Faith-Based Organizations Meet to Discuss HIV/AIDS Response on Sidelines of AIDS 2012

On the sidelines of the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012), Georgetown University hosted a conference for faith-based organizations and leaders to come together to discuss their efforts to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Washington Post reports. Speaking at the conference, Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, "considered one of the country's leading evangelicals on fighting AIDS, said he was willing to work with anyone 'who wants to end AIDS,' but blamed the government for trying to get traditional faith workers to what he called 'change' their anti-abortion views in order to partner," according to the newspaper. "Multiple speakers agreed that Christian churches are indispensable in the AIDS fight," the newspaper notes (Boorstein, 7/25). In a separate article, the Washington Post notes that Warren's wife, Kay Warren, spoke at the conference on a panel of religious leaders from all over the globe who "discussed the evolution of faith-based organizations' thinking on AIDS and HIV since the epidemic began" (Bahrampour, 7/24).