After years of failed public health efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community, a group of faithful in Prince George’s County are calling upon their religious leaders to open up about an epidemic the churches have long considered taboo.
As of September, HIV/AIDS had infected 5,108 people In Prince George’s, making it the jurisdiction with the second-highest number of cases in the state behind Baltimore City, according to data from Maryland’s health department. Public health officials believe one-fourth of infections go unreported. Moreover, although blacks make up 29 percent of Maryland’s population, they make up more than 80 percent of those newly infected.
“In many congregations the discussion of sex and sexuality is not traditionally done,” said the Rev. Deborah Hoy Jones, a doctor and the director of the year-old HIV/AIDS ministry at the 1,500-member Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington.
Statistics in the county moved Hoy Jones and her ministry to organize a March meeting of all Prince George’s pastors to discuss the epidemic and form partnerships — even across divergent theologies — to provide services such as testing and trips to clinics. It’s a strategy churches in the District have been using for years, she said, but Prince George’s is only beginning to discuss.
She cited D.C.’s New Covenant African Methodist Episcopal as leading the movement in the District, and Reid Temple AME as a partner in Prince George’s.
The black church, Hoy Jones said, in keeping with a role it’s had to play throughout its history, “needs to remain at the center for the dissemination of social health care, in addition to preaching about hope in Jesus Christ.”
But although preaching hope is safe territory for a pastor, preaching safe sex is much riskier.
“Pastors need to address strategies for the pulpit so people’s lives can change, but they’re still willing to be a part of the congregation,” said Christopher King, program director at Greater Baden Medical Services, where he works with about 250 patients infected with HIV/AIDS. “You can’t tell people with AIDS they’ll go to hell, but unfortunately that’s what’s been done.”
King emphasized the black church’s impact on Prince George’s and its traditionally conservative values.
There is a need for formal training, he said, “so pastors can stay consistent with the values and morals they’re teaching and inspiring, but so they’re compassionate about the disease and willing to help others, too.”
HIV/AIDS in Maryland
» Baltimore City (pop. 640,961): 15,808 recorded cases
» Prince George’s County (pop. 855,972): 5,108 recorded cases
» Montgomery County (pop. 938,804): 2,719 recorded cases
As of Sept. 30, 2007.
Data from Maryland Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene
