Evangelicals, AIDS, and the Presidential Race

Joseph Loconte

Megachurch pastor Rick Warren will deliver questions about faith, values, and human rights at a forum this month with presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain. Given the vapid media treatment of the presidential campaign so far, Mr. Warren’s event could raise the political profile of issues such as Sudan and global AIDS, issues that he and his evangelical congregation care about deeply. Yet it runs the risk of inviting political pandering and blurring the real ideological divisions between the candidates.

The August 16 event at the 22,000-member Saddleback Church in southern California will offer separate interviews with each of the candidates, who will appear only briefly on stage together. Mr. Warren says he won’t be probing them on hot button cultural issues such as abortion or gay rights. Instead, he plans to ask about poverty, climate change, human rights, and HIV/AIDS. “I couldn’t care less about politics, the culture wars,” he told The New York Times earlier this year. “My only interest is to get people to care about Darfurs and Rwandas.”

There is certainly something refreshing about an evangelical leader who seeks to mobilize the Christian church on issues that should shock the conscience of any believer—from the scourge of sexual trafficking to the specter of ethnic cleansing. The challenge, of course, is that these problems demand political, as well as civic, solutions. Unlike many liberal church leaders, Mr. Warren rightly emphasizes the moral and spiritual resources of the local church. Believers motivated by the love of Christ understand that Christian “compassion” cannot ignore the spiritual dimension to peoples’ lives. Nevertheless, an indifference to politics means an indifference to effective and humane public policy—the absence of which helps create and aggravate these problems in the first place.

Take the issue of global AIDS. Both candidates are likely to endorse the remarkable $30 billion commitment by the Bush Administration to fighting HIV/AIDS. Yet both will face obstacles in their own parties. Senator McCain must overcome Republican reluctance to commit scarce American resources to what many consider a rat hole of corrupt African regimes. Senator Obama faces a more daunting task. His Democratic base flatly rejects the medical and moral principles that have dramatically reduced HIV rates in countries such as Uganda, with its cultural emphasis on marital fidelity and delayed sexual activity. The use of condoms also has played a role, but, according to reports from Harvard University and the United Nations, it has been a relatively minor one.

Following the Uganda model, the president’s AIDS initiative has devoted significant resources not only to treatment but also to prevention. Many of the groups receiving U.S. funding to fight HIV/AIDS are determined to help people at risk—such as prostitutes and drug users—abandon sexually destructive lifestyles. The uncomfortable fact is that the president’s AIDS initiative has involved a fierce political fight over policy—one that liberal Democratic leaders have resisted and demonized every step of the way.

At the heart of the debate, it seems, are different views of the human person and his responsibilities in community with others. What, exactly, are Senator McCain’s and Senator Obama’s views on these matters—and how will their views shape their policies?

Mr. Warren may not be inclined to ask those questions, but it would be immensely useful if he did. His church has mobilized tens of thousands of evangelicals, locally and globally, to become engaged on the issue of HIV/AIDS, a feat that few would have imagined possible a decade ago. Such efforts, along with those of numerous other faith-based organizations, have helped make the Bush AIDS initiative possible. But its success has been hard fought. Maintaining this effort—a commitment to a compassionate and effective AIDS policy—could prove more difficult than walking on water.  

Joe Loconte is a senior fellow at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy and a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum.

Columns, Joseph Loconte, Character and Ethics, Leadership, Wed 06 Aug 2008