Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - March 6, 2009
Manya A. Brachear, Tribune reporter
Those few minutes of silence would serve to break another silence, one that the bishops insist has kept the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from addressing the global AIDS crisis and welcoming AIDS victims into the pews.
"We in the U.S. tend to think of this as a global pandemic unrelated to people in the U.S.," said ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, who gave his own three minutes for the HIV test on Thursday. "For me as a married heterosexual man to be tested is a reminder that all communities are affected--if not infected."
Hanson, who also serves as president of the Lutheran World Federation, said American bishops were following the example of African religious leaders, who for years have encouraged their parishioners to be screened by publicly agreeing to be tested themselves.
Bishop Wayne Miller of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod said taking the test was his way of walking with the members of Chicago's companion synod, the Central Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa. Miller hoped it would also signal his 206 congregations that they should be proud, not ashamed, to be tested. Results are confidential.
"There's still so much shame and secrecy, people end up hiding from the treatment," Miller said.
Though many churches have long worked to eradicate poverty-related pandemics such as malaria, they have been slow to address AIDS, an often sexually transmitted disease haunted by a moral stigma. Hanson said the church must repent for that prejudice and do more to embrace those with the disease.
ELCA's chief legislative authority is expected to approve a new national church strategy on HIV and AIDS at its biennial assembly in August.
mbrachear@tribune.com
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