If God has made it clean - A reflection for World AIDS Day 2014
Today marks the 26th
observance of World AIDS Day, bringing awareness to the global AIDS pandemic.
And while it has been over thirty years since awareness of HIV/AIDS bubbled
over into mainstream consciousness, there is still much to be done to combat
the gross stigma against those living with HIV. We know now that HIV is not a
“gay” disease as it was once thought to be, but we also know that the gay and
bisexual male population is still at greatest risk for infection in the United
States. However, it is the stigma of being HIV positive that is most
detrimental to our communities, not the virus itself.
In the gay community, terms like
“clean” and “DDF” (drug and disease free) are often used to describe oneself
when connecting with others within the community. This perpetuation of the idea
that testing positive for HIV makes someone unclean has pushed many to
concealing their HIV status. Even more destructively, the fear of receiving a
positive HIV test keeps many from getting tested at all. The terminology being
used in-group is undoing three decades of progress.
I am reminded of the moment in
Acts where Peter sees the vision of the tablecloth descending from the heavens
with all manner of food upon it. Peter refuses to eat that which culture has
told him is “unclean” or impure. But the voice of the Lord says to him, “Do not
call something unclean if God has made it clean.”[1]
Often, churches do not know what to do with HIV/AIDS. It is among the subjects
that our culture has made prominent in recent years that most churches are struggling
to encounter fully and honestly.
I have had the opportunity to be
a part of several churches openly working through better understandings of how
to embrace and walk alongside the LGBT community. From learning how to actively
participate in the move toward marriage equality to holding the hand of a
trans* person walking her way through transitioning, these churches are living
into a bold faith that doesn’t call something unclean that God has made clean.
But I feel as though,
collectively, we are not doing enough to wash away the stigma of HIV/AIDS. And
it all comes from a passive unwillingness to speak boldly about sex. It is
challenging enough for churches to approach sexuality openly in the context of
heterosexuality, but even our secular sex education struggles to include
homosexual intercourse in its curriculum. Until we can find it in ourselves to
demystify gay sex within the four walls of the church, we will never be able to
authoritatively speak against HIV stigma.
I am thankful for those who speak
in support of programs like PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylactic) that are actively
trying to reach populations at high risk for contracting HIV. Even more so, I
am grateful for my friends who are living with HIV who wake up every day and
prove that testing positive is not a death sentence, even when society still
tries to make it seem as though it is. The phobia of those who are living with
HIV is narrow-minded and misguided. We are all made in the image of a
compassionate Creator, and nothing the Holy One has made can be called unclean.
No ONE God has created may be called unclean.
It is easy to go on a “Mission
Trip” to a country in Africa that has been ravaged by the AIDS pandemic. It is
easy to come back and speak of our experiences there, encountering the effects of their struggle against stigma and the damage the spread of the
virus has had on their societies. It
is easy to feel compassion for them
in their struggle.[2]
But then we come home and ignore the stigma in our own communities.
There are those we all know, that
we love, who are living with HIV. Yet, I wonder if our love of them would help
us see past their status. Are our churches places where they may be open and
honest? Are they places where they won’t be stigmatized?
Our communities of faith must carry
the banner of anti-stigma as easily as we support other aspects of social
justice. If we are to live into a theology of liberation, we must see Christ in
solidarity with those who are hurting and weak and oppressed and stigmatized. As
Dr. Musa Dube writes:
I can hear Jesus saying to us, “I was sick with AIDS and you did not
visit me, you did not wash my wounds, nor did you give me medicine to manage my
opportunistic infections. I was denied ARVs and you did not prophecy to the
global market economy. You did not undertake advocacy for my sake. I was
stigmatized, isolated and rejected because of HIV&AIDS and you did not
welcome me. You did not fight for my human rights. I was hungry, thirsty and
naked, completely dispossessed by HIV&AIDS and…you did not give me food,
water or any clothing. You did not give me your compassion…”
We the church of this era will ask, “When Lord did we see you sick with
AIDS, stigmatized, isolated and rejected, and did not visit or welcome you in
our homes? When Lord, did we see you hungry, naked and thirsty and we did not
feed you, clothe you and give you water? When were you a powerless woman, a
widow and an orphan and we did not come to your rescue?”
The Lord will say to us, “Truly, I tell you, as long as you did not do
it to one of the least of these members of my family, you did not do it to me.”[3]
Though many of us may not know it,
we have encountered HIV/AIDS in our lives. It is time for the church of this
era to act out and remove any doubt that we are living into the belief that
anything God has made clean cannot be called unclean. All of us are HIV
affected, and because of that, all of us have a responsibility to tear down the
walls of stigma and ignorance. Amen.
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