Cancer education takes on a spiritual focus for the African American faith community.
BACKGROUND
The faith community, specifically African American (AA) churches, has been a partner in the delivery of health educational messages for the past two decades.


METHODS
This article goes beyond the physical setting of the church to describe how and why spirituality is a particularly effective and essential component of one breast and cervical cancer education program, The Witness Project. Examining the theoretical and methodological foundations of this program demonstrates that the content as well as the messengers are strategically positioned within the AA faith community.


CONCLUSIONS
This program is an example of cancer education's finding a culturally sanctioned method to become a part of a different kind of "ministry" within the AA faith community on a national level.
Erwin
Deborah O
DO
Arkansas Cancer Research Center, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock 72205, USA. erwindeboraho@uams.edu
D001741:Black or African American / Q000193:education*; D001131:Arkansas; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012067:Religion