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 Sister Carol realized HIV/AIDS would soon reach her small community in Illinois, she knew she had to go learn about the intricacies of this disease. “These people are beloved children of God. How can I not help them?” So she moved to New York City, worked at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and took calls at Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
Sister Carol Baltosiewich
Belleville, Illinois