The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States

The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 1993-02-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309046289

Europe's "Black Death" contributed to the rise of nation states, mercantile economies, and even the Reformation. Will the AIDS epidemic have similar dramatic effects on the social and political landscape of the twenty-first century? This readable volume looks at the impact of AIDS since its emergence and suggests its effects in the next decade, when a million or more Americans will likely die of the disease. The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States addresses some of the most sensitive and controversial issues in the public debate over AIDS. This landmark book explores how AIDS has affected fundamental policies and practices in our major institutions, examining: How America's major religious organizations have dealt with sometimes conflicting values: the imperative of care for the sick versus traditional views of homosexuality and drug use. Hotly debated public health measures, such as HIV antibody testing and screening, tracing of sexual contacts, and quarantine. The potential risk of HIV infection to and from health care workers. How AIDS activists have brought about major change in the way new drugs are brought to the marketplace. The impact of AIDS on community-based organizations, from volunteers caring for individuals to the highly political ACT-UP organization. Coping with HIV infection in prisons. Two case studies shed light on HIV and the family relationship. One reports on some efforts to gain legal recognition for nonmarital relationships, and the other examines foster care programs for newborns with the HIV virus. A case study of New York City details how selected institutions interact to give what may be a picture of AIDS in the future. This clear and comprehensive presentation will be of interest to anyone concerned about AIDS and its impact on the country: health professionals, sociologists, psychologists, advocates for at-risk populations, and interested individuals.

Hidden Mercy

Hidden Mercy
Author: Michael J. O'Loughlin
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1506467717

The 1980s and 1990s, the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States, was decades ago now, and many of the stories from this time remain hidden: A Catholic nun from a small Midwestern town packs up her life to move to New York City, where she throws herself into a community under assault from HIV and AIDS. A young priest sees himself in the many gay men dying from AIDS and grapples with how best to respond, eventually coming out as gay and putting his own career on the line. A gay Catholic with HIV loses his partner to AIDS and then flees the church, focusing his energy on his own health rather than fight an institution seemingly rejecting him. Set against the backdrop of the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the late twentieth century and the Catholic Church's crackdown on gay and lesbian activists, journalist Michael O'Loughlin searches out the untold stories of those who didn't look away, who at great personal cost chose compassion--even as he seeks insight for LGBTQ people of faith struggling to find a home in religious communities today. This is one journalist's--gay and Catholic himself--compelling picture of those quiet heroes who responded to human suffering when so much of society--and so much of the church--told them to look away. These pure acts of compassion and mercy offer us hope and inspiration as we continue to confront existential questions about what it means to be Americans, Christians, and human beings responding to those most in need.

After the Wrath of God

After the Wrath of God
Author: Anthony M. Petro
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2015-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199391297

On a cold February morning in 1987, amidst freezing rain and driving winds, a group of protesters stood outside of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. The target of their protest was the minister inside, who was handing out condoms to his congregation while delivering a sermon about AIDS, dramatizing the need for the church to confront the seemingly ever-expanding crisis. The minister's words and actions were met with a standing ovation from the overflowing audience, but he could not linger to enjoy their applause. Having received threats in advance of the service, he dashed out of the sanctuary immediately upon finishing his sermon. Such was the climate for religious AIDS activism in the 1980s. In After the Wrath of God, Anthony Petro vividly narrates the religious history of AIDS in America. Delving into the culture wars over sex, morality, and the future of the American nation, he demonstrates how religious leaders and AIDS activists have shaped debates over sexual morality and public health from the 1980s to the present day. While most attention to religion and AIDS foregrounds the role of the Religious Right, Petro takes a much broader view, encompassing the range of mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Catholic groups--alongside AIDS activist organizations--that shaped public discussions of AIDS prevention and care in the U.S. Petro analyzes how the AIDS crisis prompted American Christians across denominations and political persuasions to speak publicly about sexuality--especially homosexuality--and to foster a moral discourse on sex that spoke not only to personal concerns but to anxieties about the health of the nation. He reveals how the epidemic increased efforts to advance a moral agenda regarding the health benefits of abstinence and monogamy, a legacy glimpsed as much in the traction gained by abstinence education campaigns as in the more recent cultural purchase of gay marriage. The first book to detail the history of religion and the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., After the Wrath of God is essential reading for anyone concerned with the intersection of religion and public health.

AIDS is Real and It's in Our Church

AIDS is Real and It's in Our Church
Author: C. Jean Garland
Publisher: Oasis International
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2005
Genre: AIDS (Disease)
ISBN: 9781594520266

Information about AIDS in Africa, how to prevent HIV infection, and encouragement towards a Christian response to the AIDS epidemic.

Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence

Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence
Author: Donald E. Messer
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780800636418

"A passionate and well articulated call to mission. Messer charts steps for individuals, congregations, denominations, and ecumenical agencies in a faithful response to the HIV/AIDS.

AIDS, Sexuality, and the Black Church

AIDS, Sexuality, and the Black Church
Author: Angelique C. Harris
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2010
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781433109430

A revealing account of AIDS activism within Black churches in New York City. (Back cover).

The Church Has AIDS: Essays on Sexuality, Sexual Orientation, Taboos, and the Black Church

The Church Has AIDS: Essays on Sexuality, Sexual Orientation, Taboos, and the Black Church
Author: Gerald M. Palmer
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2010-04-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0557124646

The Church Has AIDS explores the social issues and stigmas that fuel the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the African American community. Minister Palmer looks at religious based heterosexism and religiosity and it's impact over such issues as sexuality and sexual orientation in an upfront and in your face manner.

The Church and AIDS in Africa

The Church and AIDS in Africa
Author: Amy Stephenson Patterson
Publisher: Firstforumpress
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2011
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

This book explores the role of the Christian church, broadly and diversely defined as both institutions and communities of believers (although the focus of the analysis is on institutional behaviors), in the politics of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The author creates a typology of church AIDS actions--no response; early, narrow response; early, broad response; late, narrow response; and late, broad response--and seeks explanations for where churches fall within this typology in terms of institutional resources, organizational structures, relations with the state, and global networks.

Death in a Church of Life

Death in a Church of Life
Author: Frederick Klaits
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2010-02-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0520945840

This deeply insightful ethnography explores the healing power of caring and intimacy in a small, closely bonded Apostolic congregation during Botswana’s HIV/AIDS pandemic. Death in a Church of Life paints a vivid picture of how members of the Baitshepi Church make strenuous efforts to sustain loving relationships amid widespread illness and death. Over the course of long-term fieldwork, Frederick Klaits discovered Baitshepi’s distinctly maternal ethos and the "spiritual" kinship embodied in the church’s nurturing fellowship practice. Klaits shows that for Baitshepi members, Christian faith is a form of moral passion that counters practices of divination and witchcraft with redemptive hymn singing, prayer, and the use of therapeutic substances. An online audio annex makes available examples of the church members’ preaching and song.

Facing a Pandemic

Facing a Pandemic
Author: Elias Kifon Bongmba
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2007
Genre: AIDS (Disease)
ISBN: 1932792821

The central argument is that the theological motif of the image of God invites a prophetic critique of the social environment in which HIV/AIDS thrives and calls for a praxis of love and compassion.