After the Wrath of God

After the Wrath of God

Author: Anthony M. Petro

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0199391297

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On a cold February morning in 1987, amidst freezing rain and driving winds, a group of protesters stood outside of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. The target of their protest was the minister inside, who was handing out condoms to his congregation while delivering a sermon about AIDS, dramatizing the need for the church to confront the seemingly ever-expanding crisis. The minister's words and actions were met with a standing ovation from the overflowing audience, but he could not linger to enjoy their applause. Having received threats in advance of the service, he dashed out of the sanctuary immediately upon finishing his sermon. Such was the climate for religious AIDS activism in the 1980s. In After the Wrath of God, Anthony Petro vividly narrates the religious history of AIDS in America. Delving into the culture wars over sex, morality, and the future of the American nation, he demonstrates how religious leaders and AIDS activists have shaped debates over sexual morality and public health from the 1980s to the present day. While most attention to religion and AIDS foregrounds the role of the Religious Right, Petro takes a much broader view, encompassing the range of mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Catholic groups--alongside AIDS activist organizations--that shaped public discussions of AIDS prevention and care in the U.S. Petro analyzes how the AIDS crisis prompted American Christians across denominations and political persuasions to speak publicly about sexuality--especially homosexuality--and to foster a moral discourse on sex that spoke not only to personal concerns but to anxieties about the health of the nation. He reveals how the epidemic increased efforts to advance a moral agenda regarding the health benefits of abstinence and monogamy, a legacy glimpsed as much in the traction gained by abstinence education campaigns as in the more recent cultural purchase of gay marriage. The first book to detail the history of religion and the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., After the Wrath of God is essential reading for anyone concerned with the intersection of religion and public health.


Precious Son

Precious Son

Author: Norman Carson

Publisher: Outskirts Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 9781432779726

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Narrated by the father of a victim of the AIDS epidemic, this true story of his son's life and death explores two themes: one, the mystery of God's providence that permitted a young Christian to yield to the pervasive power of his sexual preference, despite his walking in the Christian Faith throughout his early years; and, two, a profile of the turmoil, agony and poignant response of his parents, who in the face of this fact, never abandoned their son and continued to love him unconditionally.


The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States

The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1993-02-01

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0309046289

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Europe's "Black Death" contributed to the rise of nation states, mercantile economies, and even the Reformation. Will the AIDS epidemic have similar dramatic effects on the social and political landscape of the twenty-first century? This readable volume looks at the impact of AIDS since its emergence and suggests its effects in the next decade, when a million or more Americans will likely die of the disease. The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States addresses some of the most sensitive and controversial issues in the public debate over AIDS. This landmark book explores how AIDS has affected fundamental policies and practices in our major institutions, examining: How America's major religious organizations have dealt with sometimes conflicting values: the imperative of care for the sick versus traditional views of homosexuality and drug use. Hotly debated public health measures, such as HIV antibody testing and screening, tracing of sexual contacts, and quarantine. The potential risk of HIV infection to and from health care workers. How AIDS activists have brought about major change in the way new drugs are brought to the marketplace. The impact of AIDS on community-based organizations, from volunteers caring for individuals to the highly political ACT-UP organization. Coping with HIV infection in prisons. Two case studies shed light on HIV and the family relationship. One reports on some efforts to gain legal recognition for nonmarital relationships, and the other examines foster care programs for newborns with the HIV virus. A case study of New York City details how selected institutions interact to give what may be a picture of AIDS in the future. This clear and comprehensive presentation will be of interest to anyone concerned about AIDS and its impact on the country: health professionals, sociologists, psychologists, advocates for at-risk populations, and interested individuals.


AIDS is Real and It's in Our Church

AIDS is Real and It's in Our Church

Author: C. Jean Garland

Publisher: Oasis International

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9781594520266

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Information about AIDS in Africa, how to prevent HIV infection, and encouragement towards a Christian response to the AIDS epidemic.


A Positive Life

A Positive Life

Author: Shane Stanford

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2010-04-06

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0310563658

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What causes some people—in spite of incredible challenges—to be more alive and content than others? When Shane Stanford discovered he was HIV positive at the age of sixteen, he knew he had a choice: he could feel sorry for himself, or he could live as passionately and boldly as possible. Now, more than twenty years later, Stanford speaks nationwide about what it means to turn a positive diagnosis—or any difficult circumstance—into an opportunity for positive living. If you want to appreciate life to the fullest, this A Positive Life Ebook reveals nine basic yet powerful lessons for living well. What does it mean to be satisfied with never being satisfied? Why is simplicity a key to finding joy? Most importantly, what does it look like to live, laugh, and love in community as Jesus did—with dirty hands and feet and a love of adventure? Stanford reminds you that even struggles offer glimpses of grace. Choosing how to live out that grace is the key to making life matter—and to being more alive than ever before.


My Own Country

My Own Country

Author: Abraham Verghese

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 1995-04-25

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0679752927

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From the author of The Covenant of Water and New York Times bestseller Cutting for Stone: a story of medicine in the American heartland, and confronting one's deepest prejudices and fears. “Remarkable.... An account of the [AIDS] plague years in America. Beautifully written…by a doctor who was changed and shaped by his patients.” —The New York Times Book Review Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had once seemed an “urban problem” had arrived in the town to stay. Working in Johnson City was Abraham Verghese, a young Indian doctor specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Verghese became by necessity the local AIDS expert, soon besieged by a shocking number of male and female patients whose stories came to occupy his mind, and even take over his life. Verghese brought a singular perspective to Johnson City: as a doctor unique in his abilities; as an outsider who could talk to people suspicious of local practitioners; above all, as a writer of grace and compassion who saw that what was happening in this conservative community was both a medical and a spiritual emergency.


Hidden Mercy

Hidden Mercy

Author: Michael J. O'Loughlin

Publisher: Broadleaf Books

Published: 2021-11-30

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1506467717

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The 1980s and 1990s, the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States, was decades ago now, and many of the stories from this time remain hidden: A Catholic nun from a small Midwestern town packs up her life to move to New York City, where she throws herself into a community under assault from HIV and AIDS. A young priest sees himself in the many gay men dying from AIDS and grapples with how best to respond, eventually coming out as gay and putting his own career on the line. A gay Catholic with HIV loses his partner to AIDS and then flees the church, focusing his energy on his own health rather than fight an institution seemingly rejecting him. Set against the backdrop of the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the late twentieth century and the Catholic Church's crackdown on gay and lesbian activists, journalist Michael O'Loughlin searches out the untold stories of those who didn't look away, who at great personal cost chose compassion--even as he seeks insight for LGBTQ people of faith struggling to find a home in religious communities today. This is one journalist's--gay and Catholic himself--compelling picture of those quiet heroes who responded to human suffering when so much of society--and so much of the church--told them to look away. These pure acts of compassion and mercy offer us hope and inspiration as we continue to confront existential questions about what it means to be Americans, Christians, and human beings responding to those most in need.


Theology in the Age of Global AIDS & HIV

Theology in the Age of Global AIDS & HIV

Author: C. Trentaz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-10-30

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1137272902

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Trentaz proposes an inclusive, complex framework for understanding the creation and maintenance of risk of contracting HIV & AIDS, takes a hard look at dominant theologies and proposes a new way of approaching a theo-ethical response to the pandemic within a communal ethic of 'risk-sharing,' privileging the voices of the marginalized.