July 10, 2008 — vol. 43, no 48
Black pastors set HIV test example in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Taking an HIV test in the pulpit on Sunday morning was itself simple.
At Spruce Street Baptist Church, one of Nashville’s oldest and most established predominantly African American congregations, a public health worker opened the test kit and handed the swab it contained to the Rev. Raymond Bowman.
Bowman opened his mouth and, well, swabbed.
In the two minutes that it took, there was awkward silence. There were murmurs. Musicians broke into a low-volume instrumental, usually reserved for moments of prayer.
That scene, or something like it, was repeated June 29 in 26 other predominantly African American churches around Nashville.
The tests and the messages from pastors that followed about the value and ease of HIV testing, the opportunity for a free test and the need for every adult to know their status were part of a Metro Health Department effort to harness the power and influence of black churches to slow the spread of HIV.
“Sexuality has always been discussed in the black church,” said Bowman after the service. “It’s just that with what is going on in the world today, it has got to move from the back burner to the front. We are going to continue to talk about abstinence. But if we want our daughters and our sons to be healthy enough to marry the people that they love, we are going to have to talk about testing, too.”
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate at least 250,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV and are not aware of it. And in the 27 years since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, African Americans have come to contract HIV and die of AIDS at disproportionate rates.
While only 13 percent of the U.S. population is black, black men and women account for more than 49 percent of AIDS cases. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black women ages 25 to 34 and the second-leading cause of death for black men ages 35 to 44.
In Nashville, where about 27 percent of the population is black, 55 percent of AIDS cases involve black patients.
Although a group of churches and ministers have been vocal about HIV prevention and testing, that has not been the norm, said the Rev. Jerry Maynard, who is also a Metro councilman-at-large.
Instead, churches — the institutions that for many black families and neighborhoods are the oldest and most influential in their lives — have remained virtually silent about HIV/AIDS prevention.
Maynard works as a staff attorney for a Nashville health care center and also leads the 7-month-old Southside Community Church.
He approached the Health Department with the church testing idea.
On National HIV Testing Day, Maynard led 13 African American ministers in signing a covenant promising to provide their parishioners with scientifically sound information about HIV/AIDS and aggressively encourage those within their “sphere of influence” to be tested.
Stemming the spread of HIV and AIDS is a part of the African American churches’ “social justice ministry,” the covenant says.
After completing his own in-pulpit test last Sunday, Maynard talked about his own fears of HIV tests while in the Army. Maynard was young, loved women and, in his words, was “unsaved.”
“You haven’t never prayed like you pray if you are a sinner about to take that test,” Maynard said to the congregation. “But that was before I was saved. That was ‘before.’ Now, we are dealing with the ‘after.’”
Maynard rejects the idea that traditional church teaching about abstinence before marriage and fidelity after makes discussions about HIV and AIDS inappropriate for church. Health care — including HIV testing — is a part of what churches need to talk about. So, too, is risky behavior, he said.
Directly after the service at Southside, about 25 people who watched Maynard’s testing took their own test. Marilyn Lawrence was one of them.
A few years ago, her brother died of AIDS.
“This is a church where you get in where you fit in, come on in as you are and get what you need,” said Lawrence, a retired home health care worker. “For a lot of us, for me, that includes a test.”
Over at Spruce Street, about 10 people went downstairs for testing right after the service.
The results of the rapid HIV tests were available the same day but were given to test takers over the phone later for added privacy, Metro Health Department officials said.
But at Spruce Street, the assessment of one of its oldest members was available.
“You know, I was glad to see it, I think a bit surprised, but glad,” said Mary McEwen, who has been a member of the church today known as Spruce Street for 80 years. “Our ministers have always been guides for our people [African Americans] and our churches involved in the critical issues in our lives.”
(The Tennessean)
| Dec 4 21:22pm by Apostle Shada Mishe [70.26.70.165] | |
THE CURE for HIV/AIDS.......AMBUSH THE IDEA that AMBUSH cures AIDS is being proven by the more than 400 individuals who have taken a dose of 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. The result is that AMBUSH 'KILLS' the virus by causing the protein envelope to rupture and the viral particles are discarded by the white blood cells. AMBUSH is able to 'KILL' the virus that are 'hiding' in the lymph system by its 'natural radioactive' properties. This process allows the body to 'return to normal health' with a corresponding immunity to that or those strains of the virus. What is AMBUSH ? AMBUSH is a radioactive isotope of uranium that is found in the 'palm' plant of which there are more than 3000 species. When ingested, AMBUSH causes the body temperature in the trunk area to rise to about 102 degrees when the individual is sleeping. The preparation takes four hours per batch, which is then given to the individuals for consumption 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. AMBUSH is a herbal preparation in this form but it contains an active ingredient which is a 'NEW' crystalline substance, a drug from the 'palm plant' similarly to ASPIRIN originating from the willow tree bark RESULTS: After 21 days on AMBUSH, ALL the individuals experienced a decrease in viral load to undetectable, an increase in cd4, increase in RBC, an improvement in general health such as more color to the face, decrease in Buffalo hump, an increase in gluteal muscles, a decrease to having no joint pains whereby individuals can bend to touch their toes, and walk up steps are but a few examples. There is also a dramatic increase in their sexual appetite beginning after the first week of therapy DISCUSSION: In any plant concoction such as percolated 'tea', there are 30-40,000 compounds, whi ch would take the scientific community twenty years to isolate one particular ingredient if they knew what they were looking for. The LORD GOD has given me seven steps to isolate the active ingredient, which is soft and metallic in nature and has a carbon- uranium-sulfur-(classified)-phentolamine configuration or structure. This is similar to Federick Kekule and the discovery of the benzene ring where he dreamt the structure. As an antiviral and 'natural radioactivity' producing agent, AMBUSH is also effective against leukemia, lupus and HPV. Here I am saying that I have 'GIVEN' AMBUSH in the same 'strength' and dosage to patients with leukemia, lupus and HPV. A 35 year old male with HIV found it difficult to impossible to urinate was put on 'green tea' and water while the doctors contemplated prostrate surgery. One of the doctors gave him my number , I sent him a supply of AMBUSH an d he has not been given any more ARV's, since taking AMBUSH 18 months ago, is in 'good' health and has expressed a willingness to be examined by HIV investigators like many others who have taken AMBUSH. I have sent this 'IDEA' to most HIV research agencies, scientist of the field, universities, hospitals, clinics, politicians and news agencies to which it is REJECTED because the name of THE LORD GOD is mentioned. He has steered me scientifically through the processes such as which plant and how to produce the active ingredient. What are the odds of a Florida Pharmacist picking a plant would contain the CURE for HIV/AIDS ? I have never charged any of the people for their supply of AMBUSH but a life saving has been spent on the project with NO renumeration from any sources because AMBUSH falls outside the walls of modern medicine and research. PROPOSAL: My proposal is that I PROVE that AMBUSH CURES HIV/AIDS by giving it to a number of END-STAGE or DRUG-RESISTANT people and the scientific community watches their recovery. This proposal addresses the problem in that I have already outlaid the results to be obtained. This IDEA is unconventional in that the scientific community has rejected AMBUSH because I say it is GOD given. Secondly if I wrote it according to certain standards, then it might be peer reviewed. However, THE LORD GOD has also shown me that there are five enzyme systems associated with the virus, reverse transcriptase, protease, fusion and two more of which causes the virus to be AIRBOURNE. This means that without DIVINE intervention mankind and ALL warm- blooded mammals will be extinct in a number of years. The PROOF of what I am saying is found in scientific papers wherein it is found that when the protease cuts the viral strands, it cuts it at DIFFERENT lengths EVERY time, to which it should always be a valine at the end but is a different amino acid every time. This is why it is IMPOSSIBLE to produce a VACCINE. Since this is NOT a hypothesis but there are about 400 individuals who have taken AMBUSH, here lies a vast area in which to check, recheck and confirm that AMBUSH CURES AIDS. Let it be mentioned that during the HIV reproductive cycle, reverse transcriptase converts viral RNA into DNA compatible to human genetic materials. Thus the human DNA has been 'hijacked' and since each person has a DIFFERENT DNA, then the new viral copy is unique to that person which shows that each individual has a DIFFERENT STRAIN of the virus. Consider two HIV positive people swapping viral strains and increasing its complexity with multiple partners. It can also be proposed that they be revisited as proof that the strain or strains that they had were 'killed' at the time of taking AMBUSH considering that a person can catch as many different strains as there are people who are infected by HIV. I am also willing to work with the scientific community in identifying those individuals who took AMBUSH and wish to be identified with this process notwithstanding that some are stigmatized while others are jubilant, Once AMBUSH is verified as being able to accomplish that which is aforementioned then the next stage might be the natural and artificial synthesis of the substance. Finally, if this is accepted or not, believed or not, THE LORD GOD always wins and this is the heavenly truth to which AMBUSH was divinely given to mankind for the CURE of HIV/AIDS and it will be here forever. Apostle Shada Mishe. apostleshadamishe@gmail.com Here is a video taped presentation that I gave at t he Martin Luther King library in Washington http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V53D1w__Po http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPwuwlVBOV0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZejptOwMTzQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqcTgIAhrhc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7HPKcT_iwY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iQfgiYAnw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3RzRS6tJDM |
|
related content
Be Healthy: HIV
The Banner's monthly health supplement discusses advancements in efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, as well as information on health disparities in incidence of the disease and how readers can protect themselves. More »
Study: Treating herpes doesn't seem to prevent HIV
The finding may spark a rethinking of HIV prevention strategies in Africa, where controlling sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes is usually part of general AIDS prevention plans. More »
T.D. Jakes: HIV/AIDS fight about saving lives
The black church has faced criticism for not doing enough to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS among blacks, at least in part because many conservative churchgoers are put off by the disease’s association with gays. More »
