Lake Forest, Orange County -- Kay Warren first said she was sorry.
Sorry that she, wife of one of the nation's most influential pastors, and many of her fellow conservative evangelical Christians took more than two decades to start helping people with HIV and AIDS.
In front of her 22,000-member Orange County congregation, in AIDS-ravaged African villages and in the Christian press, the 52-year-old Warren has urged fellow evangelicals to "repent" for their indifference.
Although churches and interfaith denominations have been involved in HIV/AIDS support for years, gay rights leaders say the Rev. Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest is the first major conservative evangelical congregation to start a local HIV ministry. Given that Rick Warren, author of the 25 million-plus-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," is a confidant of the White House and internationally known religious figure,...