A Theology of Protest: Christian Responses to the Book of Job and the AIDS Crisis
In a sermon on the Book of Job delivered in July of 1985, John Piper describes what appears to be “good theology.” This “good theology” comes from Job’s friends, like the words of Zophar in Job 11:1-20 (NRSV): “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” Zophar in particular provides a rebuke to the innocent Job, asking him to reconsider his own culpability in his suffering. Yet Piper offers a qualification to Job’s friends and their seeming ‘theological truth.’ Piper says, “But let us be warned: [truth] can be made false by the way it is applied, and can even be destructive in the mouth of fools.”[i] It is not the truthiness of Job’s friends that is in question, but rather if it was accurately applied to Job’s circumstance. Instead of debating the veracity of the friends’ words, Piper’s sermon focuses on the sufferers: the righteous believers. For in Piper’s faith, the ‘innocent’—children, ‘the unborn,’ women, Christians, the morally upright—surely are not being punished. Piper is in good company, because the Book of Job has a long history of interpretation and theological instruction. While often considered a work of wisdom literature, it is more frequently found in conversations about theology, philosophy, and even doctrine (often as evidence either for or against ‘prosperity Gospel’ preachers, depending on one’s suasion). Yet more so, the Book of Job is found ubiquitously in American Christianity’s dialogue on moral goodness, moral living, and “moral citizenship.”[ii] Because of its explicit attention to suffering and an anthropomorphic God and ‘Satan’ figure—as well as its wide range of possible readings—it is readily fashioned into a prooftext for one’s theological claims whenever national tragedies, violence, or events of mass suffering occur.
Piper’s sermon topic was no coincidence for the events of 1985. The mid-80s in the United States included anxiety over global politics, the concluding years of the Cold War, political transformation during the Regan Administration, and the height of the AIDS crisis. In regards to the AIDS crisis, Piper’s sermon was delivered as Christian denominations grew in influence and first acknowledged the condition and its extent. In its early years as a predominately homosexual issue, the crisis was framed by Christians in primarily moral terms rather than clinical terms. This time between the discovery of AIDS and the early 1990s (closely coinciding with Magic Johnson’s public announcement of his HIV-positive status) led to questions of suffering, morality, and God’s omnipotence at the forefront of public and religious consciousness.
My own experience as a cisgendered, white, and gay man is shaped in particular ways from the legacy of the AIDS crisis, evangelical movements like Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, and the cultural gravity of these events. Growing up in suburban/rural Missouri—a longstanding bastion of Bible-belt conservatives—I have a unique perspective in these movements as well as the Book of Job. At a funeral for a family member who died of chronic, debilitating cancer, the pastor of the congregation preached on Job. When the questions of suffering and God’s morality were at the forefront of our minds, the pastor chose Job after readily fashioning it for the occasion. “God only disciplines those he loves,” the man proclaimed. “This was all part of God’s perfect plan for the deceased.” Yet in my own foolish obstinance, I believe the Scriptures bear witness to Christ Jesus and God’s mission on earth: proclamation of God’s love, liberation of the oppressed, the forgiveness of sins, the restoration of creation, and abundant life for all people. Even in the Book of Job, there is Good News to be proclaimed. The Scriptures and the Book of Job are a gift for all of God’s people and bring liberation, freedom, resurrection, and hope whenever truly proclaimed.
The Book of Job is a text that has informed modern cultural and religious notions of suffering, omnipotence, and moral citizenship as evidenced through the AIDS crisis in the late twentieth-century United States. And with a hermeneutic of abundance and liberation in mind, I intend to trouble conservative and fundamentalist readings of Job, particularly anti-queer readings that are found throughout the legacy of the AIDS crisis in the United States. Afterwards, I will offer guidance for a constructive hermeneutic of Job and theology of suffering through the insights of disability studies and historical events during the AIDS crisis.
Analysis of Fundamentalist Readings
“If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away,
and do not let wickedness reside in your tents.
Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish;
you will be secure, and will not fear.
You will forget your misery;”
Job 11:14-16a
Zophar insists in God’s righteous judgement. For Zophar’s theology—perhaps his “good theology” in Piper’s words—does not place Job at the center of the moral universe, but God. And so, Zophar instructs Job to “put [iniquity] far away” (v.14a), for if Job is blameless then the universe will surely re-orient in his favor. As C. L. Seow summarizes Zophar’s words, “Job’s theology is too subjective, personal, and anthropocentric. … There is no mistake. There has been no divine injustice.”[iii] In many ways, Zophar attempts to act as a truth-teller. In his monologue, he confronts Job in ways that Bildad and Eliphaz did not. He declares that Job and humankind is not as innocent as Job claims. It is Job’s own actions that warrant divine justice; who is Zophar to limit the Almighty? For God is just and omnipotent; an appeal is purely impossible.[iv]
Fundamentalist readings of Job—and perceptions of suffering and omnipotence—seize on this “good theology.” And yet, as Piper himself states, “good theology” is often synonymous with destructive theology. In many ways, theology and Biblical interpretations that cannot question God cannot question the order of reality. Unknowable mysteries cannot reimagine earth unto the Kingdom of God, let alone act upon it. Because the Book of Job offers little answers within its text, Zophar and Job’s friends offer the only concrete explanations to Job’s suffering. It is not surprising, then, that readings of Job and of human suffering often compress into moral prescriptions which mirror Zophar’s own theology.
As the conversation about AIDS transformed from a rare “gay cancer” into a public health crisis in the 1980s, conservative Christian responses flattened into a framework with two general propositions. First, suffering is a tool or means for repentance and moral justice. Regan-advisor Gary Bauer demonstrated this proposition by requiring that federal AIDS education, “encourage responsible sexual behavior — based on fidelity, commitment, and maturity, placing sexuality within the context of marriage.”[v] Said another way, this proposition says, “Don’t do ‘X’ if you don’t want ‘Y’ to happen.” The second proposition relates to omnipotence; The conservative hermeneutic of suffering—like Zophar’s—meant a total, unwavering confidence in the sovereignty and wisdom of God. Ruth Graham, most known for her work alongside Billy Graham, illustrated this proposition by saying, “If God doesn’t judge America, he’ll owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” Said explicitly: if suffering is God’s means for moral justice, then there is no religious calling to alleviate that suffering for the guilty. In foreshadowing the most vocal pro-life advocates, C. Everett Koop—the Surgeon General under President Regan—stated, “A large number of truly innocent people are being infected … I’m afraid we must also count the babies born to I.V. drug users or otherwise infected mothers. They are the most innocent victims of all.”[vi] Alleviate suffering, but first alleviate the ‘innocent.’ As to the guilty, “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” (Job 11:6c, NRSV)
Constructing a New Reading
Two of the earliest Christian AIDS activists, Earl Shelp and Ronald Sunderland, approached the crisis from a pastoral perspective. In 1985, they published an essay in the Christian Century entitled AIDS and the Church that wrote, “[T]he personal tragedies and social failures associated with the disease appear to have been largely ignored by the church— except for those strident segments that view AIDS as God's retribution on a sinful people.”[vii] To remedy this, the pair of Southern Baptists published AIDS: Personal Stories in Pastoral Perspective in 1986 which included personal stories and pastoral care examples for those living with AIDS. As Audrey Lorde writes in her essay, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, that it is fear that creates silence. Silence results in invisibility and perpetuates violence. Lorde’s prescription for silence and the resulting suffering is speaking out and voicing oneself. Lorde’s words are more than a pithy suggestion or abstraction; they entangle the lived experience.[viii] Shelp and Sunderland amplified the voices of gays and lesbians throughout the AIDS crisis. This is what will build a constructive theology of suffering and omnipotence as well as a constructive hermeneutic of Job.
Though conservative Christians’ responses to the AIDS crisis were voiced in markedly moral language, it is unmistakeable that the crisis went beyond purely cultural or religious realms. Prior to the development of clinical treatment and effective medicines, HIV/AIDS was not a chronic and manageable condition. AIDS was a death sentence in most circumstances. Disability studies articulate this physical dimension in the theology of suffering and omnipotence. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson describes the category of “disability” as a social ordering wherein physical traits are assigned varying “privilege, status, and power.”[ix] Contracting AIDS is not an isolated event, but an event that impacts one’s social standing and moral citizenship. Alongside physical ailment, people who contracted AIDS had moral insufficiency imparted upon them by conservative Christians and to some extent society at large. As Surgeon General Koop stated in his address to the Union of the American Hebrew Congregations in 1987, “90 percent of the people who have the disease of AIDS contracted it because they did things that most people believe ought not to be done: they either recklessly engaged in sodomy or they swapped dirty needles while shooting dangerous drugs.”[x]
With disability leading to loss of social privilege, status, and power, the act of protest is one of the most valuable acts of recourse available. In Job and in events like the AIDS crisis, protest becomes an act of silence-breaking and liberation from social denouncement. Sarah J. Melcher argues in a disability commentary on Job that the text, “does not offer reassurance that God is just. … The Biblical text does not mention any physical healing for Job.”[xi] Though perhaps an omission at first glance, it is an important one. AIDS and queer activists in the 80s made sure that their acts of silence-breaking went beyond representation in public discourse. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence—a protest organization in San Francisco—demonstrate this in their education and activism efforts. Their efforts like the educational pamphlet Play Fair! rejected moralistic exhortations for abstinence, celibacy, and castigation of the gay community and instead advocated for sex-positive approaches. The goal was not total eradication, but rather “an ethics of responsibility that followed from queer sex itself.”[xii] Gay and lesbian activists—joined by several mainline Christian denominations and a smattering of evangelicals—rejected exclusionary moral language and instead voiced a call for mutual responsibility that included using condoms, comprehensive sex education, open discussion with sexual partners, and access to public health resources. In this way, early AIDS activists joined Job in protesting unjust suffering and public condemnation. In one such example, Reverend Carl Bean founded an AIDS ministry in 1985 for the minority gay and lesbian community in Los Angeles. Rev. Bean was one of the earliest crusaders in the black church tradition who organized during the AIDS crisis. He recounted, “If I didn’t spread my knowledge then I was the silence that would spell death for others.”[xiii] A theology of protest complements any constructive theology of suffering or omnipotence. Survival necessitates those who suffer to raise their voice and tongue and for their community to listen.
A constructive hermeneutic of Job points to lived experiences of the suffering. As evidenced by conservative Christians’ shouts of a “gay plague” that was sent by God, removing lived experience from a Biblical hermeneutic can quickly turn sour. Surgeon General Koop—despite his conservative and evangelical leanings—may have offered guidance for a constructive reading. “[Koop] professed two central obligations that he possessed as a Christian and a physician: to save lives and to alleviate suffering.”[xiv] While conservatives and organizations like the Moral Majority believed that teaching moral living would save lives and alleviate suffering, Koop and many AIDS activists began from the opposite end. For both Koop and activists, saving lives and alleviating suffering overlapped with moral living. Assumably, Koop believed this was abstinence, monogamous relationships, and domestication of homosexuals; for gay and lesbian activists, this moral living was mutual responsibility, compassion for one another, respect for one’s sexual partner, and informed consent. The legacy of conservative Christians during the AIDS crisis is not characterized by healing, compassion, or effective responses. Those responders whose legacies are recorded as life-giving, humanizing, and successful practitioners all share their commitment to the lived experiences of those they serve. This is why lived experience must predicate a constructive reading.
The AIDS crisis in the late twentieth century illustrates the impact and significance of the Book of Job, particularly in regards to religious and cultural notions of suffering, omnipotence, and moral citizenship. The history of AIDS in the United States is diverse and varied in its telling; religious history and its subsequent cultural expression is by no means comprehensive, authoritative, or definitive in recounting the events. Additionally, accounts of the crisis continue to be told from predominantly cis-het perspectives and are consistently evaluated in anglocentric ways. This is no exception. Yet the significance of the Biblical text cannot be underestimated in twentieth-century America. Queer-positive hermeneutics of the Biblical text must likewise consider the range of cultural influence, interpretations of the majority, and historical events that shape modern understanding. As a gay man, my own story has been shaped in dramatic ways by the AIDS crisis, theologies of suffering, and notions of God’s omnipotence. Conversion therapy in the United States continues to incorporate the same interpretive frameworks and moral assumptions that fueled conservative Christian responses to AIDS. It is crucial for pastoral caregivers and practitioners to understand the variety of religious and cultural responses to the AIDS crisis in the United States. Because of its close proximity to the current day, conversations about queer affirmation and celebration in Christian denominations must include discussion of these events. While the nation has changed in dramatic ways, the AIDS crisis has yet to be fully resolved. And as pastors and ministers continue to grapple with traditional conceptions of theodicy and suffering, these conceptions must be brought into conversation with the voices of those who are suffering. When those who suffer can truly speak and voice their protests, it may reveal a truly “good theology.”
[i] Piper, John. “Job: Wrestling With Suffering.” Desiring God. Accessed 23 December 2019. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/job-wrestling-with-suffering
[ii] “Moral citizenship” refers to one’s status in cultural, religious, and political conceptions of nationality. It includes ideas of one’s inclusion and prerogative in determining national identity as it relates to moral, sexual, and cultural norms. See Petro 6-9.
[iii] Seow, C. L. 2013. Job 1-21: Interpretation and Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. 602.
[iv] Kravitz, Leonard S. and Kerry M. Olitzky. 2017. The Book of Job: A Modern Translation and Commentary. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. 67.
[v] Petro, Anthony Michael. 2015. After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 74
[vi] Petro 84
[vii] Shelp, Earl E. and Ronald H. Sunderland. 1985. "AIDS and the Church." The Christian Century 102: 797.
[viii] Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press.
[ix] Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability In American Culture and Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. 6.
[x] Koop, Charles Everett. “59th General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.” 59th General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. November 2, 1987. https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/qq/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101584930X617-doc.
[xi] Melcher, Sarah J., Mikeal C. Parsons, and Amos Yong. 2017. The Bible and Disability: A Commentary. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press. 183
[xii] Petro 89-90
[xiii] Petro 36
[xiv] Petro 80