News

Q&A: Richard Stearns

The president of World Vision U.S. on the Global Fund, free condoms, and church-based relief and development work.

What is World Vision's role now that even modest-sized churches (given e-mail and inexpensive travel) can make direct connections to do relief and development around the world?

There's a tendency to say, "This ain't rocket science. People are hungry; feed them." Well, the deeper you get into relief and development, you realize it is rocket science, because you are dealing with all kinds of social, cultural, political, and religious landmines. What have you really accomplished if you haven't gotten beneath the surface and started to wrestle with the root causes?

How can we limit the inevitable mistakes?

World Vision made every mistake you could possibly make in international development three times before 1965. I urge megachurches to get that expertise on their teams—hire it, partner with it—so when you begin your development programs, you're going to avoid many of those mistakes.

What's your opinion of the Global Fund?

Imagine if you're little Rwanda and you've got 15 funding nations all coming to you with different protocols, different reports required to get their AIDS money. It really overwhelms developing governments. The idea of the Global Fund was to better coordinate the aid. Now it's become a 16th institution, but it's pretty significant among the 16. President Bush's plan is only allocated to 15 countries. Global Fund is working in more than 130 countries.

Where do you stand on free distribution of condoms to fight HIV/AIDS?

We take the view that abstinence and being faithful are critically important, especially for youth. Condoms are kind of a last resort, but they are not the answer. We differ sometimes with some of our evangelical colleagues on the Religious Right who imply that condoms have no role to play whatsoever. Because when you're talking to a sex worker in a brothel who has to feed her child and maybe her elderly mother and father through her work, it's not realistic to say she's going to be abstinent. So condoms play a role in high-risk groups, and they will slow the spread of the pandemic.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

The March 2005 issue of Christianity Today examined World Vision as "the Colossus of Care."

A June 2006 Religion News Service article looked at the rift among evangelical groups over the Global Fund.

See also today's article on the next 50 years of relief and development.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Where We Are and How We Got Here

What Married Women Want

The Church's Great Malfunctions

Flea Market Believers

A Bioethicist on Genesis

Hope for Shalom

CT Classics

From Eternity to Here

A Greater Vision

Grappling with God

A One-China (Church) Policy

Editorial

Save the E-Word

Editorial

Media in Motion

Genocide and Grace

LBJ and JFK

What's Next: Relief and Development

Review

IDing ID's Designer

What's Next: International Justice

What's Next: Higher Education

Legacy of a Global Leader

Evangelism Plus

Train Wreck Coming

What's Next: Evangelism

What's Next: Culture

Let Us Reason Together About Life

What's Next: Theology

News

To Russia with Fury

What's Next: Publishing & Broadcasting

The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals

What's Next: Politics

What's Next: Missions

News

Go Figure

What's Next: Youth

News

Quotation Marks

What's Next: Local Church

News

One 'Major Step'

'Truth from the Evangelical Viewpoint'

News

'Christianity Today' News Briefs

Calvary Reunion: Skip Heitzig Returns to N.M.

News

'They Know We Are Christians'

News

A Hint of Peace

News

Passages

News

Soaking in Blood—Again

Asylum vs. Assistance

Cool on Climate Change

Braves Lose Focus

The Earmark Epidemic

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Axis Denied

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Indonesia's Death Quota

News

Disputed Dismissal

News

The Price of Protest

View issue

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