“How many people with HIV+/Aids are too many in your church?”~priest

As you know, we as believers have Christian responsibilities for others. The greatest responsibility we have is to love one another. Rolled into the instruction for love is the responsibility to care for homeless, widows and orphans. I drove by some homeless shelters today and visited one that cared for those with addictions. Because of their addictions and related lifestyles, there are some who have contracted hiv+ / aids. It got me thinking….

Supposing I went to a church in your area of town and I invited one of these patients to come to your church with me. Would we be welcome? I don’t know. Now suppose God really blessed my efforts to reach out and care for people with HIV+/Aids and five aids patients desired to go to church with me. Would we be welcome? How about 20? Do you get the point?

How many people with this virus would be welcome in your local church? I know there would be some churches that probably would post a sign, “No contagious diseases allowed”. Others might let one in if you kept a low profile and no one knew. But I think it would be a very unique church that would love the Aids victim with the love Jesus talked of.

The thought of loving the “untouchable” is very troublesome for me. It is tough enough to love someone I don’t like. To love someone with the risk of contracting some incurable disease is hard for me to get my mind wrapped around. It seems the richness of our Christian life is in many ways negated by the conditional faith we exercise.

So again, how many HIV+/Aids people can I visit your church with?

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37stories

It is the desire of my heart that God be Lord of my life. Life’s experiences have killed the old man and God is building a new creation in me. I look forward to experiencing the new man God creates in the old vessel known as Archie via "God Spots".

6 thoughts on ““How many people with HIV+/Aids are too many in your church?”~priest”

  1. Hi Archie;

    Great thought, except HIV and AIDS are not contagious in places like church. 🙂

    Now if you asked someone with the Bubonic Plague, that would be a test. 🙂

    And I think God would forgive people who stayed away from someone like that. Think of it this way. Love thy neighbor applies to both sides of the fence doesn’t it?

    If you have a cold or flu, you would not want to infect others, so out of love for them you would not go to church.

    In the case of HIV AIDS, it is ignorance and judgment which prevents people from gathering, not the disease.

  2. Hi Archie;

    For those who do not know, Archie sent me a book titled “Blue Like Jazz”. The writer is compelling and excellent, for those who want to know more about Jesus and one man’s journey, it is an excellent read.

    I’m still not finished, I am keeping my promise, just didn’t say how long it would take. 🙂

    Two girls were studying Matthew, Nadine and Penny. Penny was impressed with the fact that Jesus was not very diplomatic. He called them as he saw them and was not favoring one person over the other.

    He loved the broken people, was one thought expressed in the book.

    I like that thought, “he loved the broken people.”

    Regardless of some differences in respect to the divinity aspect, no one can really dispute that the Man from Galilee offered some great teaching.

    Imagine taking it upon himself to wash the feet of his apostles. Humility and guts, he had both. He loved and was loved in return. He lashed out and we know what happened.

    Non conformists are rarely taken seriously, unless they have a lot of money or guns.

    Jesus had neither. Didn’t seem to bother him.

    Anyway, just keeping you updated on my book reading commitment. 🙂

  3. Good morning Ichabod. I enjoyed the jab at the church. “Great thought, except HIV and AIDS are not contagious in places like church”.

    Thanks for the update on “Jazzed”… I think and speak of you often. Keep asking the tough questions…

    archi

  4. I bet those HIV+/AIDS patients could really use a hug!
    They can sit by me… up in front.

    Ichabod, funny you brought up ‘Jazz’. I loved that book and gave it to my best friend. Another friend just shared Don Miller’s blog with me, so now I see he has another book out. Here is the link if you’re interested.

    http://donmilleris.com/

  5. I think the real question is, “Does your church have spiritual fruit attractive enough for an HIV/AIDS infected person to risk their own health to visit you?” After all, all those common ailments that annoy us from time to time would be debilitating for folks that are “imuno-depressed”. How about it?

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