Preacher takes the helm in AIDS awareness

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Rev. Keith Ratliff Sr. has preached to his congregation about AIDS before.

But Sunday’s sermon was different. It gave parishioners of Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church a chance to be tested for AIDS. The church is predominantly black, which Ratliff said leaves its members at a higher risk of contracting the disease.

Ratliff said he doesn’t know if anyone in his congregation has the disease, but he knows they are at serious risk.

Nationwide, blacks make up 13 percent of the population but account for half of all new infections of HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS. In Iowa, about 2 percent of the population is black, but they make up 19 percent of people living with HIV.

“The statistics are more than alarming, they’re mortifying,” Ratliff said.

As Ratliff preached, a nurse from the Polk County Health Department was in the church’s basement, taking saliva samples to be tested for the virus.

Ratliff, who leads the Iowa-Nebraska chapter of the NAACP, was tested a few weeks ago during a meeting of the civil rights group. He urged everyone in his 350-member congregation to be tested, too.

“Let me be very frank here. I’m not out to hurt anyone’s feelings,” he said. “But, honey, in today’s world, you don’t really know who your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend has been with.”

Maple Street Baptist is not about to change its teaching against homosexuality, promiscuity or drug use. Ratliff told parishioners not to judge people who have the virus. He said it’s none of their business how they got the disease. It is their business to help them.

A few people ducked out of the service and went downstairs where the nurse swabbed their mouths. After the service, several dozen church members filled the basement to be tested.

Some church members discussed possible explanations for the higher AIDS rate among blacks. They said blacks have less access to health care, so they are less likely to be tested and raise the chance of spreading the virus without knowing it.

Church member John Scearcy said some of the blame should go to drugs.

“You try to drown your sorrows in that fog, and when you wake up, you realize people have been using you,” he said.

Scearcy, 59, is training to be a deacon and was one of the first to go to the church basement to be tested. He is recently remarried but doesn’t pretend to have been celibate when he was single and said everyone should be tested for the virus.

“A lot of people have that ostrich mentality. They want to stick their head in the hole, not get tested for HIV, or prostate cancer or a lot of things,” he said. “But ignorance is not bliss.”

(Associated Press)