Rick Warren and AIDS

This post is about two weeks too late, but I thought I would write it anyway. A couple of weeks ago Rick Warren held an AIDS summit at his church in California. He invited a wide variety of guest speakers including U2 leadsinger Bono (that's for you Dr. Kelly). His most "controversial" speaker was Senator Barak Obama. Senator Obama is a Democrat who is pro-choice. He also believes in helping out the AIDS crisis. Many right-wing conservatives blasted Pastor Warren for inviting Sen. Obama to the summit. In a letter signed by 18 conservative religious leaders, including many Southern Baptists, Warren was condemned for having Obama. The letter said, "If Senator Obama cannot defend the most helpless citizens in our country, he has nothing to say about the AIDS crisis." You can read more of the letter here ABP Article.

What a statement to make! What have conservative evangelicals done for the AIDS crisis besides blame it on homosexuals (mind you I'm a conservative evangelical)? Why should we have to agree on everything to work together? I'm reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The people who were supposed to have compassion upon the robbed and beaten man did not. The Samaritan man, who was hated by the Jews in Jesus day, was the one who had compassion. It is time to put aside demonizing each other, and start working together to help solve some of the world's issues such as poverty and AIDS. I like what Pastor Warren said at his conference, "Today you have heard Compassionate Conservatism and Compassionate Liberalism. The thing they had in common was compassion." Well put Pastor Warren.