In the past twenty-five years, the face of the AIDS epidemic in this country has shifted dramatically. Initially, gay white men were most identified with the epidemic. Today, the reality is that HIV looks like all of us – regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, or faith tradition. The epidemic is growing most rapidly, however, among minorities who have historically experienced a higher risk for poverty, lack of health insurance, co-morbidity, and disenfranchisement from the health care system. The result is a growing number of individuals living with HIV disease who are living at or below the federal poverty level and who have limited or no access to life-saving, life-extending medications.

In a state where monies for medications and other drug therapies are limited, many of the more than 28,000 North Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS are summoning the church to “please come to us without delay;” i.e., “our very lives depend upon it!” People are dying for the opportunity to live better lives afforded by access and use of medications, yet because of state government legislation, many are often denied access because they make too much money and are over the designated income limit.

Acts tells us how God’s community, the church, reached out with compassion to the world around it, to the life that God created among its members. As people of faith, as the church, all of us are called to convey hope and transformative love to all persons who are infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

For many HIV+ persons, however, hope is in short supply. The limitation of life-saving and life-transforming health care places individuals at risk for other health concerns, as well as impacting other areas of their lives. God requires God’s people to be a reflection of God’s love, mercy, justice and hope. As such, the church must be a radical community, acting out on behalf of the God of love and justice for all of God’s people. The stakes are much too high for the church to be anything less. 

Throughout scripture, both through direction and by the example of Christ, emphasis has been given to caring for and responding to the needs of the poor and excluded ones amongst us. In the story of Tabitha, Luke offers a model of Christian charity to the marginalized in society. Additionally, Peter’s immediate response to the request of Tabitha’s friends to not “waste a second getting over here” (The Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts) represents the swiftness of God to hear and respond out of love and compassion to the needs of God’s children. Peter’s actions show his total dependence on God, while reminding us that we are not alone in responding to the needs of people or to the injustices and wrongs in society.

In the early days of HIV/AIDS, the cry of persons living with this disease was for presence and compassion in their living and for peace and comfort in dying. Life-saving, life-enhancing medications were practically non-existent, fear and judgment ran rampant and horrific, devastating death was inevitable and came too quickly for too many.

As a denominational employee in Louisiana during those days, I witnessed the rapid loss of life and the sudden impact this disease had on families, friends and neighbors in the inner-city community where I ministered. With sadness, anger and disbelief, I listened as people of faith, including denominational leadership, debated and discussed, sanctioned and sentenced, and directed and relegated persons living with HIV/AIDS to places of right and wrong and good and bad – all in the name of God!

As a result of responding to the needs of persons living with and affected by this deadly, life-altering disease, ministry positions were ended. A beacon of hope and help to the hurting in the inner city was eliminated.

As people of faith, it is imperative to respond to the injustices many of God’s children experience. We must be certain that as we respond and advocate for improved health care access for persons living with HIV/AIDS, that resources for other needs are not lessened or eliminated. In essence, we must be certain that holistic care is available for all. Increased access for medical care for HIV+ persons should not lessen or eliminate current existing resources available to provide food for the hungry, housing for the homeless, mental health services and other programs to the hurting.

God requires God’s people to be a reflection of God’s love, mercy, justice and hope. Likewise, as people of faith, we are called into community with other believers who serve one another and serve their neighbors. The direction and example of Jesus is simply put: as people of God, we are to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27 NAS). God requires us to be faithful and to be loving and caring to our neighbors as well. The question then becomes, “Who is our neighbor?” Jesus answers that question in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Our neighbor is anyone that we find in need of spiritual, physical or emotional help. This was evident in Jesus’ ministry here on earth. Jesus spent most of his life and ministry in the worst parts of the cities, associating with the marginalized, the weak and the outcast of the society. He ministered to those who had been condemned by society, and he cared for those who had been ostracized and otherwise forgotten. Jesus was a refuge for the alien, hope for the afflicted, and a source of comfort for the hurting. He was the reflection of God’s love, mercy, justice and hope. As people of faith, as The Church, we can do no less than follow the example of a loving, caring and compassionate God.

God’s infected and affected children continue to plead for people of faith to “come without delay” – to be the hand, the face, the heart and the touch of God to the lonely, the stigmatized and the discriminated. Whether for presence and compassion or for advocacy for medical access, the cry to the church is the same, “Please come to us without delay.” May it be so!

By Rev. Carolyn McClendon, Director, Alliance of AIDS Services, Raleigh