The matter-of-fact display on prostitution was startling enough. Then, a large remote-controlled condom floated above the conference hall.
Kay Warren, wife of pastor Rick Warren, wondered, “What had I gotten myself into?”
It was her first International AIDS Conference, in 2004 in Thailand. Just two years earlier, an article on how HIV was devastating African families led Kay Warren to take up the cause when very few conservative Christian leaders were doing so. She chronicles her journey into activism in her new book “Dangerous Surrender,” which is a plea for Bible-believers to join the fight.
“I think there are some people who won't get past the first few chapters. It's not a light read,” said Warren, whose husband wrote the multimillion-selling “The Purpose Driven Life.”
It was only a few years ago that evangelicals began tentatively putting their energies into combatting the infection. Some conservative Christians considered the illness a punishment from God – for same-gender sex, prostitution and drug use. AIDS activism also inevitably meant working with gay leaders whom evangelicals had been battling over same-sex marriage.
As recently as last year, the Barna Group, which specializes in researching the views of conservative Christians, conducted a survey in which two out of five born-again Christians said they had more sympathy for people with cancer than for those with HIV/AIDS.
That attitude has been changing. International Christian relief groups such as World Vision have been bringing U.S. pastors to visit AIDS-ravaged communities in Africa.
Three years ago, Kay and Rick Warren began organizing the annual Global Summit on AIDS & the Church at Saddleback Church, the megacongregation they started in Lake Forest. Bill and Lynne Hybels of the Willow Creek Association of megachurches are offering an annual Courageous Leadership Award to churches with the best programs to combat the disease.
A common fear is that supporting people with HIV condones sinful behavior. Kay Warren tells them, “It's not a sin to be sick.”
In her book, Warren describes her travels to Mozambique, Cambodia and elsewhere, meeting AIDS orphans and women who got HIV from unfaithful husbands, and learning of the vulnerability of child prostitutes.
“If people are infected, they need to be embraced and valued and receive the love of relationship in the church,” Warren said in an interview.
A small number of detractors have also focused on the Warrens' willingness to invite abortion rights supporters – Sen. Barack Obama last year and Sen. Hillary Clinton this year – to participate in the AIDS summit. The Warrens, who avoid partisan politics, had invited every presidential candidate.
Not everyone welcomes the support of conservative Christians. Gay activists, who for years waged a lonely, difficult struggle to help the HIV-infected, have been suspicious. Many wonder whether Bible-believers are “coming in looking for Christian scalps,” Haas said.
Warren writes that she understands the concern. But she said she is slowly building relationships with gay-led AIDS organizations. Haas said pastors who travel overseas with World Vision often return and start HIV/AIDS ministries in their own neighborhoods.
“I think we had to earn our stripes,” Warren said. “Some immediately embrace us. Others wonder if this is the cause of the month. Others are fearful and suspect we have hidden agendas.”
