Jesus set the model for ministering to the sick, said Warren. One-third of his ministry dealt with healing the sick, he added in an attempt to distill the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.

“Jesus hung out with the lepers,” noted the Saddleback pastor, and “AIDS is the leprosy of the 21st century.”

“People are scared to death of it,” said Warren. “I have a friend here who flew out from N.Y. who has AIDS. His wife was breathing oxygen, and he was reading about AIDS. The lady sitting next to them asked the stewardess for another seat."

"Would Jesus do that?" he asked. "I don’t think so.”

Warren urged pastors and other Christian ministers to sit up and utilise their wealth and their influence to help the suffering around the world.

An estimated 40.3 million people are now living with HIV. Over one million of them are in the United States. More than 50 percent of those infected are women and children.

The Saddleback AIDS/HIV Conference is the first time that the evangelical community is trying to address the AIDS/HIV pandemic through a practical mobilisation of the greatest network in the world – local churches.

Speakers during the three-day event include Bill and Lynne Hybels, pastor and founders of Willow Creek Community Church; Claude Allen, chief assistant to the President for Domestic Policy; Ambassador Randall Tobias, U.S. State Department Global AIDS Coordinator; Jim Towey, Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; Edward Green, PhD, Harvard University anthropologist and AIDS prevention authority; Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission; and Robert Redfield, MD, co-founder of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland.

[Editor's Note: Rhoda Tse reported from California, USA for this article]

Rhoda Tse
Christian Today Correspondent