True Christianity can comfort afflictions

AIDS is an unvirtuous disease. It lacks sympathy, and it fails to answer pleas. It is devastating.

I cannot say with certainty that AIDS brought many older gay men into the church, but it would not surprise me. The ’80s presented a crisis of epic proportions that had no explanation, and for which there was little comfort.

It was a time of doubled anxiety and stress for the gay community; homosexuals still faced immense discrimination while enduring the onslaught of HIV. As any military man will tell you, you can’t fight a war on two fronts and win. Sadly, we had no choice.

Those who turned to Christianity for comfort did so, I would imagine, in an effort to resurrect faith that had staled, to find hope in a deeply dark time. It was a childhood memory for many, and it called on promises that once seemed too quaint to really be true. Accepting universal salvation and love did not mesh well with daily prejudice – especially when what the church preached was hardly what it practiced. There was a deep longing for comfort that emanated from many in the gay community, but the Christian church was hardly meeting that need. Some in the church even went so far as to consider AIDS a gay man’s due condemnation.

True Christians know better. We have always known better, truth be told. And while I cannot apologize for sins of the past, I can tell you that Christianity is not at all about excluding. It is, to the contrary, about bringing people into the fold. Some churches –many, I’d like to believe – are doing that now in spades. But the reputation that Christianity has earned from years of wantonly inflicted pain is a hard one to shake. As a matter of fact, I don’t think it should ever be forgotten, even if it can be forgiven. It is worth remembering that the human institution that is the Christian church sometimes has more faults than virtues.

To those of my generation who now dismiss Christianity without a second thought, I ask you to give her another look. I would never claim that the church is perfect, or that her ministers are paragons of love and mercy, or that her egregious offenses of centuries past are things that can be denied or negated. But I do claim to know a Christianity that has, in many places, shined in its true form – one of inclusive love, forgiveness, mercy and acceptance.

Whatever your torment is now – be it suffering through a disease like AIDS, abandonment, loneliness, or doubt – know that there are Christian communities that can be a comfort to you. There is no prerequisite and there is no “certain kind of Christian.” As my pastor is wont to say, “All are welcome at the table.” No exceptions – at least in faith communities that attempt to live out the Christian ideal.

And as far as the battle of blame goes, I would recommend tossing anxieties to the wind. Whatever society has said and is saying, don’t ever think that AIDS, or any other affliction, is yours to endure because of who you are or what you have done. Christ, as he taught and lived, made paramount the offer of forgiveness. True Christianity, in its boldest, purest form, knows this well, and has us forgiving all offenses out of love. Even if, in our complicated world, forgiving doesn’t really make sense.

Even if – as human as we are – the offenses that once plagued us will not be forgotten.