The American anthropologist, Frederick Klaits, offers an empathic and morally sensitive account of an African Christian ‘Spirit’ Church in Gabarone, Botswana, in the late 1990s when the AIDS epidemic was at its peak. Few people were willing to be tested for HIV since a positive result was generally a death sentence made worse by the assumption of promiscuity. In 2003 half of all women in Botswana aged between twenty-five and twenty-nine were estimated to be HIV positive. The incidence began to decline once anti-retroviral treatment was made free in 2002, yet the reluctance to be tested persisted, especially among men. As Klaits shows, the medical discourse about AIDS and the campaign to encourage preventative habits encountered indigenous discourses about what causes fatal illness, particularly what counts as dangerous sexual activity, which among the Botswana mainly involves sexual contact with people whose blood is ‘hot’ or ‘dirty’, for example, after childbirth or during mourning. Using a condom is a mark of ‘promiscuous’ relationships without trust or commitment. Extreme social inequalities mean that disease is prevalent among the poor, and multiple sexual relationships are a survival strategy, especially for poor women on the margins of the wage economy. Informal unions are chronically unstable and official marriages mostly take place once several children have been born and the man has built a home in his parents’ village. Klaits explores the distinctive discourse and practices of the Baitshepi Church founded by its bishop, MmaMaipelo. What distinguishes the response of the Baitshepi Church to AIDS is God's urgent command for people to trust, love and take care of each other. The Church encourages faithfulness and promotes marriage, but its moral discourse lays little emphasis on sin and tends to avoid any implication of ‘promiscuity’ in relation to the sick and dying among its congregation. MmaMaipelo teaches that the voice is the manifestation of the spirit, and the worship of the Church uses the voices of the members to put into healing and comforting words the love of the members for each other through hymns and prayers. Love and care are also expressed in practical ways such as feeding, bathing and housing: the latter includes burying, and the Church runs an important burial club to ensure that no member is unable to afford a decent funeral, which is expensive. The Church's mission is to give spiritual strength to the kin and friends of the sick and dying so they can shoulder the burden of care by banishing ‘jealousy’, a term which seems to cover resentment, self-righteousness, conflict and condemnation of others. The Church opposes traditional divination and encourages members to use clinics and modern medicine, though it also preaches that only God can heal.