[Posted Nov. 30, 2007]

Death of Son
Invokes AIDS
Ministry At Church

Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide

       Until last January the First Community Church of Newport News did not have an HIV/AIDS Ministry, according to the Senior Pastor Louis  Nicholson.
       Before, Nicholson said the policy from the pulpit was mocking and denouncing those who had contracted the disease as sinners, especially Gay men and women who represent most of the people who are  infected and affected by the virus.

Rev. Louis Nicholson

       But things changed later in 2006 when Rev. Nicholson's son died of AIDS. He was 42-years-old and “too young to die.”
       “He literally told me three months before he died that he had AIDS,” said Rev. Nicholson. 

"My family was devastated, watching my son die slowly of a disease I knew nothing about. We suspected all along he was Gay and having sex with people of the same sex. But he kept it secret from his family, especially his mother. He was a strong member of the church.”

       Rev. Nicholson's church is one of several which has an HIV/AIDS ministry serving the Black community on the peninsula.
       On the Southside, agencies like the Virginia HIV/AIDS  Resources and Consultation Center, have a growing list of churches it networks with  and helps train their ministries in the methodologies in teaching and outracing to the public.
       Rev. Nicholson is among the resource center's list of speakers it dispatches to talk about his new found mission on fighting HIV and AIDS.
        AIDS activists have long chided the Black church for its reluctance to embrace HIV/AIDS prevention programs and do more to support their Gay and lesbian members who are infected.
       One advocacy group says there are churches which have HIV/AIDS ministries that are actively devoting money and manpower to education, referral, support and prevention programs. Then there are the HIV/AIDS friendly churches which may  have semi-active ministries buried under larger ministries. They may be willing to invite activists into their education centers to talk to their youth, but on a restricted basis. Many of these churches still frown on discussions of  the use of condoms.
Rev. Nicholson said he is more passionate about addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS prevention these days. Instead of condemning, he has established a support group for those who are infected and their families.  He talks about both abstinence and prevention measures such as condoms  and other safer sex messages.
       “It is a shame that more churches do not have such ministries,” said Rev. Nicholson, who has chronicled his experiences dealing with his dying son in a book to be released next April.  
"There are a lot of reasons for it. But I think the church has to get its head out of the sand and come to grips with the issues related to this very deadly disease. My eyes have been open because  I know more about how HIV/AIDS infects and affects a family and the people in it. I am one of them now.”

To read other stories, subscribe to the New Journal and Guide.