A Story of Compassion in the Face of Deadly Silence.
The Body of Christ Has AIDS is a deeply personal story of one of the most tragic decades in American history. In this documentary, we examine the contradictory ways Christianity responded to the AIDS crisis. This examination is deeply contextualized within American society, pop culture, and religious life.
And in the middle of this, gay men were dying.
Despite initial hope that Christian movements would embrace LGBT+ persons as part of the civil rights movement, the church doubled down on their rejection of the gay community. This active condemnation happened just in time for the AIDS crisis. In the 1980s and 1990s, a very marginalized community suddenly, and rapidly, were given death sentences.
Where was Christianity before and after the “gay plague?” Where was society and our morals during the death of so many?
And yet, some Christian rebels showed deep compassion in the face of deadly silence. It is in their stories that we see what compassion truly looks like. They believed as Christians, if one has AIDS we all have AIDS. This was their rally cry. The journey you will go on in The Body of Christ Has AIDS is one of inspiration, heartbreak, and ultimately hope.
What Stories Will This Documentary Tell?
A group of clergy and nurses who started a camp for HIV/AIDS patients in the late 1980s in California (and later, nationwide). This camp, Strength For The Journey, began preparing people to die in the middle of a plague. When given the chance, they rejected the theme these dying men had heard from the church. God does not hate you! No, you are a precious child of God.
Strength For The Journey
Southern California
A young man from the Black Civil Rights Movement in Memphis and Nashville is pastored by James Lawson. As he becomes a pastor himself, he starts a church that was consciously “A Whosoever Church.” As a young man in their church dies from HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s, they learn this call must also include HIV/AIDS patients and, by extension, the LGBT+ community.
Metropolitan Interdenominational Church
Nashville, Tennessee
When HIV/AIDS hit the gay community in San Francisco, one church dedicated to Queer People stood up. When many churches declined to host funerals for AIDS patients, the Metropolitan Community Church served their community in life and in death.
The Metropolitan Community Church
San Francisco, CA
…And More!
Who We’ve Filmed
BAY AREA, CA
Dr. Paul Volberding, AIDS research, founder of Ward 86
Dr. Lynne Gerber, producer of When We All Get To Heaven
Rev. Jim Mitulski, Pastor of MCC San Francisco
LOS ANGELES AREA, CA
Rev. Dr. Ed Hansen, AIDS activist, UMC Pastor
Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, UMC
Bishop Grant Hagiya, UMC
Rev. Gary Williams, UMC
The People of Strength For The Journey Camp
DENVER, CO
Rev. Dr. Don Messer, founder Center For Health & Hope
Bishop Karen Oliveto, UMC
SEATTLE AREA, WA
Dr. Heather White, Author of Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights
Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, UMC
Christopher Hucks-Ortiz, AIDS Activist
CHARLOTTE, NC
Debbie Warren, Founder of RAIN
NASHVILLE, TN
Rev. Beth Richardson, UMC
Brenda Barnes, RN, AIDS Research
Dr. William Schaffner, Vanderbilt HIV Research
Rev. Dr. Edwin Sanders, pastor, AIDS Activist
Phil Michael Thomas, AIDS Activist
Dr. Tiye Link, AIDS Activist, Nashville CARES
The Congregation of Edgehill United Methodist Church
ST. LOUIS, MO
Rev. Kathleen Wilder, Centenary UMC
Opal Jones, President/CEO of DOORWAYS
The Congregation of Lafayette Park United Methodist Church
NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY
Dr. William Stell, author of Born Again Queer: The History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity
Rev. Liz Edman, author of Queer Virtue
Rev. Jared Stahler, ELCA, Pastor of St. Peter’s Church
Dr. Ashley Boggan, Director of United Methodist Achives
Charles King, AIDS Activist
Debra Fraser-Howze, AIDS Activist, founder of Choose Healthy Life
And many more!