Eric, my friend, thank you for the invaluable work that you are doing to preserve these stories and spirits as well. Every single conversation matters and I'm so grateful for the call you heed.
I’ve noticed in CCM magazine when they finally started talking about AIDS and saying that the church should be helping people, not shunning, etc - it was almost always in the context of “innocent people and children have the disease” 😝☹️
Yes! You are absolutely right. I don't think they did an article on AIDS until the late 90s if I'm not mistaken--and this was exactly the context. I would have hoped that as journalists they might have dug deeper---especially since AIDS did, indeed, affect singers, songwriters and musicians in CCM and gospel music.
Reba Rambo and Dony McGuire wrote a song in 1985 called "We Must Reach Out" after the death of a close friend and talked on Christian television about their experience, encouraging people to be unafraid to touch and embrace people with AIDS, but it went largely unheard. Marsha Stevens Pino has said that that song was meaningful to gay Christian men she knew dying during that time.
Steve C@mp (whose name I hate to even invoke) wrote "Can You Feel Their Pain" in 1989, but it was also in the context of loving for the purpose of conversion/change, not acceptance or understanding.
Beautifully written and so true. I have lost friends and colleagues and have others currently dealing with this disease. The church needs to heed the words of Jesus and walk in love not judgment of others.
Thank you so much. Although my childhood church remained supportive as I came out in 1987, I left the AME Church and the Black Church entirely over their early inaction, demonization, and refusal to bury persons who died of even suspected AIDS-related complications. I found refuge in the Episcopal Church. I was actually in my early twenties on a Diocesan Commission on AIDS and demonstrated condom use on bananas for college students. I thank you for remembering the lesions and the disappearances and the erasure. I thank you also for remembering the good, normal people who did the right thing. There was plenty of both. And the impact on the world of Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music is part of our collective spiritual legacy. Thank you for helping us remember.
Thank you for your daring strength and preciseness! Not only is this a great read, it’s most certainly inspirational.
Eric, my friend, thank you for the invaluable work that you are doing to preserve these stories and spirits as well. Every single conversation matters and I'm so grateful for the call you heed.
I’ve noticed in CCM magazine when they finally started talking about AIDS and saying that the church should be helping people, not shunning, etc - it was almost always in the context of “innocent people and children have the disease” 😝☹️
Yes! You are absolutely right. I don't think they did an article on AIDS until the late 90s if I'm not mistaken--and this was exactly the context. I would have hoped that as journalists they might have dug deeper---especially since AIDS did, indeed, affect singers, songwriters and musicians in CCM and gospel music.
Reba Rambo and Dony McGuire wrote a song in 1985 called "We Must Reach Out" after the death of a close friend and talked on Christian television about their experience, encouraging people to be unafraid to touch and embrace people with AIDS, but it went largely unheard. Marsha Stevens Pino has said that that song was meaningful to gay Christian men she knew dying during that time.
Steve C@mp (whose name I hate to even invoke) wrote "Can You Feel Their Pain" in 1989, but it was also in the context of loving for the purpose of conversion/change, not acceptance or understanding.
Yeah, June 97 - it was the cover story, which is really unusual. I hadn’t realized that Michael Tait’s sister died from it. ☹️
I forgot about that part! But yes. Tait--a Trumper and proud Republican.
Beautifully written and so true. I have lost friends and colleagues and have others currently dealing with this disease. The church needs to heed the words of Jesus and walk in love not judgment of others.
♥️♥️♥️
This is such a powerful, moving post, Tim. I hope it will find a place in your book. Thank you for your voice! Sharing.
Thank you combrogo!
Thank you so much. Although my childhood church remained supportive as I came out in 1987, I left the AME Church and the Black Church entirely over their early inaction, demonization, and refusal to bury persons who died of even suspected AIDS-related complications. I found refuge in the Episcopal Church. I was actually in my early twenties on a Diocesan Commission on AIDS and demonstrated condom use on bananas for college students. I thank you for remembering the lesions and the disappearances and the erasure. I thank you also for remembering the good, normal people who did the right thing. There was plenty of both. And the impact on the world of Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music is part of our collective spiritual legacy. Thank you for helping us remember.