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Pastor: To battle AIDS, stop arguing over sexuality
Photo Courtesy of Herbert Miller
Herbert Miller is the pastor of First Baptist Church on Village Drive in Lexington.
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Published: September 14, 2008
The Rev. Herbert Miller II won't engage in theological battles about homosexuality, not as AIDS continues to kill.
"We're fussing and fighting about who's right, and these people are dying," Miller told me last week.
He's a former truck driver and caseworker at an alternative school who, at age 41, is in his first job as a head pastor, at First Baptist Church on Village Drive in Lexington. He did his senior project at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity on the response of black churches to the AIDS epidemic in America. And now he's becoming a leader in a renewed push to get more houses of worship, especially black ones, to take up the fight against AIDS and HIV, the virus that causes it, and to help those suffering from the illness.
Miller's "research comes at a time when many in the African-American community are looking for ways to approach an issue that really needs to be addressed and has not been in collective ways," said Bill Leonard, the dean of the Wake Forest divinity school.
For the last decade, preachers and activists have been trying to get more churches to fight AIDS. It's slow going with many churches, especially black ones, despite the leading role that black churches have long played in battles for social justice and despite the high rates of HIV infection among blacks. Miller said the reasons for the resistance to the AIDS fight are complex and varied, and include the conservatism of many black churches and their reluctance to talk about sexuality in general.
"It's kind of been a taboo subject," he said. "But as a pastor, 100 percent of the people I've counseled for premarital counseling are sexually active. Churches have ideals they try to reach. We can hold onto ideals and preach abstinence. But then we've got to meet the people where they are."
HIV is spread mainly through homosexual sex, heterosexual sex and intravenous drug use. Bisexual black men -- called "down-low brothers"-- sometimes spread the disease to black women, Miller said.
The Apostle Paul says homosexuality "goes against our nature," Miller said, and Paul also lists other things that go against our nature. But emphasizing such points, or arguing about them, slows down the fight against the problem, Miller said. "I guess what I'm saying is, ‘It's none of my business what they do in their bedroom, just as it's none of their business what I do in mine,' " said Miller, a husband and father who has gay friends. Those with AIDS don't need to be "beat up" with talk about how they got it, he said. What they need, he said, is to know that God loves them and that their pastor loves them.
But too many living with the illness never get that message. Miller is determined to help change that. He's working with a Forsyth County group called POSSE, which stands for Prevent Ongoing Spread of STDS Everywhere. He's talked to churches and organizations, encouraging them to get involved in the fight against AIDS.
"We've got to continue to try to educate our people about how it's contracted, and why it's so important to get involved (in the fight)," he said.
Churches can help in many ways, from holding educational programs about preventing AIDS to providing services to those who have it. Churches can join with other nonprofits already involved in the fight, such as POSSE or AIDS Care Service in Winston-Salem, Miller said.
At his Lexington church, Miller said, he's mentioned the fight against AIDS in Bible lessons and sermons. He's gone into more detail during his presentations at other churches. Sometimes, he said, people have told him afterward that he's right. "They're glad that somebody's talking about it publicly."
"Slowly but surely, the African-American church is waking up to the fact that it has to get involved in order for us to get a handle on this topic. It's killing too many of our people, and the African-American church has to do something about it."
That can't happen until the arguing over homosexuality ends.
"We've been caught up in this theological debate for so long," Miller said. "How about just agree to disagree and do some ministry?"
Why not?
■ John Railey writes editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at jrailey@wsjournal.com.
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