October 9, 2007

African-American Ministers Tackle AIDS

Dozens of African-American ministers gathered with medical professionals and lawmakers in New York today to discuss the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community.

The two-day meeting, sponsored by the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, is bringing together some of the nation’s top black religious leaders and experts to examine the fact that though African Americans make up only 13.5 percent of the country’s population, they account for half of all new HIV diagnoses.

"Since the movement of the '60s, we haven't seen a gathering of African-American clergy persons like this around a specific issue," says the Rev. Calvin Butts III, senior pastor of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. "At that time, it was civil rights and human rights. Now it's a major health crisis which is impacting our community."

Members of this week’s meeting will examine recommendations made in August by the National Medical Association, which declared the black AIDS epidemic a public health emergency. Dallas-based Bishop T.D. Jakes, who is cochairing the meeting with Reverend Butts, says that the conference will hopefully show the 2008 presidential candidates the importance of the issue.

"We can hold our politicians accountable," says Jakes. "Now is the time for the church to give a clarion call to government that this is one of the issues high on our radar screen."