National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) on Oct. 10 held a training session for Chicago-area senior church leaders wishing to educate their parishioners about HIV education and screening. The session was held at U.S. Bank, 815 W. 63rd St., and was attended by about 35 participants.
The program was the latest part of a multi-tiered effort entitled to enlist faith leaders in addressing the disparate impact of HIV/AIDS in the African American community, said Rev. Keron Sadler, manager of the NAACP's Health Department, who led the training.
"Over the course of 2011, we first convened pastors to ask why they were not talking about HIV/AIDS," said Sadler, who estimated that more than half of the nation's 21,000 Black churches were not doing anything significant to address the disease's impact on their communities. Those initial conversations led to the development of a training toolkit that was first released at the organization's 2012 convention. Chicago is one of 12 cities that were initially targeted in the program.
"People respond to the NAACP brand," said Sadler. "We think we can get more people to the table to talk about this."
The toolkit consists of a pastoral brief and a manual that offer suggestions as to how a spiritual leader can address HIV/AIDS within their community.
Sadler said that the purpose of the project was to help reframe discussions about HIV/AIDS, focusing especially on social justice aspects of the crisis rather than taboos pastors or their congregants might perceive about the disease. Many churchgoers, she said, still regard HIV/AIDS as stemming from sin.
"There is not enough information out there," Sadler said. "We want to help them be knowledgeable about the facts about the disease."
The trainings tie information about infections with other issues that disproportionately affect African Americans, such as poverty, housing instability or disparities in healthcare.
"While the church can be a safe place for Blacks, it's often not a place where they can be transparent," she said. "Theology and doctrine can be a barrier to real conversation about this," Sadler said.
Sadler was excited that NAACP has been broaden the scope of the program even further. The organization has received a commitment from the Clinton Global Initiative to expand to the 30 American cities that account for nearly two-thirds of the persons with HIV/AIDS in this county.
"To have a former president buy into this is huge," she said. "This commitment helps us keep going for at least five years."
Ultimately, she's hopeful for many more church communities that will be will to look past stigma, and be able to have real conversations about the problems that HIV/AIDS can present to members of those communities.
In her talks with more conservative church leaders, Sadler said she's always conscientious about when the discussion is about to steer irreversibly towards religious dogma.
"That's when I introduce the idea of love into the conversation," Sadler said. Whether a person is gay or straight, at the end of the day, love opens up the door to a greater ministry."
For more information on NAACP's HIV/AIDS initiative, visit www.theblackchurchandhiv.org .