Love Is Greater Than AIDS: A Memoir of Survival, Healing, and Hope (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781538186572)

The Rev. Dr. A. Stephen Pieters (1952-2023) was a long-term survivor of AIDS. Diagnosed with Gay-Related Immune Deficiency in 1982, and AIDS/Kaposi's Sarcoma and stage four Lymphoma in 1984, he was told he would not survive to see 1985. His remarkable story of full recovery serves as an inspiring example of healing and hope. Best known for his 1985 interview with Tammy Faye Bakker on Tammy's House Party, he is featured in the 2000 documentary, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and he is portrayed in the 2021 feature film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The grandson of two of the first missionaries to Korea, Rev. Pieters received his Bachelor of Science in Speech from Northwestern University in 1974. He attended McCormick Theological Seminary, the same seminary as his missionary grandfather, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree in 1979. Ordained by the Metropolitan Community Churches, a primarily LGBT denomination, he served as their Field Director of AIDS Ministry during the worst years of the AIDS crisis. He received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from Samaritan College in 1989, and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University in 2003. He sang in the Los Angeles Gay Men's Chorus for many years. His artifacts and papers from his AIDS ministry is part of the LGBT collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.