For ten years now, First Baptist has been participating in World AIDS Day.
Of course, it is a little unusual for a church (and a Baptist church at that) to get involved in HIV/AIDS. But FBC is not your average church, and certainly not your average Baptist church in the south.
Ten years ago, a man working for Friends for Life had an idea. He wanted to use the median on East Parkway at the corner of Poplar, directly in front of FBC, to place a memorial to those who had died from HIV/AIDS. As a courtesy, he contacted the church to ask if there would be a problem.
Understand, this was a gay man with AIDS who grew up in the south, so there was every reason to suspect that it might indeed be a problem. This man had had his fill of churches and church folk.
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the memorial. The pastor of FBC at the time welcomed the idea and even volunteered the church's front lawn. Several years later, the predominately white FBC reached across the street to the Greater Lewis Street Missionary Baptist Church, a predominately African-American congregation. And the two churches, different in many ways, have made it a joint event ever since.
And so it is that, each year around December 1, you will find white stakes with red ribbons, nearly 3,000 of them now, on opposite corners of Poplar and Parkway, in remembrance of those who have lost the battle with HIV/AIDS in Shelby County since 1985. Why 1985, you ask? That's when they began counting.
Here are two articles about this year's ceremony:
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