On a cold February morning in 1987, amidst freezing rain and driving winds, a group of protesters stood outside of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. The target of their protest was the minister inside, who was handing out condoms to his congregation while delivering a sermon about AIDS, dramatizing the need for the church to confront the seemingly ever-expanding crisis. The minister's words and actions were met with a standing ovation from the overflowing audience, but he could not linger to enjoy their applause. Having received threats in advance of the service, he dashed out of the sanctuary immediately upon finishing his sermon. Such was the climate for religious AIDS activism in the 1980s. In After the Wrath of God, Anthony Petro vividly narrates the religious history of AIDS in America. Delving into the culture wars over sex, morality, and the future of the American nation, he demonstrates how religious leaders and AIDS activists have shaped debates over sexual morality and public health from the 1980s to the present day. While most attention to religion and AIDS foregrounds the role of the Religious Right, Petro takes a much broader view, encompassing the range of mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Catholic groups--alongside AIDS activist organizations--that shaped public discussions of AIDS prevention and care in the U.S. Petro analyzes how the AIDS crisis prompted American Christians across denominations and political persuasions to speak publicly about sexuality--especially homosexuality--and to foster a moral discourse on sex that spoke not only to personal concerns but to anxieties about the health of the nation. He reveals how the epidemic increased efforts to advance a moral agenda regarding the health benefits of abstinence and monogamy, a legacy glimpsed as much in the traction gained by abstinence education campaigns as in the more recent cultural purchase of gay marriage. The first book to detail the history of religion and the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., After the Wrath of God is essential reading for anyone concerned with the intersection of religion and public health.

Europe's "Black Death" contributed to the rise of nation states, mercantile economies, and even the Reformation. Will the AIDS epidemic have similar dramatic effects on the social and political landscape of the twenty-first century? This readable volume looks at the impact of AIDS since its emergence and suggests its effects in the next decade, when a million or more Americans will likely die of the disease. The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States addresses some of the most sensitive and controversial issues in the public debate over AIDS. This landmark book explores how AIDS has affected fundamental policies and practices in our major institutions, examining: How America's major religious organizations have dealt with sometimes conflicting values: the imperative of care for the sick versus traditional views of homosexuality and drug use. Hotly debated public health measures, such as HIV antibody testing and screening, tracing of sexual contacts, and quarantine. The potential risk of HIV infection to and from health care workers. How AIDS activists have brought about major change in the way new drugs are brought to the marketplace. The impact of AIDS on community-based organizations, from volunteers caring for individuals to the highly political ACT-UP organization. Coping with HIV infection in prisons. Two case studies shed light on HIV and the family relationship. One reports on some efforts to gain legal recognition for nonmarital relationships, and the other examines foster care programs for newborns with the HIV virus. A case study of New York City details how selected institutions interact to give what may be a picture of AIDS in the future. This clear and comprehensive presentation will be of interest to anyone concerned about AIDS and its impact on the country: health professionals, sociologists, psychologists, advocates for at-risk populations, and interested individuals.

"Here then is a book, in size small enough for the pocket; in arrangement divided into portions, short enough to be read at any leisure moment; and yet weighty enough in matter to supply much food for profitable meditation…. I commend this volume." -William Maude To the reader, As it should be our concern to get our judgments informed--so also our lives reformed; our heads filled with Gospel light--and our lives with Gospel holiness. We should hold fast and hold forth that which is good. Paul says of the Corinthians: "You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (2 Corinthians 3:2-3.) And of the Thessalonians: "The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia--your faith in God has become known everywhere." (1 Thess. 1:8.) The commendation of a Christian is to have truth written in his heart--and read in his life. Of the Romans says the same Apostle: "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you." (Romans 6:17.) To have doctrine not only delivered to us, but to be delivered into that doctrine, so as to be framed and molded into the fashion of it--is what we should labor after. How far the following book tend to promote this work, I leave to be considered. But that our hearts may be so sanctified by truth, as that we may obey truth from the heart, is the prayer of your well-wisher, Thomas Sherman, 1680 CONTENTS: 1. The Brazen Serpent 2. Pardon 3. Coming to Christ 4. Christ Received 5. Conversion 6. Justification 7. Faith 8. Repentance 9. Spiritual Life 10. The Christian 11. Christian Duty 12. Indwelling Sin 13. Communion with God 14. Spiritual Darkness 15. Affliction 16. Prayer 17. Ordinances 18. Mercies 19. The Promises 20. The Scriptures 21. Miscellaneous

An accessible study aid for adult catechesis and religious education in preparation for the Holy Year 2000. Prepared by a special theological commission established by The Central Organizing Committee for The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 at the Vatican, this book follows Jesus Christ, Word of the Father; The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life; and God, the Father of Mercy. It is the fourth in the series of four volumes, on the Son, the Spirit, the Father, and the Eucharist, to be published one per year to assist adults in their preparation for Holy Year 2000. This book offers a solid overview of the mystery of the Eucharist, taking up the theme designated for the year 2000 in Pope John Paul II's encyclical, On the Coming of the Third Millennium.