To Preach About Healing When You Know You're Going to Die

"He pursued it in his strained and broken family relationships and he preached about it from the pulpit. Though he knew, without a doubt, that he would die from AIDS, Ron claimed that he believed in and had experienced healing. What does healing mean when everybody knows it can't mean survival? Maybe healing is one's biological family and queer kin showing up and reaching for connection across those fractures."

"When We All Get to Heaven is produced by Eureka Street Productions. It is co-created by Lynne Gerber, Siri Colom, and Ariana Nedelman. Our story editor is Sayre Quevedo. Our sound designer is David Herman. Our managing producer is Krissy Clark. Tim Dillinger is our consulting producer and Betsy Towner Levine is our fact-checker. We had additional story editing help from Sarah Ventre, Arwen Nicks, Allison Behringer, and Krissy Clark."

Rev. Ron Russell Coons received an AIDS diagnosis and contemplated what healing meant when death was certain. He pursued healing within strained and broken family relationships and preached about healing from his pulpit. He knew without doubt that AIDS would cause his death yet asserted that he believed in and had experienced healing. Healing in this context becomes relational: biological family and queer kin showing up and reaching for connection across fractures. The search for healing centered on reconciliation, presence, and the creation of meaningful kinship before death. The narrative highlights communal support and transformed understandings of healing apart from physical survival.

Read at Slate Magazine