Exciting news on Yahoo today about how Saddleback Community Church, a large non-denominational church in California, is starting a huge AIDS awareness and ministry program. I think this is fantastic.
AIDS is a horrible disease that we must strive to find a cure for. We need to pray that God would help us end this horrific disease. Most of the people who suffer from it are poor women and children in Africa. It is not only a "gay" disease. For too long, many of us conservative Christians have ignored minstering to people with this disease, and have not sought to do what we could to educate people about it, lobby congress for money to find a cure for it, and more. We cannot be Christians and ignore this disgusting disease and those who suffer from it. If we purport to care about the sick and diseased in the name of Jesus, then we should do all we can to help those people - even if they have a disease like AIDS, which we, rightly or wrongly, associate entirely with sexual deviancy.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us not only to speak prophetically, but to act prophetically. Here is an example of what I mean from the world of abortion: don't be pro-life, and then do nothing to support your local crisis pregnancy center with financial and other gifts. Don't be a pro-life guy, but then refuse to date a single mother because she has too much "baggage". Don't be pro-life, and then sleep around or have sexual relations outside of marriage. Yes, the Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us not only to speak prophetically, but to act prophetically.
