Moment for Mission Archive

Next Sunday, March 28, the Christian Education Committee and the Peace and Social Justice Network will be showing A Closer Walk, a film narrated by Glenn Close and Will Smith about AIDS in the world today. This film gives an excellent overview of the AIDS pandemic worldwide.

This is an important film, and I invite everyone here to see it. Why? We think we know what AIDS is about. After all, many of us have lost a friend, family member or loved one to HIV/AIDS. But there has been a sense in the United States that HIV/AIDS is under control thanks to new medications. People are acting as if we don’t have to worry about it any more. A Closer Walk shows just how wrong that type of complacency is.

The movie asks the question “Who is my neighbor?” and challenges us to be neighbors for those around the world. When AIDS first appeared in the United States, a lot of people said, “It is not my problem; it only affects homosexuals and intravenous drug users.” And now it seems that we are painting it as an African problem, an Indian problem, a problem that affects the third world. Certainly not our problem. But it is our problem. Anything that affects our brothers and sisters around the world affects us.

The face of AIDS is not only in remote parts of Africa, the streets of Bombay and Shanghai. It is not only in some obscure town or village we have not heard of. It is much closer; it is right here, in our own community, in our own church. I am that face. I was diagnosed with AIDS in 1994. In the ten years since I was diagnosed, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS and AIDS-related opportunistic diseases worldwide. By contrast, 500,000 people have died of AIDS in the United States since the beginning of the epidemic.

Am I any better than a young mother in Uganda? Are the gifts and talents she possesses less important than mine? Is my life more valuable than hers because I am an American? No. The only difference is that I have access to medical treatment and medications that she does not have.

We have all been affected by HIV/AIDS. Mark, Rodger, and George are only a few of those we have lost here at Rutgers. I lost my partner Bruce Gorry and many friends over the years to this virus. We can still feel the loss, the emptiness and void left behind in our lives, in our church, in our community. This pain is still palpable for many of us here. Now magnify that a hundred times, a thousand times, and maybe then you can begin to understand the pain felt by AIDS orphans who have lost their mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, even their older siblings to HIV/AIDS. Their entire family has been eradicated, and only they are left.

Rutgers has allocated 1% of the church operating budget each year to fight HIV/AIDS. This is more than what our own federal government has done. I commend you for your support and efforts, but we cannot stop here. We need to add our voices to our donations. Too long has the church at large been silent on HIV/AIDS. Too long have we, as Christians, watched others march in the streets. Too long have we remained silent and let others call for change, for access to healthcare, for access to medication. It is time that the church as a whole, the body of Christ, raises her voice and says “NO MORE!! NO MORE will we sit back while millions of people around the world die of HIV/AIDS. NO MORE will we allow pharmaceutical companies, motivated by greed, to determine who lives and who dies. NO MORE will we accept the excuse from our elected officials that their hands are tied. NO MORE will we allow governments to turn a blind eye to the plight of their own people. NO MORE!!!” We will stand up and say to those suffering, “You are our friends, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, our sisters, our brothers. We will stand with you, we will fight with you, we will cry with you, and if you do leave this world, we will make sure your death is with LOVE, with Dignity, and with Honor.”