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The married couple, a man and woman, both had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. One of their children also was HIV-positive. When a neighbor learned this, she was outraged and forbade her children from playing with theirs.
Ruth Bell Olsson tells this story about a West Michigan family with a mix of sadness and incredulity.
“I was so angry,” she says of the incident. “Really? Still?”
For her, it’s a reminder that despite years of education about how HIV is transmitted, ignorance and fear still persist. It is the kind of story that keeps her on track in her work to educate the community about HIV: how to prevent it, how to treat it and how to respond to those who have it.
“‘H’ stands for human,” Olsson says of the human immunodeficiency virus. “When we miss that, we’re missing something really fundamental.”
Olsson lifts up the human realities of HIV as an activist and former president of The Grand Rapids Red Project, a nonprofit that works to prevent HIV infection and provide support for those infected. The group will offer free testing for HIV and hepatitis C on Thursday, June 27, and Saturday as part of a national effort.
The Red Project also provides free testing every Monday night at Heartside Ministry, along with a free needle exchange for drug users and free condoms through its Clean Works program.
If you think the AIDS problem has been taken care of, think again. Although drugs have greatly improved the life spans of those with HIV, about 1.4 million people in North America had the virus in 2011 and about 21,000 died of AIDS-related causes, according to the United Nations. The Red Project says more than 1,000 Kent County residents are HIV-positive.
Olsson worries about apathy and ignorance regarding HIV and related issues: lack of proper health care, poverty and discrimination against gays and lesbians. Noting HIV infection from drug use has fallen sharply but is rising among young gay men, she’s concerned some think, “It’s no big deal, I can just take a pill.”
Olsson speaks passionately about HIV prevention to community groups and churches — though she would like to see more of the latter. She’s a member of Mars Hills Bible Church, the Grandville congregation founded by her older brother, the Rev. Rob Bell. She got involved in the effort about 10 years ago through Mars Hill’s outreach ministries.
She respects the theological objections some Christians have to gay relationships, but says that should not prevent churches from responding compassionately to those living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS.
“If the greatest command is to love God and love one another, this issue is exposing a lack of love,” says Olsson, the married mother of three.
“It has nothing to do with your biblical position,” she adds. Go ahead and hold your position, she says, “But if you’re not doing it in a spirit of love, you need to own that.”
Though she doesn’t have the profile of her more famous brother, Olsson shares Bell’s cheerful enthusiasm and verbal virtuosity. Nor is she afraid to challenge Christian orthodoxy. She spoke recently on a panel about gay Christians featuring Daniel Dobson, son of the Rev. Ed Dobson.
Olsson wrote about her work in the national evangelical magazine Christianity Today, in an essay titled “Why I Offer Clean Needles in Jesus’ Name.” She wrote of providing needle exchanges for drug users in the “holy city” of Grand Rapids, which despite its strong philanthropy offered little Christian involvement in this issue.
She was part of Mars Hill’s global outreach team in the early 2000s, which gave $1 million for AIDS relief in East Africa. Writes Olsson, “we realized that it was hypocritical for us to care about a pressing issue ‘over there’ without acknowledging it in our own backyard.”
Venturing into her own backyard was scary, coming from her “evangelical Christianese bubble,” Olsson says. She found herself spending time in gay bars and meeting drug users riddled with track marks. She describes it as a process of waking up: “I was convicted of my own ignorance and started paying attention to things.”
Resolved to “show up and shut up,” Olsson got involved in activities such as the AIDS Walk and was invited to join the board of HIV/AIDS Services, since renamed the Red Project. She served for about five years as president, a post now held by Tami VandenBerg. But Olsson continues to represent the group, volunteers at events such as Gay Pride Day and has traveled to Africa several times for AIDS relief work.
As more states approve gay marriage, and as the Supreme Court rules this week on two landmark cases, Olsson sees attitudes in the church changing – especially among its younger members.
“The emerging generation does not have the bugaboos that the older generation does, at all,” she says. “(Their attitude is), why wouldn’t everyone be treated equally?”
She belongs to One Wheaton, a group of Wheaton College gay alumni, students and their supporters. But she acknowledges the biblical arguments are complicated. She would like Christians to suspend their divisive judgments and enter “a whole new conversation.”
“There must be some larger thing God wants us to learn from this,” she says. “I have walked deeply with gay Christians, and it has changed my life.”
Free testing for HIV
The Grand Rapids Red Project is offering free testing for the HIV virus this week as part of National HIV Testing Day. Thursday, June 27: 1 to 6 p.m. at Heartside Ministry, 54 S. Division Ave., and 7 p.m. to midnight at Rumors Night Club, 69 S. Division Ave. Saturday, June 29: 9 p.m. to midnight at Diversions, 10 Fountain St. NW. The Red Project also offers testing every Monday night from 6 to 8 p.m. at Heartside Ministry as part of its Clean Works program.
Originally posted at mlive.com