After years of ministering to AIDS patients overseas, evangelical Christians are turning attention to the disease in their own back yard _ and one of the nation's largest and best-known megachurches is leading the way.
Nearly 2,000 pastors have traveled to Orange County's Saddleback Church for a national conference that coincides with World AIDS Day on Thursday. On the agenda: How to start local AIDS ministries and free HIV testing in churches.
The "Disturbing Voices" initiative, led by best-selling author and megachurch pastor Rick Warren and his wife, Kay Warren, represents a shift among evangelicals. Many sidestepped the U.S. health crisis because of its association with homosexuality even as they made AIDS part of their missions in Africa and other places where the disease disproportionately affects women and children.
"The evangelical church has pretty much had fingers in our ears, hands...