"Why are evangelicals so concerned about AIDS in Africa and sex trafficking and slavery in Sudan? I thought all you cared about was abortion and gay rights."
The reporter from a prestigious journal had been following the Bush administration's foreign policy initiatives and stumbled onto a curious fact: Evangelicals were behind most of them.
The reporter's question gave me a wonderful opportunity to explain that evangelicals believe in the sanctity and dignity of all human life—not just unborn children, but also Sudanese slaves, sex trafficking victims, and Africans with AIDS.
The reporter got it; her subsequent front-page story contained unusual praise for evangelicals. This experience offers an insight on how we can make a powerful witness.
Over the past few years, evangelicals have actively promoted a morally grounded foreign policy. Six years ago, when no one was talking about the horror of sex trafficking, conservative activist Bill Bennett and I—prodded by the indefatigable human rights champion Michael Horowitz—helped organize a coalition to fight this evil. We testified to Congress in opposition to the Clinton administration, which had caved in to radical feminists who argued that prostitution should be redefined as "sex work"—just another empowering career option, like nursing or teaching.
Because of the leadership of Christians like Frank Wolf, Chris Smith, Joe Pitts, and others in Congress, legislation passed in 2000 authorizing sanctions. When the Bush administration took over, it appointed an "abolitionist"—gutsy former Congressman John Miller—to lead the trafficking office.
During his speech to the United Nations last year, President Bush powerfully decried the "special evil" of sex trafficking. The reporter interviewing me said she was astonished by the President's speech—raising moral issues before the U.N.? "Was this informed by his faith?" she asked.
Evangelicals led by Franklin Graham aroused our consciences over Africans with AIDS. The President himself was passionate, but he faced much opposition—particularly because he supported the ABC program (abstinence first, being monogamous, condoms only if necessary). Several of us met with the President and helped mobilize the Christian community. The result: A $15 billion package that not only treats the sick but also prevents AIDS through abstinence.
Then there's slavery in Sudan—the first matter Bennett and I raised with White House political strategist Karl Rove after President Bush was elected. The administration got tough, appointing former Senator John Danforth as special envoy, and the evangelical community flexed its muscles to move Congress. The result: The Sudan Peace Act, which has given us the best chance ever to end the slavery and genocide being committed against fellow believers.
President Bush clearly has this moral agenda in mind. He made his first human-rights appeal in an eloquent but little-noted speech to the American Jewish Committee in May 2001. Then, in his Whitehall Palace speech in November 2003, he defended morally based foreign policy. The staid British audience was in awe as the President spoke of tracing our nation's spiritual roots to Britain's evangelical movement of the 18th and 19th centuries. He spoke of the "tireless compassion of Lord Shaftesbury, the righteous courage of Wilberforce," and of the Good News "translated by Tyndale, preached by Wesley, lived out in the example of William Booth."
"The deepest beliefs of our nations set the direction of our foreign policy," the President said. "We value our own civil rights, so we stand for the human rights of others. We affirm the God-given dignity of every person, so we are moved to action by poverty and oppression and famine and disease."
So it must be with today's evangelicals. Following in the steps of Wilberforce, we must confront the moral horrors of our day. And when we work for causes that people across the political spectrum understand as promoting human good, we break out of the stereotypical "Bible-thumping bigot" mold.
We don't do it for that reason, of course; we do it because it is our calling. But when the world sees us defending the poor, the enslaved, the persecuted, and the sex trafficking victim, our arguments about protecting the unborn and the dignity of all human life have credibility.
This credibility extends all the way to the pages of The New York Times, where columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote: "I've lost my cynicism about evangelical groups partly because I've seen them at work abroad."
To much of the watching world, our determined concern for "the least of these" in every land may be our most powerful witness.
Also posted today is an interview with a USAID official on preventing AIDS in Africa.
Other CT AIDS coverage includes:
Beyond Condoms | To alleviate AIDS, we must sharpen our moral vision. (June 10, 2003)
A Strategy for Progress | Unless prevention of HIV/AIDS becomes a clear priority, things are only going to get worse. (May 2, 2003)
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Civics for Gay Activists | We may see more die from HIV/AIDS because gay activists are intolerant. (April 10, 2003)
ABC vs. HIV | Christians back abstinence-fidelity plan against deadly virus. (March 10, 2003)
Jerry Thacker: Politics Muddies Fight Against AIDS | The politics of homosexuality has made it easier to battle the disease in foreign countries than domestically, says a former nominee to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. (Feb. 07, 2003)
Killing a Pandemic | The church may be best equipped to deal HIV/AIDS a crippling blow.
AIDS 'Apathy' Campaign Debuts | Yet Christian leaders say stigma, not neglect, is the bigger problem. (Aug. 28, 2002)
Books & Culture Corner: An Open Letter to the U. S. Black Religious, Intellectual, and Political Leadership Regarding AIDS and the Sexual Holocaust in Africa (Jan. 24, 2000)
Charles Colson was the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, an outreach to convicts, victims of crime, and justice officers. Colson, who converted to Christianity before he was indicted on Watergate-related charges, became one of evangelicalism's most influential voices. His books included Born Again and How Now Shall We Live? A Christianity Today columnist since 1985, Colson died in 2012.
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