Mainline religious congregations of all faiths demonstrate "a reluctance to address a wide range of issues around sexuality," says Steve Ellingson, a research associate with the National Opinion Research Center who was recently appointed the Park Ridge Center's Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology, Religion, and Health Care. Ellingson teaches sociology at the University of Chicago. And yes, he says, congregations do face divisive battles on controversial topics like AIDS, homosexuality, and abortion, "but there is a big silence about normal sex. You don't talk about it." In fact, some studies have found that mainline denominations tend to see sexuality and reproduction as private matters, rather than issues of direct concern to the church.

Now a new study conducted by a University of Chicago team that includes Ellingson has uncovered some data that modify earlier findings about how congregations deal with sex. Between 1994 and 1997, the University of Chicago team carried out a study of high-risk sexual behavior in four greater Chicago communities: Mexican/ Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, African-American, and White middle-class/gay and lesbian. In these communities, congregations demonstrated a greater willingness to address the sexual behavior of their members.

The Chicago Health and Social Life Survey (CHSLS) gathered extensive information about sex partners, how and where people meet, and the nature of risky behaviors they engage in. The study also gathered information about how religion, health care, law, and social services respond to sexual practice in the four communities.

The CHSLS research team had expected healthcare organizations to rely on a "medical model" and religious organizations to draw upon a "moral model" to define the causes of sexual problems and devise treatments, according to Ellingson.

"We did find these two models operating in many of the organizations we studied, but in more sensitive and elaborate ways than expected," says Ellingson, one of the authors of a monograph being prepared on the CHSLS.

Among the religious congregations in the study, the survey uncovered a sensitivity to family, gender, and sexuality issues facing neighborhood residents. Congregational leaders reported on ways they integrated this knowledge into institutional programs about sexuality.

For instance, in the African-American neighborhood Southtown,^* clergy from both liberal and conservative churches place young people in mentoring relationships with adult role models who guide them toward a mature understanding of sexuality consistent with their faith tradition. Several Roman Catholic leaders in L-Side, a Mexican neighborhood, emphasize the centrality of the family in devising sex education programs, resolving domestic violence, and addressing unplanned pregnancies.

Not surprisingly, few of the study's informants have programs that bring faith and health together. Many healthcare professionals voiced concerns about taking a judgmental or overtly moral stance on sexuality and instead emphasize pragmatism and a value-free approach. An outreach worker in Erlinda, the Puerto Rican neighborhood, says, "We preach that...regardless of the kind of sex an individual practices, the basic message is to wear a condom."

Some healthcare organizations that serve Latino communities do try to be sensitive to their clients' religious beliefs. One hopes to place a health educator in each L-Side congregation. Others report their willingness to work with Roman Catholic churches in their neighborhoods to bring about improved sexual health. "Within the domain of health care, many of our informants discussed the more holistic approaches they were developing," says Ellingson, who emphasized that "the survey of institutional actors was not representative, and therefore may not include information on programs from the full range of service providers within the greater Chicago area." Nevertheless, respondents were able to talk about trends in their neighborhoods.

In the Mexican L-Side neighborhood, one clinic director told the team, "We don't just look at the physical symptoms of our patients. We try to consider the community and environment from which our clients come."

Peer counseling and peer-led sex education programs are used at many clinics in the city. In Erlinda, one clinic uses what it calls an "indigenous outreach model" to pass along HIV/AIDS prevention information. The clinic trains leaders from different communities in Chicago to educate people about HIV/AIDS and safe sex using the language of the community.

The study also revealed important information about what Ellingson calls "the problem of fatalism among the underclass," as seen through the eyes of public health officials from Cook County and Chicago. "Safe sex is irrelevant for individuals who don't expect to live long enough to suffer the consequences of AIDS," says Ellingson. One Chicago public health worker noted that when individuals can't see the future, they see sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, even death as being inevitable in their lives, and "they may not take precautions even when they understand the risks of unprotected sex." The CHSLS is an outgrowth of another study conducted by University of Chicago researchers, the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), fielded in 1992 to provide information needed by healthcare researchers, professionals, and policy makers to effectively address sexual problems in the wake of the HIV/AIDS crisis.

*All neighborhood names are pseudonym