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Have you lost faith in what politics can do in fighting this disease?

I think it will be easier for us to work in foreign countries on this issue than to work here in the United States. That's unfortunate, but it's because of the politicization of homosexuality that we are somewhat limited in our options.

There are people in Washington who understand that this is not class battle—not homosexuals versus the rest of us—but it's indeed an issue that has to do with the virus. Because of the political inroads made over the last 20 years by those using this for political advantage, it's going to be important for us to keep bringing the message back to the disease.

Hopefully, through things like what just happened, people will understand that Christian folks are not a bunch of wild and crazy people when it comes to this disease. All we're about is helping people get through life and on to eternity.

Before witnessing the political games that are played, what opportunities did you feel the advisory council could afford you?

There are people in the church who are battling this disease. However, the conservative church has not been represented on any of these types of advisory councils in any kind of profusion.

I still believe that the 330,000 churches in the country do not understand HIV, need to understand HIV, and have tremendous resources that can be applied to the care of both physical and spiritual people who have HIV regardless of how they got it. I was hoping to be able to bring that viewpoint to this group.

However, the folks for whom HIV and homosexual [activism is] strategically entwined really could [not] care less about the fact that we're infected. To them, the whole thing is about using this disease as a means for political power and getting the wealthy United States to further their deathstyle.

How does your faith affect your message and your work in fighting HIV/AIDS?

When someone tells you you're going to die, you figure out what's important about living. And for us in the Thacker family, our faith in Christ has kept us going.

The mortality rate of human beings on Earth over time is 100 percent, so we're all going to die. We're all terminal. But I believe especially Christians tend to think we're guaranteed three score and ten, when in reality that's not the case. We're given this day.

I believe that God brought HIV into our family (because we obviously weren't looking for it and had never done anything to get it) as a means of helping people of faith, churches, Christian colleges, regular secular colleges, and high schools to understand their own mortality and to understand that even though man thinks he's smart, there are things in this world that he can't handle because of the Fall.

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February (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47