Saddleback Hosts Conference Urging Church to Address AIDS Crisis

by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
December 2, 2005

(AgapePress) - - The "Disturbing Voices Conference," an event focusing on the Church's response to AIDS, wrapped up this week at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. The gathering brought together 52 experts from government, health, and ministry organizations to conduct general sessions and workshops providing a look at how the Church can mobilize to tackle the AIDS pandemic.

Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren has addressed five "global giants" he believes the Church should address. They include spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, illiteracy, and pandemic illness. The "Disturbing Voices Conference" -- which concluded, significantly, on World AIDS Day (December 1) -- was an attempt to inspire and equip Christians to take on one of the most deadly of these "Goliaths" of worldwide concern.

A "tag-team" lineup of pastors used the acrostic C.H.U.R.C.H. to outline a proposed response to the AIDS pandemic: The letters stand for Care and comfort the sick; Help test and counsel; Unleash a worldwide volunteer force; Remove the stigma; Championing healthy behavior; and Hand out medicine and nutrition.

Joining the hosts and organizer of the conference were three other clergymen who have been at the forefront of the battle against the global AIDS crisis. These were Bishop Charles Blake, pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles, California; Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, and founder of Windsor AIDS Ministries; and Rev. Francis Karamera of the Anglican Diocese of Kigali, Rwanda.

Among the other "Disturbing Voices" speakers was Dr. Edward Green, a research anthropologist from Harvard University. His presentation demonstrated the real progress that has been made in Africa in reducing the infection rate through the "A" and "B" of the approach known as the ABC method -- that is, programs encouraging people to Abstain, Be faithful, and use Condoms.

Rev. Martin Ssempa told the conference audience about how he and his wife have worked over the past five years to change the culture of a local college campus from one that applauded promiscuity among students to one where students offer one another mutual accountability for their actions. Ssempa went on to describe what he believes are three elements needed to implement a successful AIDS ministry: being prophetic by translating the data of statistics to people; being practical by creating effective activities and programs, and being progressive in changing communities.

Also, Gary Haugen, president of the International Justice Mission, brought up a much-neglected aspect of the AIDS prevention discussion; namely, the fact that not everyone in many African societies has the ability to make choices about sexual behavior. Haugen noted that current virus prevention and protection methods do not take sexual violence into account or address the fact that "Women and girls don't get to make decisions about their sexual activity when they are victims of crime and abuse."

Christian Conference Organizer Calls for Compassionate AIDS Outreach
Kay Warren, wife of Pastor Rick Warren and organizer of the three-day "Disturbing Voices Conference," says the Body of Christ must respond with urgency and compassion to the global AIDS crisis, with each congregation doing its part. "It is just each church being responsible for its 'Jerusalem,'" she notes, "each church recognizing that Christ has given them the mandate to go into their own 'Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the rest of the world.'"

Mrs. Warren says one thing that should never happen is for Christians to turn their backs on AIDS sufferers. "The church is the best positioned organization to reduce and remove the stigma of this virus," she asserts. The church can accomplish the most, she insists, "because we offer love and forgiveness. Sin hurts, and there are consequences -- but it is not a sin to be sick."

The conference sponsors' vision and hope, Mrs. Warren explains, is that, as each Christian church "begins by caring for the people in their own congregation, in their own community, in their own region, then from there ... people will connect small group to small group, local church to local church around the globe, just to bring encouragement and comfort." Thus, she contends, the church can mobilize to address both the physical and spiritual needs of AIDS victims worldwide.

The Disturbing Voices Conference's organizer believes it is time for more believers to recognize their Christian responsibility to care for the whole person, particularly in terms of demonstrating its compassion for those suffering the effects of AIDS. "Government can't do it," she says. "Governments and businesses, even the medical community, mostly care about people's bodies, and we in the evangelical church have cared about their souls, wanting them to know Jesus. But we haven't cared much for their bodies."

While evangelicals have largely focused their energies on the care of the soul, Mrs. Warren adds, "governments and the business sector concentrate on the body, and it's time for the Church to care about both." She urges pastors and other Christian leaders to join her in repenting for past apathy about AIDS and for the church's ostracism of those afflicted with the disease.

Kay Warren says she hopes the "Disturbing Voices Conference" will help churches become welcoming places that minister to the sick, and that more Christians will heed the call to repentance and ministry to those suffering as a result of the AIDS virus.

Bob Knight

Pro-Family Leader Calls for Truth and Common Sense
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has promised more money and programs to try and control the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among the general population. But one pro-family leader notes that, in the midst of all the speeches made yesterday in observance of World AIDS Day, most if not all the speakers neglected the fact that HIV/AIDS infections among one population in particular have exploded in the past year.

Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute points out that close tracking of the spread of the virus by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that the HIV/AIDS infection rate has increased to nearly double digits among homosexual and bisexual men. "Sixty-one percent of the cases among men have been homosexuals," he says, "and over half of the total HIV cases are homosexuals."

Statistics reveal that homosexual men's infection rate is 8 percent higher than that of heterosexual men. In light of this, Knight concludes, "The message hasn't gotten through to homosexuals that it's very dangerous for men to have sex with men, even when they throw condoms at the problem."