HIV/AIDS:

Developing a Bahá'í Response

Marc G. Holcomb

Since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, an increasing number of requests for information and assistance have been directed towards Bahá'í Institutions at all levels. Although HIV/AIDS is only one of a variety of issues challenging our communities, it involves a wide spectrum of issues for which the Bahá'í Faith has particular guidance, such as sexuality, substance abuse, death and dying, prejudice, racism and equality of women and men.

We are grateful to Marc Holcomb for his patience and dedication in the preparation of this material. It is our hope that this guide will help Bahá'ís in coming to terms with the issues surrounding HIV infection and in articulating our contribution to the larger community in struggling against HIV/AIDS.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ernest Vasseur of the AIDS Pastoral Care Network of Chicago, Illinois for first handing me the materials that clarified my thoughts and that have evolved into this book, and for encouraging me to follow this path. I would also like to thank the members of the Bahá'í International Health Agency's Institute on AIDS, Sexuality and Addictions [IASA - now BNASAA] for their enthusiasm, ideas and support and Dawn K. Smith, MD MS MPH for her invaluable contribution of quotations from the Bahá'í Writings. Ernest has given me the tool and IASA has given me the venue." (Acknowledgements, p. ix)

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It's Not Your Fault

How Healing Relationships Change Your Brain & Can Help You Overcome a Painful Past

Patricia Romano McGraw, Ph.D.

The author is a psychotherapist in private practice with over twenty years of experience in treating post-traumatic stress disorder and related problems. A former employee of Johns Hopkins Hospital Community Psychiatry Program, Dr. McGraw provides expert witness testimony on the subject of battered women syndrome for court cases involving domestic violence and its effects and serves as a consultant to organizations that assist those who have suffered trauma and loss.

Dr. McGraw has had a lifelong interest in the integration of science and religion. She is a member of the Bahá'í Faith and has served as a psychologist and counsellor to the Bahá'í Network on AIDS, Sexuality, Addictions and Abuse (BNASAA) since its inception in 1989.

"I am particularly grateful to many individuals and institutions within the Bahá'í community. First I want to thank the Bahá'í Network on AIDS, Sexuality, Addictions and Abuse (BNASAA), for whom I have been a consulting psychologist for over a decade. Years ago, one of their workshop presenters cancelled his presentation at the last minute. I was spontaneously asked only hours before the presentation if I "knew anything" to present in his place. I chose the issue of trauma and the brain. Since that time, requests for repeat performances have never ceased, and with the growing interest came demand for printed material. This book is my gift to them." (Acknowledgements, p. 255)

 

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