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HIV ministry requires long-term commitment from churches
By Manda Gibson
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| Shepherd and Anita Smith |
When Shepherd and Anita Smith began addressing HIV in the 1980s, they received little support.
“People thought we were nuts, particularly church people,” Shepherd said. “Church people thought this could never affect the church.”
They were ridiculed and treated with suspicion by friends and family members. “We were accused of being closeted gays or having some reason to do this other than the goodness of our hearts,” Shepherd said.
“There were very few people addressing it,” Anita said. “It was only being addressed as a judgment from God on the homosexual community. That’s where people in this country saw the epidemic; people didn’t understand it was beyond that one community in terms of the world.”
Since becoming involved in HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the Smiths have become leading experts in the field. Together, they founded Americans for a Sound AIDS Policy (renamed Children’s AIDS Fund in 1997), and Shepherd started the Institute for Youth Development. He is a recognized authority in the area of high-risk behavior among youth and has testified before congress, the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic, the Food and Drug Administration, and more. Anita serves as co-chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and has coordinated a national effort to educate and engage faith communities in HIV/AIDS.
How can churches help?
If your church wants to become involved in HIV/AIDS ministry, you need to make a long-term commitment, Anita said. “This is not an issue that you dabble in. It’s an issue that’s impacting our world in a way that nothing else in our lifetime has. It’s not something you make a light commitment to be involved in.”
In most cases, the congregation will need to be educated about HIV. Churches can start by talking about HIV/AIDS as a prayer request and world issue. When the issue is raised, people from the congregation who are already HIV positive will realize the church is a safe place; they often will come forward and disclose their status. The Smiths also suggest that a church take part in a special emphasis, like World AIDS Day, or just emphasize HIV/AIDS at its own missions conference. If a church supports missionaries in Africa or parts of Asia, it’s likely those missionaries are dealing with HIV. Through those relationships, they can learn about HIV in terms of the outreaches they already are supporting. (Related article: World AIDS Day: 9 ways to increase awareness and action in your church)
Once a church has committed to being involved in ministry, it should research local needs first. “It’s important for churches in the United States to be involved at home first if possible,” Anita said. “It’s a lot easier to give a check in an offering than it is to go to a local facility to help someone who’s hurting. But without that human element, it’s much more difficult to even understand.”
One of the best ways to research local needs is by contacting local ministries already involved in HIV/AIDS work. They may know of local families or individual children who need help. Public health departments also can share in more general ways where the greatest needs are.
The Smiths emphasize that churches should resist the impulse to ask people how they became infected. Instead, the focus should be on helping the person where they are at the time. “If there are other issues, get into those things long after you’ve established the relationship,” Shepherd said.
If a church comes across a child infected with or affected by HIV, it should focus on helping to improve that child’s family situation and daily life. Beyond that, the church has a responsibility to help stop HIV’s spread by keeping children and their families uninfected. “The Church really has the opportunity to stop the suffering by stopping new infections,” Shepherd said. “Once the infection occurs, all you can do is care about the people, and we’ve done a great deal of that over the last 20 years. What’s most important is not allowing new infections.”
Once a church has become involved in local HIV/AIDS ministry, it should start reaching out to the world. “We have a high rate of marriage [in the United States]; people are largely monogamous and faithful in their relationships. We aren’t going to see a lot of HIV in the U.S. except in a few communities where the traditional family has broken down,” Shepherd said. “We are going to see a lot of HIV around the world.
“As Christians who are comfortable here, what’s our responsibility to respond beyond our borders to people who suffer a great deal? That’s the challenge the U.S. church has. A church in another country that’s experiencing this doesn’t have that same challenge.”
For more information from the Children’s AIDS Fund about how churches and other faith communities can get involved, click here. |