Q&A at the XVI International AIDS Conference
On the last night of the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Kay Warren, executive director of Saddleback Church’s HIV/AIDS Initiative; Elizabeth Styffe, director of Saddleback Church’s HIV/AIDS Initiative; and Glenn Styffe, Elizabeth’s husband who is the associate professor of nursing at Biola University, sat down with a media team from the HIV/AIDS Caring Community to reflect on the conference. As the conference winds up, what are you taking away from it? What were you most encouraged by?
Kay: I was encouraged on a very personal level that I wasn’t as shocked or disconcerted by the things that I saw and heard this time. Two years ago [at the XV International AIDS Conference in Thailand] I just left in a heap of confusion and sadness and despair and depression, questioning my call to do it because it just was too hard. Elizabeth: I was encouraged by the numbers. It’s very good that there are a lot of people who care about this issue. Kay, what has changed in you, to get you past that despair?
I’ve learned a lot and grown a lot. I’m a lot more confident. I know a huge part of the solution is the Church. That was a fledgling idea two years ago. This year, I could sit in almost every workshop when people were questioning things or not knowing how to do things and I would think, “The Church.” I just really believe that we have the tools to add to it. What concerned you about this year’s conference?
Kay: I was concerned that there was not much talk about orphans and other children. They talk about prevention for youth, which is very needed, but there’s not much discussion about protecting children from being infected to begin with and then taking care of the children who are. In the last session I was in, they talked about how shameful it was that there were not more ARVs [antiretroviral drugs] for children in pediatric doses and testing available for young children. That’s criminal and inhumane. The most vulnerable of everyone who has HIV are children and babies, and they should be at the top of the list of vulnerable people instead of at the bottom of the list. Elizabeth: I was discouraged by the lack of controversy. It was a very mild conference. In a scientific community, you present your evidence and I present my evidence, and we have a scientific dialogue. But here we’ve leaped from rationalism that uses data and we have gone to experiential thinking – “whatever works for you.” There’s a party line and nobody can disagree with it; there’s not a forum for debate. At the 2004 conference, which you attended in Thailand, was there more debate?
Elizabeth: A lot of sessions were forums. It wasn’t always rational because it was very emotional, but they had a debate and they used data. One of the things this conference helps you realize is how huge HIV/AIDS is around the world. The number and diversity of people it touches is difficult to comprehend.
Elizabeth: When you think even of the political ramifications, the socio-economic ramifications, it’s a big thing. When I’ve gone to sleep at night during this conference, I’ve gotten emotional about how many countries I have touched this week. I would walk by people and think, “Lord, you died for them, and you died for them; you died for them.” Evangelistically, it’s amazing – to be around that many people from that many countries who don’t know him. Glenn: What the Church potentially has to offer is a life – even with HIV – that’s better than an HIV-negative life without Christ. We have hope. If you ask any HIV-positive person for their hope, it would be to be free of the disease. We have something even better than that. It’s also sobering to realize how differently people in developing countries – where they don’t have adequate access to medications – experience HIV from how we experience it in the United States.
Elizabeth: You’ll find such fatigue among physicians. They feel like they’ve spent all their lives learning how to help people, but then, what they’ve done is increased the health care disparity, so the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” is wider than it’s ever been. You either have drugs and you live or you don’t have drugs and you die. It’s always terrible that we have antiretrovirals and people in Africa don’t, but it’s a death sentence without ARVs. So physicians feel like they’ve broadened the health disparity gap. There were a lot of calls for increased advocacy at the conference. What is the role of churches in advocacy, in bringing the HIV/AIDS crisis to the attention of our communities?
Kay: Each church has to decide that for itself. For a couple years, Saddleback didn’t do anything with our local AIDS walk because it included fundraising for things we didn’t support. The last two years we’ve had small groups decide to go. We encouraged them but didn’t promote it because we don’t promote any walks. Also, some people really feel the role of churches is to advocate against unjust laws. But that’s a decision each church has to make. What have you learned this week that you might incorporate into the 2006 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church?
Kay: I was thinking this week that we don’t have anything on IV drug use. We didn’t talk about it last year; we may have just mentioned it once. We also need to include more of an emphasis on orphans and women. I was actually thinking of even a caregivers’ workshop. We didn’t do anything last year for families, people who are taking care of people with HIV. Also, a focus on prisoners needs to be included. What else do you want readers to know about what you’ve learned or thought about during the International AIDS Conference?
Kay: The Church holds the key to stopping AIDS. Glenn: The more that I come to really fully understand the degree of my own brokenness, the less judgmental I am of the lifestyle choices that have landed people where they are. I have not arrived. I know that. There are some people at this conference I try to get past and not make eye contact with. My brokenness might be a little different in some ways, but we’re all broken people – all hurt people, and people that hurt others. We excuse people for certain types of brokenness; we give people a pass for certain things. But apart from the Holy Spirit, I’m capable of any of those things that have given millions of people HIV.
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