{"id":322,"date":"2012-07-26T09:30:50","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T14:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/?p=322"},"modified":"2012-10-17T08:28:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T13:28:15","slug":"we-can-do-a-lot-as-a-church-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/we-can-do-a-lot-as-a-church-2\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We can do a lot as a church&#8230;&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This piece is part of the Washington, D.C. installment of the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; blog series.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>By the time the Centers for Disease Control first used the acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in the fall of 1982, the disease was already heavily stigmatized in the United States. Reports of the disease were mounting weekly, and the public was becoming increasingly aware of the linkage to gay men and intravenous drug users \u2014 groups that were already stigmatized. While the medical community searched for definitive evidence on what caused the disease and how it was transmitted (and elected officials, including President Reagan, remained silent in the face of a growing epidemic), many Americans responded to the disease with fear and judgment.<\/p>\n<p>It was during this uncertainty that Karin Klingman \u2014 a member of Christ Lutheran, an ELCA congregation in Washington, D.C.\u2014was beginning her medical career as a resident physician. Now an infectious disease doctor and involved in clinical research at the National Institutes of Health, Karin felt compelled to work with HIV and AIDS patients in the early 1980s when \u201cnobody wanted to touch them and yet somebody needed to be caring for them.\u201d She says, \u201cI\u2019ve always had a great deal of compassion for these patients \u2014 they were always a marginalized group: the gay men whose families didn\u2019t come to visit them; the IV drug users whose lives were a mess; and other people who were shocked to be dealing with the life-threatening disease they didn\u2019t expect to get.\u201d Since then, Karin has devoted her career to working with HIV and AIDS patients and, since coming to the National Institutes of Health, being involved in research that focuses on treatments for HIV-infected people.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of work, Karin engages members of her congregation and other Lutherans and Christians in D.C. to tackle stigmatization and serve those living with the disease. \u201cThe D.C. area has a special need to focus on HIV and AIDS and try to get the prevalence rate down,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can do a lot as a church to welcome marginalized people, make them feel whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most recently Karin has been a leader within <a href=\"http:\/\/lutherangrace.com\/\">Lutheran Grace<\/a>, a group of Lutherans in the D.C. region who are committed to reducing the stigma of HIV and AIDS, as they participate in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aids2012.org\/\">2012 International AIDS Conference<\/a> currently taking place in Washington, D.C. They are a strong Lutheran presence at the Global Village, and the only church denomination with a booth in this diverse space where people from all over the world meet, share and learn from one another. Through the <a href=\"http:\/\/metrodcelca.org\/\">ELCA Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Synod<\/a>, Lutheran Grace has recruited volunteers and church members from all over the synod and other regions to create prayer cards for their booth in the Global Village. \u201cIt\u2019s been phenomenal the way people have embraced this. We never expected this response, and I couldn\u2019t have expected more than what they\u2019ve done,\u201d Karin says.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what she has learned about working with HIV and AIDS professionally and within her congregation, Karin responds, \u201cI\u2019ve seen that people don\u2019t realize they should worry about HIV unless they\u2019ve been personally affected. Once you start talking about it, they start to understand stigma and how that makes living with the disease so much worse. I think the church should commit itself to being inclusive and welcoming to people with HIV and AIDS and not judge what they\u2019ve done or why they\u2019ve gotten the disease.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless we\u2019re compassionate about the disease, it\u2019s never going to go away \u2014 people won\u2019t be tested and people won\u2019t take drugs because they\u2019re scared of being identified. We won\u2019t be able to combat the disease. We have to keep talking about it; people in the church are receptive to learning. I think the church is a good place to talk about it \u2014 we are supposed to welcome all people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Keep checking back for more updates on\u00a0the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; series.\u00a0 Look for more blogs on HIV and AIDS in Washington, D.C. and beyond in the coming days. <\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_323\" style=\"width: 522px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/07\/IAC-Lutheran-Grace-booth-0402.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-323\" class=\" wp-image-323 \" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/07\/IAC-Lutheran-Grace-booth-0402-1024x773.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"370\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-323\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bishop of Metro D.C. Synod, Rev. Richard Graham and Lutheran World Federation delegates to the International AIDS Conference join Karin and other volunteers with Lutheran Grace at their booth in the Global Village.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This piece is part of the Washington, D.C. installment of the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; blog series.\u00a0 By the time the Centers for Disease Control first used the acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in the fall of 1982, the disease was already heavily stigmatized in the United States. Reports of the disease were mounting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7389,7387,1400],"tags":[7388],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-on-the-road-series","category-human-dignity","category-post","tag-advocating-on-the-road"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;We can do a lot as a church...&quot; - ELCA Advocacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/we-can-do-a-lot-as-a-church-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;We can do a lot as a church...&quot; - ELCA Advocacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This piece is part of the Washington, D.C. installment of the &#8220;Advocating on the Road&#8221; blog series.\u00a0 By the time the Centers for Disease Control first used the acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in the fall of 1982, the disease was already heavily stigmatized in the United States. 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