Rick Warren: Church needs to play vital role in dealing with AIDS
TORONTO (W.) Aug. 15, 2006 -- Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life" and pastor of the megachurch Saddleback Church in California, says when it comes to battling AIDS and HIV, most prevention efforts focus on slowing its spread, not stopping it.
Warren said those tactics are easier and more popular, including supplying condoms, encouraging limited sexual partners, offering needle exchange and advocating delaying the initial sexual experience.
"Those efforts will slow down the pandemic, but not stop it," he said. "The solution to eliminating the threat of HIV/AIDS is not education, it is transformation. That involves saving sex for marriage, training men to respect women, offering treatment through churches and encouraging individuals to pledge themselves to one partner."
Warren said the church must play a vital role in the global response to AIDS and HIV. Warren and his wife Kay challenged ecumenical Christian leaders from around the world to recognize the unique resources they bring to this struggle at the Ecumenical and Interfaith Pre-Conferences being held over the weekend in advance of the XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006), August 13-18 in Toronto.
"We are here at these conferences to say to fellow Christians that we believe the church needs to take the lead in the greatest health concern on the planet," said Warren. "We also want to make a statement to the watching world about how much is already being done by churches around the globe to bring hope where many feel hopeless."
More than 500 participants representing numerous Christian denominations and traditions came together for the two-day pre-conference, followed by a one-day interfaith gathering before the bi-annual International AIDS Conference this week.
Warren told delegates it is imperative to define their purpose in working towards prevention before the solution can be determined.
"Is your goal to merely reduce or to resolve this issue; do you want to decrease or to destroy this pandemic; do you want to just slow it down or stop it altogether?" he asked. "Each requires a different strategy, which can't be addressed until you know the answer to that question."
"I believe that faith, ethics and morals play an important role in the fight against HIV/AIDS," Warren added. "I am not a scientist, a medical professional or activist. I am a pastor, whose motives are different. I love people, and I have a Savior named Jesus who said, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Warren stressed that it is not a sin to be sick.
"We need to move from asking, 'How did you get HIV?' to 'How can I help?'" he said. "This is the greatest opportunity for the church to be the church and meet hurting, suffering people at their point of need."
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