There was on the teaching staff at Emory Divinity School a psychologist by the name of Dr. Charles Gerkin. He was quite renowned within his field, having written several books. All students were required to take a course under Dr. Gerkin which amounted to small group psychotherapy. Dr. Gerkin taught his students: No minister will ever get close to a person who he is unwilling to physically touch. If you are not willing to touch a homeless person, or an alcoholic, or a terribly dirty person, you physiologically are unwilling to minister to them.
Larry Daniel, a student of Dr. Gerkin and now minister of First United Methodist Church in Murray Kentucky, said “this teaching came home to me when I had my first church member with full-blown aids back in 1988. I have had one other since then. He was in Methodist Hospital in Memphis and in rather a bad way. I was told by the nurse at the desk that I should put on rubber gloves to go into his room. Are these necessary? I asked. The nurse replied: I work with AIDS patients all day long and I would not think of going into a patient’s room without wearing gloves. Well, I thought, she is the expert not me, so I put on this latex pair of gloves.
“When I entered his room he immediately extended his hand, and when I reciprocated that glove was very obvious. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I apologized for it. When I went home that day I reflected upon the words of Dr. Gerkin: you will never draw close to a person who you are unwilling to physically touch. In future trips to the hospital, therefore, the gloves came off. I simply felt that I could not be Christ’s representative in that situation unless there was direct touch contact.”
SermonIllustrations.com, February, 2000.