ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents the question of whether the poetry of religion, as told in stories that recount hope renewal experiences, can shed light on the relationship between religion and political and social issues. The author discusses the religion as poetry perspective dominates his thinking about religion, whether religious stories may have an impact on stories about AIDS. AIDS, however, is a special case both because of the inevitably fatal outcome of the disease and because it is normally transmitted through sexual contact. Statistically significant correlations were found between Protestant affiliation and negative AIDS attitudes on three items: sex information, sex education, and identification tags. There are also somewhat smaller relationships between Protestant affiliation and attitudes on AIDS education. Since 1988 Americans may have become more tolerant on such matters as identity tags for AIDS victims and premarital testing. For both Catholics and Protestants tolerance increases with grace on all measures, save for attitudes toward premarital tests among Catholics.
