Black churches, like many white churches, generally teach that the Bible views same-sex practices as aberrant and sinful, a position that has stiffened their reaction to the disease. While the churches aren't budging on that theology, the leaders noted, reminders by the Balm and others about the Bible's command to be loving are increasingly being heeded. Seeing fellow congregants fall ill has forced many people to reckon with the immediacy of the disease. Not a gay disease but AIDS, period. Most congregations that have AIDS ministries launched them without fanfare, so their precise numbers are hard to come by.
Impressions differ sharply on how widespread they are.
On the other hand, the Rev. Vernal Sims, president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, estimates that 80 percent of Black Clergy's 400 member churches have some form of AIDS program. According to a University of Pennsylvania social-work team, the level may be somewhere in between. The Program for the Study of Organized Religion is compiling a profile of the city's estimated 2,000 congregations, approximately 1,060 of which are black. The Rev. Gwynne Guibord thinks so, based on her experience as national ecumenical officer for the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a gay and lesbian denomination. Black churches do not deal well with the issue of homosexuality per se.