Related articles and links |  1 of 5

•

The church lady has HIV. After 12 years of painful silence, Kathi Winter is no longer afraid to let people know that her body carries the deadly virus that causes AIDS.

She's white, middle-aged, and a faithful churchgoer. She admits to looking a bit like the famed church lady, played by funny man Dana Carvey on Saturday Night Live years ago. Winter doesn't fit the old stereotype that only gays, prostitutes, and drug abusers are at risk for HIV.

This week, Winter disclosed her HIV-positive status in a short video clip during the Disturbing Voices conference at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California. As the video clip played on five jumbo TV screens before 1,690 mostly evangelical leaders, Winter sat in the audience fighting back the tears. She lost the fight, but Kay Warren, wife of Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, sat nearby. Afterward, they both admitted to reporters that they were "bawling their eyes out" as the video rolled.

Now in its third decade, AIDS has shown many faces. In 2005, its face increasingly is female. More than 50 percent of all people living with HIV worldwide are women. In addition, women without HIV carry a huge share of the burden in caring for family members living with HIV and for orphaned children who have lost parents due to the virus.

Tragically for Winter, the evangelical man who led her to new life in Christ also infected her with the virus. In the early 1990s, Winter had been in a relationship with the man, who became quite sick and was diagnosed with HIV. Winter knew she had to get tested. But her physician refused to administer an HIV test, since she did not fit the typical profile for someone at high risk for exposure to the virus. After testing positive, Winter said, "I went into a hole and I begged God to love me." As she fought for her life against HIV, she couldn't find a church or small group openly willing to accept her or anyone else with the virus.

About one year ago, she joined Saddleback Church, which has put new emphasis on HIV/AIDS ministry since 2003. Today, Saddleback is among the very few and quite possibly the only evangelical church in North America with a pastor focused full-time on HIV/AIDS outreach. Saddleback's new focus on HIV/AIDS began after Kay Warren read a newsmagazine article about AIDS orphans in Africa. Later, Warren himself was drawn into HIV/AIDS outreach after traveling with his wife to sub-Saharan Africa, which has the world's greatest concentration of people with HIV/AIDS.

New Priority
At the Disturbing Voices conference, leaders from 37 states and 17 nations met for two days prior to participating in events linked to the annual World AIDS Day on December 1. Kay Warren said, "My intention for the conference was to be a wake-up call and a kick in the butt."

During World AIDS day, Warren was publicly given an HIV cheek-swab test at Saddleback. Such tests provide results in about 20 minutes. (He tested negative.) They detect antibodies to HIV-1 and HIV-2, the most common forms of the virus. They do not detect the virus itself. During the conference, more than 200 other people were administered the test at Saddleback for free.

Warren, speaking about the need for new local church engagement with HIV/AIDS outreach, said to the crowd, "Pastors, you cannot delegate this one to your staff. You take the lead. God is looking for someone to use. God is not looking for your ability, but for your availability."

The conference drew a broad cross-section of seasoned activists, volunteers, churchgoers, government officials, and megachurch pastors, including Bishop Charles Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, Kirbyjon Caldwell from Windsor Village United Methodist in Houston, and Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago.

next page... |  1 of 5

December (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49