Married pastor arrested for passing HIV to women in his church

Pastor Craig Lamar Davis looks like any other healthy, happy,
heterosexual pastor with good family values.  He was once a preacher
at the Full Gospel Baptist Church in Atlanta and a pillar of
leadership in the community.  Also, like a lot of men at the front of
the church, the pastor had a thing for the ladies.

Another thing you might want to know about Davis, according to
authorities, is that the pastor is HIV positive.  He also didn't seem
to care who else became HIV positive after he slept with them.

The pastor was arrested for reckless conduct after police found that
he was sleeping with several women with whom he was not married.  A
woman by the name of Ronita McAfee says that she met the pastor on
Facebook and began sleeping with him.

Ronita says that she became concerned when one of the pastor's
ex-girlfriends called to say that she had HIV.  She claims that the
pastor then counseled her (presumably leaning on the word of the good
"lawud") and told her to get tested.   McAfee then says that she
believed that, based on her observations, the pastor himself was not
interested in getting treatment or changing his sexual behavior, in
spite of his status.  This is what prompted her to seek out a warrant
for his arrest.

Ronita is, by our best guess, the first person to file for the arrest
of someone who was found to be having unprotected sex in Clayton
County, GA while knowing that he is HIV-positive.  McAfee says that
when the investigation began, another woman in the church leadership
stepped forward with her confession about interacting with Davis.  The
woman even claimed that she'd been celibate for 15 years before
meeting him.  She too is HIV positive.

Ladies, please take a good look at this man, because the fact is that
you probably know him.  He's the nice, smooth, good-looking man that
makes you want to get naked on the third or fourth date.  You trust
him because you've been raised to believe that a man of God would
never hurt you.  In fact, he might be the man that your church has had
you waiting for because he is well-grounded in the Christian faith and
knows all the religious buzzwords ("I'm saved," "in the blood," "God's
favor," etc.).  He can easily get into your head, because he knows
that one defining characteristic of nearly every black woman in
America is her deep and unshakable commitment to the church – in fact,
the personality traits that make for a good pastor also happen to be
the same ones that make for an exceptionally gifted pimp (although not
all pastors are pimps).

As a man who's written extensively about other sad creatures like
Bishop Eddie Long (who also hails from Atlanta, aka the bible-thumping
Sodom and

First, the courage of these women to step out and publicly reveal the
pastor's deception has saved lives.  I wish there were a day where
every 30 and 40-something year old black woman who has caught HIV,
Herpes, Syphilis or some other disease would speak out about what
happened to them, so that younger women don't end up falling into the
same trap.   Countless women have died from catching something that
their man brought home to them after fulfilling his "interpersonal
needs" someplace else. Unfortunately, the relentless shame thrust upon
"the good Christian girl" with a venereal disease keeps many of these
stories from ever being told.  Also, modern feminist thought sometimes
leads women to think that it's OK to run through as many sex partners
as the very worst of men.  Many of these women end up paying a
significant price for this mentality.

Secondly, the pastor's denial of his condition and unwillingness to go
to the doctor is quite common.  Many women are accustomed to getting
regular STD screenings as part of their annual checkup.  Men are not
raised in the same way.  There are men I know who sleep with literally
dozens of women every single year and haven't been to the doctor since
MC Hammer had a hit record.  Even worse, many women don't ask and
certainly don't confirm the man's HIV status as much as they check the
size of his bank account or the magnitude of his "swag" factor.  The
fact is that if you think he's got swag, then a lot of other women do
too.

Men like Pastor Davis are allowed to prey on unsuspecting women for at
least three reasons:

1) Many women value style over substance – if you look good, then you
must be good.   I am amazed at how superficial traits are valued more
than more meaningful factors, like the content of a man's character.
Mind you, men make the same mistake, since they falsely believe that
when a pretty girl offers you sex, you're supposed to take it.

2) Many women falsely believe that men who go to church are better
than men who don't.  Bishop Eddie Long should help you to know better
than that.  Unfortunately, people consider each case of a pastor doing
dirt to be an exception to the rule, without realizing that there are
men like Davis all over the country.  Davis is not the man you need to
fear;  actually, you need to fear all the Craig Davises that you still
don't know about.

3) Many women don't ask questions and will gladly sleep with a
handsome playboy without checking and confirming his STD status.  If
he doesn't mention the other women he slept with before he came to her
house, it's as if those women don't even exist. Even worse is that the
fixation on HIV leads us to forget about how many women have had their
wombs corrupted from  all the other STDs that you can get besides HIV.
 Many people will brag about having a negative HIV test, but won't get
a full STD screening from the doctor – a researcher in Philadelphia
told me that he randomly tested 20 men in an inner city barbersh

What's the result of the aforementioned factors all coming together,
conjoined with intense denial in the black church and a commercialized
hip-hop culture where both men and women glorify female degradation
and irresponsible hyper-sexuality?  An HIV explosion like you would
not believe.  So, every time you hear about folks going from one short
relationship to the next or the man with five babies with four
different women, just remember that, while all this is happening,
viruses, germs and bacteria are being shared with every romantic
interaction.  Even worse, because the men aren't getting their reality
checks from the doctor, it's all "out of sight, out of mind" as fancy
clothes, exciting parties and bottles of Chirac cover up the epidemic
occurring behind closed doors.

Take a note from the lessons of these women and realize that another
Pastor Davis likely lives in your own community.  But also note that
the Pastor Davis-types of the world are allowed to do their dirty work
because all of us continue to empower and excuse the devilish snakes
in the pulpit.  A person can do all the evil he wants in the world,
and as long as he asks for God's forgiveness in public (providing no
further confirmation that his behavior has changed), we invite him
right back into the church and pretend like it never happened.  Just
go ask R. Kelly.

For more, kindly follow us on twitter @mycampusrocks