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Health, Hunger & Housing
This section includes articles with themes that include HIV/AIDS, abortion, welfare reform, social services, homelessness, children, education, drugs & alcohol, and related topics.

The Catastrophe in Southern India

The December 26, 2004 earthquake and series of tsunamis has created a disaster throughout South Asia and East Africa. Pauline Sathiamurthy, the executive officer of the Church of South India, sends an initial report of the extensive damage to her land. [posted 1/4/05]

Stigma Kills

With millions suffering from HIV/AIDS, in many areas the battle is not the disease itself but the community's response. Rachel Mash and Bungee Bynum describe the devastating role of stigmatization in South Africa, and what we can do to help. [posted 12/1/04]

Advent and World AIDS Day

On December 1st, global communities will observe World AIDS Day. William Blaine-Wallace warns us to treat the day not as a charitable opportunity, but as the moment when we can “wade into the waters of suffering” and become truly authentic church. [posted 11/29/04]

Cheney, Edwards Fail the AIDS Question

This month's vice presidential debate showed both candidates unable to answer how their administration would address the epidemic of African-American women with AIDS. Irene Monroe says their pathetic responses were emblematic of a widespread silence. [posted 10/18/04]

A Bud That Could Not Bloom

In northern India, a family is blessed with the birth of a daughter, after years of waiting. A few years later, to her horror, the girl discovers she is HIV-positive. Karuna Roy, writing from New Delhi, tells this heartrending, true story. [posted 9/30/04]

Remembering Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire

Ronald Reagan labeled the USSR the “evil empire,” but Irene Monroe remembers a different regime deserving that title. A onetime fundamentalist Christian, she chooses the word “evil” carefully, yet deliberately. [posted 7/9/04]

Christianity and Cultural Conflict in China

In Chinese traditional culture, the birth of a stillborn baby requires a month-long rest for the mother. This ritual conflicts with modern business practices, notes Dorothy Lau. Using a case study from her work in Hong Kong, we learn how to create win-win scenarios. [posted 5/20/04]

Toxic Land

Like many former industrial communities, Long Branch, New Jersey, has fallen on hard times. Public housing projects sit next to abandoned plants, and kids play in bleak, bare lots. Fletcher Harper tells the story of local citizens who came together to face the health threats in their front yard. [posted 5/6/04]

AIDS and Environmental Health in India

Health workers in India are struggling against mighty odds: HIV/AIDS is spiraling out of control, with tens of thousands more cases reported every month. Karuna Roy reports on the efforts of the Church of North India to face this crisis head-on, through care, prevention, education, and advocacy. [posted 4/22/04]

Coming of Age

Richard Thieme is turning 60, and unlike some of his peers, he knows that age does matter. Memories amass of moments of love and loss, yet despite decades of accumulated knowledge, he says we are ultimately left with more questions than answers. [posted 3/26/04]

New Partnership Models Give Hope to a Divided Communion

African and U.S. Anglican leaders recently met with Condoleezza Rice, Tommy Thompson, the president of the World Bank, and other top governmental officials to discuss the AIDS epidemic in Africa. John Chane, bishop of Washington, says this example of international collaboration is critical to a broken church. [posted 3/26/04]

All in the Mind

Post-traumatic stress disorder affects one in ten people, and its effects can destroy lives. Unfortunately, many parts of the church are unprepared to deal with those who have PTSD, reports Cathy Young. She writes about her illness and the resistance of the church to accepting her story and ministry. [posted 2/5/04]

Progressive Missiology? AIDS, Biodiversity, and Evangelism

Christian progressives have ceded the field of international mission to conservative evangelicals, argues Willis Jenkins. Ironically, the monumental challenges of AIDS and environmental degradation may now help progressives reclaim "mission work." [posted 2/5/04]

More Than Just a Number

World AIDS Day offered sobering news: while drugs have been available for several years, the death toll from HIV/AIDS is climbing quickly. Irene Monroe laments the epidemic in Africa -- but says the problem in some U.S. communities is just as bad. [posted 12/18/03]

This Is Jesus

"When I visited Rwanda/ (Or was it Golgotha?)" -- a haunting poem by Glenn Hawke seeks an Easter message in the death and misery of Rwanda's genocidal legacy. [posted 11/13/03]

Blind Bartimaeus

Blindness is the story of the gospel reading of Bartimaeus, and it is an appropriate metaphor for the Anglican Communion, suggests Chris Chivers. Like Jesus’ disciples, people in the church now are looking for prestige and power — not true insight and love. [posted 10/27/03]

Autres Realites, Autres Therapies (Different Realities, Different Therapies)

Sexual abuse in Cameroon is widespread, according to Sybille Ngo Nyeck. Citing terrible statistics of sexual assault on women and children, Nyeck challenges the government and complicit NGOs to address this violent pandemic. [In English and en Français . posted 10/1/03]

Taking Up the Cross: Putting on the T-shirt

South Africa has been devastated by HIV/AIDS, and AIDS orphans have become a cause célèbre. Chris Chivers attended the 13 th international AIDS conference in Durban, and recalls watching a president avoid the challenge, a young boy face it head on, and his own inability to act. [posted 9/17/03]

Global AIDS: Myths and Facts

Today 42 million people are living with HIV around the world, 30 million of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. William Rankin reviews an excellent new book that details and debunks ten common, problematic myths surrounding HIV/AIDS in the 21^st century. [posted 8/29/03]

Building a Strategy for the Solomons

The Solomon Islands are once again enveloped in political chaos and violence. Terry Brown, Anglican Bishop of Malaita, provides a less tabloid-like perspective of the situation than the Western media’s, while calling on Australia & New Zealand to intervene. [posted 7/22/03]

Entre Terre et Ciel (Between Heaven and Earth)
Female genital mutilation is widespread in Africa — as many as two million girls face this human rights violation each year. Sybille Ngo Nyeck from Cameroon looks at the theological underpinnings of genital mutilation, noting that many religions on the continent support this sad practice. [In English and en Français.] [posted 7/16/03]

AIDS’ Troubling Gender Factor
Both in the U.S. and worldwide, the fastest growth of the AIDS epidemic is among heterosexual women. Women of African descent are particularly vulnerable, and Irene Monroe blames stigma, discrimination… and silence. [posted 12/18/02]

Health Care Crisis in Gaza: An Interview with Suhaila Tarazi
The Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza is one of the few places for medical care in a community of one million Palestinians. Suhaila Tarazi, director of the hospital, talks with Nancy Dinsmore about the immense challenges it is facing at this critical time. [posted 7/25/02]

The Death of an AIDS Baby
Almost 200,000 babies have been orphaned in South Africa as a result of the AIDS epidemic, and the Church is struggling to help care for these parentless children. At the funeral of a 3-month infant, a participant reflects on how one community is embattled by this deepening crisis. [posted 6/19/02]

Marginal Christianity
How does one reconcile one’s Christian identity in the political arena? Judy Scherff says Jesus would be considered very liberal in modern day American politics. She contrasts His teachings with the legislative records of two conservative Christian members of the US Congress to drive her point home. [posted 01/30/02]

Children in the Global City
An increasingly urbanized world hurts the most vulnerable members of society, especially children. Camille Colatosti interviews leaders of international NGOs in a search for solutions to the worldwide plight of children, and their message is sobering, even heartbreaking. [posted 01/25/02]

Child Prostitution in Thailand
Prostitution, which has a long history in Thailand, has never been as bad there as it is now. Sirirat Pusurinkham details: the growth of sex tourism in her country how girls as young as ten years old are being conscripted into this industry, and how thousands are now dying of AIDS. [posted 12/19/01]

The Gospel Truth in the Age of AIDS
Over two decades, AIDS has grown into an international pandemic, shattering stereotypes in its wake. Elizabeth Kaeton, a veteran of 19 years of AIDS ministry, recalls a young woman named Bertie, once one of the "new faces" of AIDS and a metaphor for the scripture of the Samaritan Woman at the Well. [posted 12/12/01]

A Story of Dust: Christian Faith and the Paradox of Power
The signs of abusive power are readily witnessed in South Africa, yet the nation’s suffering people also represent the Rainbow People of God. After four months of living in this enthralling country, Jonathan Reiber reflects on the role of faith in the liberation of the oppressed. [posted 11/25/01]

Developing Grassroots AIDS Education
A trip to rural South Africa was a stark reminder of how quickly the AIDS pandemic is spreading without local outreach. Ann Smith finds hope in the response of a group of young students who took it upon themselves to address HIV/AIDS in the absence of adult leadership. [posted 11/13/01]

Developing Effective Mechanisms in Civil Society for Conflict Transformation
The relationship between the government and civil society is a tenuous one in many developing countries. Writing from Zimbabwe, a nation currently grappling with a fragile political situation, George Wauchope makes constructive recommendations for strengthening these processes. [posted 11/0801]

Call Her Jordan!
Crossing the Jordan River serves as a metaphor for our relationship with God, writes Sybille Ngo Nyeck. Citing "cruel doctrines," she names the Church’s silence on social issues as the type of discomfort and hypocrisy as that which leads to protest movements. [posted 10/30/01]

Answering to Our Earth Angels
In the midst of the AIDS epidemic, Irene Monroe says it is imperative that we recast our thinking, attitudes and behaviors. She says our inhospitality toward those living with AIDS is the symptom of a sick society.

Anatomy of Racism
"The most basic form of deception is in fabricating a false symmetry between occupier and occupied, between oppressor and victim." So says Hanan Ashrawi, in discussing the Palestinian — Israeli conflict.

Emerging from the Rubble
In the wake of two devastating earthquakes, El Salvadoran Episcopal Bishop Martín Barahona frankly assesses his country’s government, economy, and social structure, as well as his developing church, in a powerful interview with Richard Bower.

The Church Against the Sanctions
Visiting Iraq, Marilyn Borst recalled a childhood lesson about the importance of confession and the power of forgiveness. Facing the sanctions led by her home nation, on behalf of many people of faith she asks for forgiveness once again.

Walking with Jesus into the Desert
"They told us it was safe!" Janet Chisholm, interim director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, recalls growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the time of the first bomb tests, and her many connections with nuclear weapons since then.

‘Through Prayer and Action’: The Seeds of a New Anglicanism?
In a post-colonial Anglican Communion, threats of schism abound. Ian Douglas finds hope for true communion, however, in recent efforts by Anglicans from the political left & right to come together and seek common ground.

On Pins and Needles: Women of Central America Organize in the Maquilas
Maquilas factories exhibit a legacy of social ills: sexism, union-busting, poor environmental standards, ageism, lack of education and much more. Herb Gunn tells the story of Maria Esperanza in Honduras, and of the hope for change in this oppressive industry.

Not Exactly the Brady Bunch: A Book Review
Elizabeth Kaeton discusses An American Family, the story of the extraordinary Galluccio family responsible for changing New Jersey’s adoption laws.

The Opposite of Love
Shelters for battered women serve as stark reminders to our society’s failure to end domestic violence. Elizabeth Kaeton shares the story of meeting a survivor of a quarter-century of abuse who managed to break the cycle of violence.

From Cosmic Silence to Dancing Trinity: The Church of Sweden in a Time of Challenges
Mikael Mogren, reporting on the social and cultural challenges in his nation of Sweden, says that no one regularly goes to church. Even without parishioners, the relationship between church & state in his society won’t let the churches close.

Song for the Deaf
Not everyone has a compassionate response to HIV/AIDS. A recent fundraiser drew hostile reactions from religious fundamentalists. In response, poet Christine Rodgers speaks in love.

Tongues of Fire
Other than the occasional journalist, Westerners are rarely able to visit present-day Iraq. Marthame & Elizabeth Sanders made it past the sanctions to the ancient city of Ur, and were amazed at the diversity of Iraq’s Christian community.

Seafarers’ Rights Face a Worldwide Crisis
In a March 20 speech to hundreds of ship executives from across the globe, an officer of the historic Seamen’s Church Institute in lower Manhattan, Douglas B. Stevenson, challenged the international ship industry to strengthen seafarers’ rights.

Unpayable Debt — Have They Understood?
Jubilee 2000 activists had great hopes for the cancellation of international debts at the G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan. Peter Selby examines why the political leaders let them down.

Dominus Jesus: For Now Respice Finem
A former Roman Catholic priest, Alfred Stefanik finds the major encyclical issues by the Vatican an opportunity to discuss Catholicism — both the Roman variety, and the "fuzzy" version practiced by Episcopalians.

Iraq: A Christian Witness
A visit to Iraq forced Irene Voysey to face the role of Western Christians in supporting the Gulf War and the ongoing sanctions against Iraq. In the land of Abraham, with doves overhead, she determined to speak out against the sanctions.

Circumcision: A History of the World’s Most Controversial Surgery
David Gollaher’s new book, reviewed by Ann Wood, reviews over 4,000 years of this contentious practice, and looks at fantasy, myth, cleanliness, punishment, health, safety, submission, power, erotic pleasure, fertility and much more.