The Black Church Is a Place of Healing. Why Is HIV Still So Hard to Talk About?
Where HIV is concerned, the culture of silence and moral shame within the Black church remains entrenched. ViiV Healthcare convened the panel “Separation of Church & Sex: Faith and the Fight Against HIV” at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Atlanta, where clinicians, theologians, and advocates issued a call to faith leaders to treat HIV not as a moral failing, but as a public health crisis.
The Call And Response Of A Gay Bishop: How The Truth Transformed Dennis Meredith's Life and Ministry
It’s been 14 years since Bishop Dennis Meredith, 68, stood in the pulpit of Tabernacle Baptist Church (TBC), which he has led since 1994, and publicly disclosed that he was bisexual. On any given Sunday, the pews in this 100-year-old church formerly located on Boulevard in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward would be filled, and this Sunday in 2007 was no different. There had been rumblings among members of Meredith’s congregation that the charismatic pastor who was married to former First Lady Lydia Meredith for 27 years and bore three sons, was gay, or at the very least bisexual. But until the words escaped his mouth, no one expected the revered spiritual leader with everything to lose to disclose the truth about his sexuality, including Meredith himself. This moment was the culmination of a progressive shift in membership and theological approach that would spur a mass exodus for some straight and Biblically conservative members while becoming a Genesis for those who identify as LGBTQ+.