■ 56*0 ff! ANY MEIVU ITEM ' *TC8V” J I The C\mntry\ Best ibgurl. I I (Item mos t* over $' t*ot good utn I odw oiler* Oiler et(#m 4I3QS3) ^ | -3131 W. 11th, Market Place We*t | ^1888 Franklin Bled. (FrankJm I V»arf^ 136 E 11th • (near Willamette) 342-3358 Must be 21 or Over Wednesday m«h « $3 International Anthem Yantra Thursday Arm i $3 I hf Super Show of the Onlur)!" Super Kpants The Superkools The Super Big I Am Friday a,^.i 2 $5 Subpop Recording Artists Codeine plus The Spinanes Lois Music Starts at 10pm Mon Sat Muse starts at 8pm Sundays OUCKBUCm Look tor them April 4th Christians face difficult AIDS questions i: d i r o n s SOTF Will min Thackeray w rote thnl dying far a faith isn't so hard — it is living up to it that's difficult This lust of a three jxirt senes. "AIDS — A Test of Faith. " look s at the sfie rial dilemmas of the faithful in the Age of AIDS (APJ — 11 le rule is love the sin ner, hate the sin But if the sin ner has AIDS — and the sin is hnmosexualty or sex outside of marriage — can compassion lie reconciled with religious doc trine? If you believe Cod condemns homosexual behavior, how do you spread that moral teaching without ( listing aspersions on people who contracted AIDS through gay sex? Are more lives saved by providing information about condom use. or by pro moting abstinence' For some, the answers arc clear AIDS activists disrupt Masses and destroy sacred hosts as they demand religious groups give unqualified aci eptance of homosexuality Fundamentalist prem hers fill the airwaves with the message that AIDS is Cod's punishment to homosexuals and drug users Amid these extremes, the faith ful seek solutions that are both i ompassionate and true to their beliefs ’'This is a response of God's |H>ople to people (icing sick That, to me, has always been the bot tom line.'' says Konald II Sun derland of the Foundation for Interfaith Research and Ministry hi Houston 'If you force (other) issues together, you’re going to confront over and over again problems we don't need to face, and the people who are going to suffer are people w ith AIDS Sometimes, the gnp between principle and practice can seem almost humorous. Praise came from all over Houston when the Christian Tabematile Church established a residence for homeless people with AIDS — with one exception Other United Pentecostal min isters wanted to know if it was true church members were look ing the other wav on the church’s holiness code hy taking people with AIDS to the movies ' ll didn't matter that w-e min istered to them, that we held their hands when they died. It was. 'You take them to the movies.’ God have mercy." laughs the Rev Ray Highfield But when the issue is condoms, there is no laughter Judy Hunter, who was a consultant for the Catholit AIDS education cur riculum, discusses condoms and homosexuality when she gives AIDS education seminars in dio ceses around the country Iwcause "these are the facts about HIV AIDS ” But she tear hex that "there is no such thing ns safe sex" and draws on her exjierience lending a support group where one spouse infer ted another despite the precaution of careful condom use Debra Fraser-Howxm of the Blnri. I readership Commission on AIDS approaches black churr li es with what she calls her "how - ever theory,” "Abstinence is the only sure way not to gel AIDS We need to start every sentence with that her ause that's honest.” Fraser Howse says. But it is also true that condoms provide some protection, she savs So she offers pastors mi alternative "Maybe you i nn’t get up and ‘Loving people is much more important than judging them; much more important - Rev. Molly McGreevy say it. but their's no law you can't let me in the basement and have me say it," she says. Compromises that an- possible on c ondom use seem more elu sive when the issue is homosex uality. Presbvteriun ACT-UP is plan ning acts of civil disobedience to i hallenge the Presbvtorian Church (IJ.S A )'s stand on homo sexuality at its unniial meeting in Orlando in |une. sa\s the Rev. Howard Warren, the group's co moderator "We must not de-ga\ the dis ease." he says. The Rev. Ken South, executive director of the AIDS National Interfaith Network in Washing ton. agrees homosexuality and AIDS cannot lie separated. "AIDS is about healing How in the world cam you help some one heal when you don’t even start by acknowledging the core of who they are'” he asks Hut others sa\ it is wrong to ask that Christian and Jewish groups give up bihiii ally based beliefs that homosexuality is a sin just Ihh ause homosexuals are afflict ed "Are homosexuals to be excluded from the community of faith? Certainly not. But anyone who joins sm h a community should know that it is a place of transformation and not men' lv a place to be comforted or indulged." wrote Gary, a homo sexual Christian who diod of AIDS, in his final letter to Duke Divinity School Professor Richard Hays. Karl Shelp helps run a suc cessful interfaith AIDS program in Houston, in which Southern Baptist, Catholic and Pentecostal churches have been among the religious groups caring for more than 1,000 people with AIDS. "It s exploitive for gay people to use AIDS to advance their own agenda." Shelp says. "It doesn't have to lie swept under the eccle siastical door on the backs of people with AIDS.” The Rev Rodney DeMnrtini. executive director of the San Francisco-based National Catholii AIDS Network, soys he can understand the frustration of AIDS activists, but he says they also need to recognize there is hurdlv a Catholic Charities agency in the country that does not have an AIDS ministry. And many of the larger dioceses have full-time AIDS programs. When St. Luke in the Fields Kpisc opal Church in New York lirst began offering a weekly din ner (or people vs ith AIDS in 1BHH. "we began with all these nice, middle-class, gay white men. We are now 75 percent black or His panic I'm sure some of them are gay. but many of them are drug users,” savs the Rev. Molly Me Creevy. "The first thing, and ultimate ly in the end the most important tiling, is always that one-on-one relationship with another human being." she says. 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