'Go in peace – and die!' The task of the church in the HIV and/or AIDS context

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title 'Go in peace – and die!' The task of the church in the HIV and/or AIDS context
 
Creator van Dyk, Alta C.
 
Subject Psychology, pastoral care HIV and Aids; Dutch Reformed Churches; Wellbeing; Stigma, Care; Policy
Description The purpose of this study was to investigate how the white Afrikaans-speaking churches in the Reformed tradition are dealing with the health and well-being of its parishioners in the HIV and/or AIDS context. An electronic questionnaire was filled in by 142 clergy from various Afrikaans-speaking churches. Results showed that clergy (90%) believed that HIV and/or AIDS is a much bigger problem outside the Afrikaans-speaking church than inside the church. Although 66% agreed that HIV was also a problem in white Afrikaans-speaking churches, only 30% admitted that it was a problem in their own congregation. Most (70%) believed that HIV and/or AIDS can be ignored in their own congregations. A small number of clergy took it on themselves to provide HIV and/or AIDS counselling (21%), care (19%) and education (18%) with minimum support from church leaders. When it came to HIV and/or AIDS prevention, most clergy were only prepared to preach abstinence and faithfulness, with their main message that ‘our bodies are the temple of God and that it should not be violated’ (70%). Is it not time for clergy to confront reality and to protect their flock by also teaching them prevention skills?Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article is relevant to the fields of pastoral care, psychology and HIV and/or AIDS.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2017-08-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Emperical survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v38i1.1752
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 38, No 1 (2017); 9 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1752/3250 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1752/3249 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1752/3251 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1752/3230
 
Coverage South Africa — Age; Gender; White Afrikaans-speaking; Clergy
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Alta C. van Dyk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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