The NAACP has joined in fight to stop the rise of HIV/AIDS in the Black community. They have created a manual for church leaders to talk about HIV/AIDS with their members.
Here's more:
Shavon Arline-Bradley, the director of health programs for the NAACP, who helped oversee the manual’s creation, said it makes sense for the nation’s largest civil rights organization to be involved in the discussion of HIV and AIDS.This is a good first step.
“People look at us as just civil right rights, and what they’re missing is that health is one of the most pressing civil rights issues of our time,” Arline-Bradley said.
Religious leaders who helped with the manual said black churches have been reluctant to talk about the disease. That’s in part because the topic is wrapped up with sex and homosexuality, often taboo topics in the church.
“Sex is not something church people like to talk about. It’s something they like to do,” said the Rev. Joseph Smith, the assistant to the pastor of the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., and one of the people who worked on the manual.
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This is great news from the NAACP. I've worked with people from the Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria on several HIV prevention education projects in the past. They've always been a progressive faith community. Similarly, the local Urban League has been very aggressive in their prevention efforts. The inclusion of the NAACP in this endeavor is most heartening and welcome.
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