is high-risk behaviors, not groups, that spread AIDS. Because the high-risk groups in North America have been homosexual men and intravenous drug users people seen by many as members of a marginal society—the issue of the expandability of certain people has been raised.

Does God equally value each person? How does God relate to events on Planet Earth and to events within the life of each person? Does God forgive a person with a terminal illness ? As a representa tive of God, how do I deal with death and dying, risk-taking, judgmental attitudes, and sexuality?

The church's role—considerations

These are complex issues that must be confronted to determine the church's ap propriate role in dealing with the AIDS epidemic. AIDS challenges Christians' response to overwhelming suffering and sorrow. Often our reactions fall short of truly Christlike attitudes. We find our selves wrestling with a potpourri of per sonal questions, feelings, and attitudes:

1. Is disease punishment from God? A primitive response is based on the age-old belief that disease is punishment from God. Job's friends believed this, and one of them told Job so: "Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being inno cent ? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniq uity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed" (Job 4:7-9).

Jesus encountered this belief during His ministry on this earth. "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents" (John 9:1-3).

The text "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me" (Ex. 20:5) is often used to indicate that illness is punishment from God. Some radio and TV evangelists state that AIDS is a punishment from God.

But this belief is an escape from the responsibility of caring. An escape from involvement. An escape from following the example of Christ's ministry.

More and more, science is showing that life's habits are the major cause of cancer, coronary heart disease, and other illnesses, as well as AIDS. There is a cause-and-effect relationship, but is it punishment from God? Does God punish one unhealthy lifestyle more than an other? Look at God's reaction to Job's friends and their attitudes: "The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath" (Job 42:7).

This issue is difficult to resolve because each person's response depends on his or her view of God and his relationship to Him. Beliefs affect attitudes, so it is cru cial to know what we believe concerning God and illness.

2. Attitude on death and dying. Solomon counsels that there is a season for everything. The appropriate season for dying is old age. One of the tasks of life is preparing for death when a person is old. Young people die, but it is not normal. AIDS upsets the order of things. It primarily attacks those in the 20- to 40- year-old bracket. It is predicted that in some countries AIDS could, in effect, annihilate a parent generation. Ministering to dying and grieving people forces a pastor to confront his own vulnerabil ity. Young pastors, especially, may find it difficult to deal with the number of peo ple in their own age group who are dying. How does a caring person cope with the frequent deaths of young people? Each death hurts. It hurts the families and friends, and the pastor who must deal with the spiritual needs of the dying person.

There are many different ways people handle the hurt of AIDS. Avoiding the situation, building a shell around one self, and in other ways distancing oneself from the hurt are not helpful to the per son with AIDS (PWA). Positive re sponses involve empathy, listening, and crying with the person. PWAs need the freedom to express their pain, sorrow, and anger. An open, empathetic response can drain a pastor emotionally. The pastor and other care-givers can pro ductively cope with this drain only by having a close relationship with God and by having a human support system.

3. AIDS phobia. AIDS phobia is ram pant in the United States. Care-givers are susceptible to this fear: fear of contracting AIDS, fear of exposing one's family to AIDS. Are these fears realistic? Yes and no.

It is realistic to fear contracting a dis ease that is debilitating and for which there is no cure. When AIDS first was described in the United States during 1981, its cause and mode of transmission were unknown. Rumors abounded. It took time and extensive research to dis cover AIDS' causative agent and how AIDS is spread. Not all of the questions about AIDS have been answered, but how it spreads has been well docu mented. No new information on AIDS transmission has been uncovered since 1984.

HIV, the precursor to AIDS, is found in a variety of body fluids. In most fluids, like tears, it is not present in sufficient quantity to be transmitted. Semen and blood, however, are good carriers. Infected men or women can pass HIV on to sexual partners of either sex. In addition, HIV can be transmitted by transfusions of infected blood or blood products, and by use of improperly sterilized hypoder mic needles. Instruments used for tattooing, ear-piercing, or penetrating the skin for any purpose can carry the organism. Mothers can pass HIV to babies during pregnancy or at childbirth and, rarely, through breast-feeding.

Outside the body, HIV is not hardy. A solution of bleach kills it. The virus is also rendered impotent if the body fluids containing HIV dry out. There is no ev idence that family members of a PWA have become HIV-positive except through sexual contact. The Centers for Disease Control says shaking hands with or hugging a PWA is just as safe as shaking hands with or hugging a person with out AIDS. If the PWA has an additional infectious disease, such as tuberculosis, all the precautions normally taken for that disease must be used.

4. Personal risks. Will involvement with PWAs put me in embarrassing situations? Will I be accused of being a homosexual? Will I be accused of immorality? Will I be accused of being "soft on drugs" or even of taking drugs? Will the demands on my time and emotions keep me from accomplishing other important work? Will my superiors condone what I am doing? Will my fellow church mem bers sympathize? How will they view my involvement with homosexuals, drug users, and prostitutes?

These are good questions to consider. One pastor reported that two thirds of his congregation left to go to other churches when they learned that he was giving spiritual care to a church member with AIDS. AIDS phobia and its accompanying condemnation have been common. In America the life and death of Ryan White, who had to go through repeated court battles to win the right to attend public school after he acquired HIV from a blood transfusion, dramatized AIDS phobia. Because many important people attended the funeral, one could assume that the phobia had been conquered. But during the same week that Ryan died, the news media reported that a child with AIDS had been denied permission to attend Sunday school on the basis of his diagnosis.

Will there be embarrassing situations? Probably. It helps to read about lifestyles different from our own so that we're at least intellectually prepared to meet these people. A wide variety of reading materials is available. Some promote. Some condemn. Some attempt to under stand. Check your local library or book store for materials. Reading a variety of viewpoints gives the best overall picture. For an even better understanding, listen to some PWAs tell their stories.

Is there a risk of labeling? Anytime a person speaks out for others or associates with them, that possibility exists. There are always people who do not understand and who love to criticize. Jesus was condemned in that way. "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Be hold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners" (Matt. 11:18, 19).

"Avoid the appearance of evil" is always good counsel. Planning ways to avoid this appearance will help minimize the problem. A church plan to meet the AIDS problem, developed by church members and the church board, will dif fuse much of the criticism.

Did Jesus take the risk of being criti cized? Yes! Should we? I believe so. Only by becoming involved with the concerns of other people do we learn to understand their joys and sorrows. With understanding will come opportunities for sharing the love of God. PWAs, especially, have tremendous spiritual needs that are made even more pressing because they have a short period of time to accept salvation and prepare for death.

5. Judgmental attitude. Closely related to AIDS phobia is a judgmental attitude that views PWAs differently from people with other life-threatening diseases, such as cancer. Even children who acquired HIV from blood products have been ostracized.

Is this an attitude condoned by Jesus? There are many examples of Jesus' inter actions with the sick and dying. The paralytic let down through the roof is a good example. The Pharisees coldly pronounced him incurable. His affliction, they believed, was the result of his own sins and was evidence of divine displeasure—so they offered no compassion. In contrast, Jesus' attitude was one of com passion and forgiveness.

The attitude of the Pharisees and scribes is more common among us than most of us would like to admit. This pharisaical attitude publicly condemns PWAs as having received the punish ment of God.

How accepting am I of people whose lifestyle challenges my culture and my belief system? How do I respond to peo ple who use illegal drugs? How do I respond to a promiscuous husband or wife who brings AIDS home and infects his or her spouse? Am I able to love the person without condoning the behavior? Does my attitude reveal the love of God to these people?

Directors of the Immune Suppression Unit and the Renaissance Chemical De pendency Program at West Covina Hos pital in California tell how stereotyping happens with drug abusers. Many people think of the abusers as down-and-out junkies sleeping on the sidewalks of our large cities. The directors protest that their patients are not like that. "Our pa tients tend to be upper-middle class.

They're working people from good back grounds, with good jobs. People have closed minds about who gets AIDS. It's not just the down-and-out who live off the streets. It's anybody."¹

Here are some steps I find useful in developing a Christlike attitude: 1. I analyze my interactions with people who have a different lifestyle. What do the interactions reveal about my attitude to ward these people? 2. I have a trusted observer give me an honest evaluation of my reactions. 3. If I am unaccepting, I turn to the Bible and restudy the basis for my beliefs. Reaffirmation from the Bible makes me more confident of my beliefs and less threatened by the beliefs of other people. I want Bible standards, not cultural norms, to direct my actions. 4. I study the attitude of Jesus toward a vari ety of people: Pharisees, publicans, lepers, thieves, the blind, the rich, the poor, the sick. 5. I ask God to give me love for those I find difficult to love, and to fill me with His love so that I can minister to hurting people. 6. I admit that I cannot be all things to all people. Until my understanding grows and my attitude changes, I search for someone who can relate effectively to the person in need when I cannot.

6. Sexuality. Since sexual intercourse is one of the major modes of AIDS transmission, sexuality becomes an issue. The risk of contracting AIDS greatly in creases for people with multiple sexual partners. The church strongly condemns multiple partners, so we often find it difficult to relate to people who break the seventh commandment. We may find it even harder if those involved are bisexuals or homosexuals, or if they sexually molest children. In the area of sexual transmission, AIDS is a problem of sexual promiscuity. This raises a question.

Can I redemptively relate to the sexually promiscuous both heterosexual and homosexual? The condemned Mary stood before Jesus. She found no mercy in the eyes of her accusers. Jesus' response was one of condemnation of sin, but love for the sinner. Only with an infusion of God's love can I give Jesus' answer to people I meet: "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:11).

7. Pastoral counseling concerns. How will AIDS affect premarital counseling? Will you suggest HIV screening? How will you counsel a married person whose spouse is unfaithful? What will be your response when a church member comes to you and says he is HIV-positive? How will you counsel the PWA and the fam ily? How will you deal with the issues of confidentiality or the rights of the indi vidual versus the protection of the spouse? These are complex questions. Answers can be found through study, seminars, and discussions with other pastors.

8. Church administration. What policy should you have on baptizing a person with AIDS? What about foot washing? Can an elder with AIDS break bread for Communion? Is there any special prepa ration for a funeral? How should a pastor with AIDS be treated by peers? By ad ministration? Some of these questions are easily answered through knowledge of how AIDS is transmitted. How an infected pastor is treated depends on our understanding of God. Antidiscrimination laws also affect decisions.

Unique challenges

Some might ask, "Why is AIDS differ ent? Haven't we always had the sick with us?" Yes, we have. But society has re acted differently to AIDS than to other illnesses. Society has frequently rejected PWAs, even to the point of driving them out of the community. Some pastors have told PWAs God cannot forgive them.

And then there is the problem of de spair. People with cancer and heart dis ease have some hope of a cure. At present there is no cure for AIDS. AIDS is a debilitating disease with recurring bouts of illness that leave the sufferer weaker and weaker. PWAs are facing death. They need physical and spiritual attention. Like Charlene, family members are thrown into unaccustomed roles and need assistance. Perhaps both parents in a family are ill, leaving children who need care. The whole family needs spiri tual care. Many of these people have suf fered rejection by the church even before contracting AIDS. They may have tre mendous guilt and no hope of either a cure or eternal life.

Kevin Gordon, speaking to an ecumenical consultation, challenges the church: "AIDS, then, is on the ecumenical agenda because of the alarming rate at which the disease is increasing, and also because much of the discrimination against people with AIDS, shockingly, claims religious foundation.... We must be part of the answer good news and not part of the problem. Some may think that this disease provides a natural occa sion for the church to judge AIDS; iron ically, and in the long run, it will be AIDS that judges the church."²

The church faces the challenge of being relevant to the needs of both the in dividual and the world in facing the AIDS crisis. Does the church truly care? Does the church truly value each person as one of inestimable value for whom Christ died? Is salvation truly offered to every individual? The world is watching the church as it faces this test. Will it pass the scrutiny? Will the Seventh-day Adventist Church pass the test ? How should we meet the challenge?

As in all aspects of life, Jesus is our example. Jesus came to this world to re veal God's love to humanity. The Gos pels portray snippets of happenings in His ministry of love. The leper cried for mercy; Jesus touched and healed him. A man descended through the roof; He for gave and healed him. The blind and dumb came; He touched and healed them. Yes, He had compassion in His ministry. He touched. He forgave. He healed. He mingled with the multitudes. And today He asks His church to follow in His footsteps.

What you can do

How can you lead your congregation?

Begin by personally dealing with AIDS issues. Discuss the issues with other pastors. If you plan a meeting deal ing with AIDS, the General Conference AIDS Committee will be happy to share their speakers' bureau list with you.

Form an AIDS planning committee in your church to coordinate the activities relating to AIDS.

Educate the church members. You will likely find AIDS phobia and misinforma tion within the church. Educate with sensitivity toward people's fears. The ed ucational plan should include both dis cussion of attitudes toward AIDS and in formation about the disease. Look for resources in your area that you can draw on for attitudinal education. Address the attitudinal issues mentioned in this arti cle. Church members may have difficulty relating to anyone who is sick. Depending on the congregation, extensive time may need to be dedicated to sexuality especially to begin to understand or even tolerate homosexual PWAs.

Educate with accurate information. A variety of educational resources are avail able. The Health and Temperance De partment of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists has an inter view with Surgeon General Koop, Aids: Resource Kit, available for loan on video. Narcotics Education, Inc., 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, Maryland 20904, handles a variety of educational materials. Request a catalog. The Gen eral Conference AIDS Committee has prepared a brochure on the Seventh-day Adventist response to AIDS as well as a brief statement on the disease. Request these by writing: AIDS Committee, Health and Temperance Department, General Conference of Seventh-day Ad ventists, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Sil ver Spring, Maryland 20904. Search for resources in your community. Preview all videos and other programs before pre senting them to your church, since not all of them use a Christian approach.

Assess the AIDS education needs in the community, especially in the schools. Prevention is the only "cure," so education should be given high priority. Are other groups giving AIDS education? Is there a need your church can meet?

The Lord has given Christians a special blessing in the wall of protection found in the Ten Commandments. Seventh-day Adventists have histori cally given emphasis to the Ten Com mandments. Obedience to "Thou shall not commit adultery" minimizes a major risk factor. This is an opportune time to share the good news. Share the good news of God's love that is seen in the Ten Commandments.

Since there are other modes of trans mitting AIDS besides sexual promiscu ity, give factual, balanced information on prevention.

Next, assess the needs of PWAs, their families, and the community. Does the PWA need food prepared each day ? Does the PWA need physical care and assistance? Does the family need child care? Does a garden or business need attention? Does the house need cleaning so family members will have time to care for the ill person? Does someone need to stay with the ill person to allow the family to run errands? How many people in the community need assistance? What re sources are already available in the community?

Assess your own and your church's resources in relationship to the needs you have identified. Are the resources sufficient to care for the needs you find? If your resources are limited, look be yond your church. A group of churches will have a broader spectrum of resources.

Make a plan of action that appropri ately and realistically matches the needs identified with available resources.

To help you in thinking about some appropriate responses, here are some ideas from what other churches are doing. Some have formed AIDS education teams and give education programs in churches and schools. Others focus on caring for PWAs and their families. In the case of Charlene and Rob, the focus of the church was on one family, caring for their specific needs. Some churches are providing an evening meal support group once a week for PWAs and their families, while other churches operate hospices, build homes for PWAs, or have crisis centers where children may stay for a time.

God will lead, showing you and your congregation the appropriate way to ful fill the instruction of Matthew 7:12: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."