Mary Fisher's Heroes

Mary Fisher's Heroes

Louise Hudak heals with hugs.

Excerpt from "When Grief Meets Grace"     "We often think of grief as a brief stage of mourning. But living with HIV extends the duration of grief to the length of a lifetime. We live, infected, wondering what will give in first, and last; unsure what promise to make of our children and ourselves; wondering when the distant bell will suddenly toll more closely. We do not so much recover from this grief as learn to live with it.
    Because the epidemic first surfaced in America's gay communities, this grief has been compounded. Old patterns of discrimination came to life with new brutality. Traditional sources of comfort - the home and the church - became, instead, tribunals of judgment. Parents rejected children. Voices rang out from pulpits saying the virus was God's idea, speculating that HIV was divine retribution. Intimate messages of rejection were matched by public policies of indifference.
    For the AIDS community in America, the voice of God heard from communities of faith has been terribly muted. Temples should have raised high the roofbeams to bring them in; churches should have shouted messages of grace from the rooftops. But what most members of the AIDS family have heard is whispers about their morality and the hope that, like modern-day lepers, they will not get too close."

- Excerpt from "When Grief Meets Grace"
Sermon by Mary Fisher
at Cascade United Methodist Church
Atlanta, Georgia
November 21, 1993
Previous Page

Contents	Editorial	The Platypus	Links	Copyright
Feature	Camera Corner	War Stories	Dirck's Gallery	Comments
Archives	Columns	Forums	Mailing List	E-Mail