Think Bigg

I just spent the past 12 hours attending the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS at the Saddleback Church campus in Lake Forest, California.

Only halfway through the conference, and without the benefit of more than a sixty minute stretch to digest what has been a deluge of information about the disease, its effects, its victims, its transmission and its prevention, I thought I’d pass along some initial thoughts.

For any who read this who are not part of the faith community, I hope you’ll indulge the blatently personal nature of this post. It was just that kind of day.

First, it’s perhaps the expected response after attending a seminar like this one, but I left the building this evening with one overwhelming thought: that our country, our society, our churches are not doing nearly enough to stop the rampage of this pandemic. I have not done nearly enough.

Dr. Robert Redfield, University of Maryland professor and the co-founder of the Institute for Human Virology, made a powerful statement when he told us that HIV is not an easy disease to contract. There are essentially only three reasons why anyone on this planet has HIV/AIDS — sexual transmission, intravenous drug use or mother-child transmission. With just three known causes that are so easily preventable, why are there so many people on this planet dead or dying because of it? Why do they leave behind so many innocent and unprotected children? Why do we not do more to stop this from happening?

Second, it is a horrible irony that this disease that has done so much to tear apart families, that leaves behind greiving, desperate and perhaps also infected loved ones, that this disease is often contracted in the most intimate and sacred relationships we as human beings know. In relationships between husbands and wives. Between mothers and children. And maybe for this reason it seems especially cruel.

Third, as Dr. Edward Green, a Harvard University anthropologist and AIDS prevention authority, reminded us, people contract this virus because they engage in high risk behaviors. But who will best empower individuals with the tools to change those behaviors? Business groups will not likely change people’s behavior patterns. Governments will not likely change people’s behavior patterns. But faith-based organizations are uniquely positioned to realign the moral compass that guides people’s behavior choices. If churches do not step up to address this crisis, the third prong of the three-legged stool — business, government, and church — will have failed of its essential purpose.

Finally, I am reminded and convicted the Church is Us. That Christians cannot call themselves Christians without truly modeling the love Christ showed to the poor and the needy, to the sick and the dying, to the widow and the orphan. You cannot read through the gospels without being confronted on every page with Jesus’ care and concern for “the least of these.” You cannot say you know the God of Love without loving your neighbor. Who is my neighbor? When Jesus was asked this question, He told the story of the Good Samaritan.

My prayer today was simply this: Dear God, please break the heart of your church until compassion flows from every wounded pore. The world is so desperate for it.

I look forward to see what tomorrow’s sessions hold!

Share This