March 4, 2002
Graham convenes summit on AIDS
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--Evangelical Christians have not done enough to help people with HIV/AIDS, according to evangelist Franklin Graham. And it's time for them to drop any social and religious stigmas they have attached to the disease and contribute more time and money to helping infected people, he said.
___"Many people have seen this as a homosexual problem, or it's an intravenous drug users' problem, or it's a prostitutes' problem," Graham said. "It affects all of us. Forty million people are infected. We need a new army of men and women who are prepared to go around the world to help fight this battle."
___Graham convened a three-day "Prescription for Hope" summit in Washington in late February that was part Christian theology lesson, part AIDS education program and part pep rally for social ministry.
___About 900 people from 87 countries attended the conference, with African AIDS workers mingling with Canadian clergy in a sprawling downtown hotel. Workshop topics ranged from African marital relations to the church's responsibility for helping patients with a disease some Christians see as punishment for immorality.
___Graham, along with nearly every other speaker, repeated the theme that Christians should think less about how someone got infected and more about how to help.
___Involving evangelicals will be an uphill battle, Graham admitted. A recent poll by the Barna Research Group found only 3 percent of evangelical Christians in the United States said they plan to help with HIV\AIDS.
___Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, pointed to Roy and Avis Rideout as examples of Christian compassion in action. The couple operate Agape Home For Babies and Children with HIV/AIDS in Thailand. They attended the conference with their HIV-positive adopted Thai daughter, Nikki.
___The Rideouts have taken in 146 infected children since opening Agape Home.
___Graham's Samaritan's Purse organization pledged at the conference to help build a "City of Hope" in Kenya.
___ The project, envisioned by Catholic priest and AIDS worker Angelo D'Agostino, plans to build villages in Africa to house orphans and the elderly affected by AIDS.
___D'Agostino said AIDS is eliminating Kenya's "middle generation" of parents, leaving countless orphaned children and many helpless elderly who watch as their children, and their adult caretakers, die off.
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