Rick Warren, who wrote the book The Purpose Drive Life, writes a monthly one page article for RELEVANT magazine. In last month's article, he said that today's church can't consider itself relevant if it is ignoring the crisis of HIV and AIDS.

Over the past 25 years, nearly 65 million people have been infected with HIV and an estimated 25 million have died of AIDS-related illnesses. Today, about 40 million people live with HIV, and 16 million children have been made orphans by AIDS.
(Warren, Rick. "Statements: four attitudes that preclude relevance", pp. 52, RELEVANT Issue 23, November/December 2006)

The topic of this article put me in mind of a story that one of my pastors shared about being called to the hospital in the middle of the night to be with a stranger who was in the final hours of dying from AIDS. After he had shared this story, my other pastor commented to the congregation, "I don't ever want to hear anyone here say that people who have AIDS get what they deserve. Think of what would happen to you if God gave you what you deserve".

Rick Warren used the acronym A.I.D.S. (Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom) to stand for:

A - avoidance
I - intolerance
D - distance
S - superstition

He said, and I agree, that this is how many Christians treat people who have HIV and AIDS. Rick Warren challenged the reader to counter these four negative attitudes with the use of repentance, acceptance, presence, and endurance.

A good plan, but unfortunately, the new acronym turns out to spell:

R - repentance
A - acceptance
P - presence
E - endurance

Charlie Mann e-mailed the magazine to point out Rick Warren's unfortunate error. His complaint appeared as a "Letter to the Editor" this month.

(Personally, I didn't even notice the R.A.P.E. anagram, because I was actually interested in the article's content. Get a hobby, Charlie!)