There Is a Balm in Gilead
This chapter describes the work of The Balm in Gilead, which grew out of the efforts of Pernessa Seele, an immunologist at Harlem Hospital, to organize local Black faith leaders to address AIDS through the Harlem Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. As Seele trained African American clergy to incorporate AIDS education into their ministry, she also confronted entrenched homophobia in Black religious institutions. Accordingly, The Balm in Gilead designed programs that would help churches accept and include gay members. In 2001, Seele contracted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend her work with Black churches to sub-Saharan Africa, setting up programs in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. She argued that because of Black people’s particular relationship with church and faith, the approach that The Balm in Gilead had developed in the United States would work in Africa as well. At the same time, this work intersected with a growing interest in addressing “global AIDS” among U.S. leaders, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who saw the spread of the disease in Africa as a growing threat to international security.