www.HopeandHelpCenter.org
More Than an Infection - The AIDS crisis has as much to do with poverty and racism.
Written by ItinerantPreacher on February 7th, 2009
By: Bishop John Selders Posted: February 7, 2009 at 11:45 AM
http://www.theroot.com/views/more-infection
(brief excerpted comments - click the link above to read this excellent piece and several others offered at the www.theroot.com on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2009)
Jamal, a gay black man, was diagnosed 10 years ago with HIV. He can’t hold a job, battles drug addiction and suffers from serious depression. He has no car, and public transportation isn’t an option without help. Years of poor health, mental illness, lack of family support and the daily grind of coping with the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS has made his life nearly unbearable. The housing project ministry I run, in collaboration with Hartford and the state of Connecticut, helps him survive. Through this partnership, he receives decent affordable housing, social support services, transportation assistance, subsidized medication along with his disability check and professional support for maintaining a complex prescription plan. In response to the economic downturn, however, the state is currently proposing cuts up to 40 percent for HIV/AIDS. The result will be dire for Jamal.
Jamal’s story is just one of many I deal with every day. As a pastor in an urban setting, HIV/AIDS cases don’t come to me as abstract statistics nor as the stereotypes our culture likes to conjure up—the homeless black girl, the gay Latino man on the down low, the strung-out drug addict.
I refuse to be silent. On this National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I ask that you refuse to be silent as well…
(visit this link for the complete article http://www.theroot.com/views/more-infection )
Bishop John Selders is an ordained minister serving the United Church of Christ, the organizing pastor of Amistad United Church of Christ, Hartford, CT; and Lead Principal for the Human Connection Project. He is a teacher, lecturer, workshop leader, an HIV/AIDS educator and activist.
Posted in Global Justice Alerts - HIV/AIDS http://hopeandhelpcenter.org/ezekiel.aspx
