December 7, 2007

LAKE FOREST, CA -- David Miller has long been on of the most controversial AIDS activist in the world, but now there has been an incredible turn-around in his life – he has found Christ as his personal savior.

Miller surprised many at the recent Third Annual Global Summit on AIDS and the Church at Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California, when Pastor Rick Warren asked him to be a keynote speaker at the event attended by about 1,700 delegates from around the world.

Miller presented at the Plenary Session: Why Leadership Matters, along with Saddleback Leaders Rick Warren and Kay Warren; Jay Hein, Director of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives; Her Excellency Mrs. Maureen Mwanawasa, First Lady of Zambia and President of The Organization of African First Ladies Against AIDS; and Her Excellency, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, First Lady of Rwanda, Co-Founder of The Organization of African First Ladies Against AIDS.

He said, “It has been my pleasure to have had this very special opportunity to present at The Global Summit on AIDS and the Church with Rick and Kay Warren. This unprecedented and prestigious gathering of leaders at Saddleback Church provided an important forum to allow for critical dialogue about the worldwide HIV/AIDS crisis and has given us an important strategic platform for stressing the need for people with HIV/AIDS to receive proper nutrition through the use of supplements such as Nutraplete in the domestic and international marketplace.”

This year's conference featured more than 90 speakers, including Peter Piot, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of UNAIDS; Ambassador Mark Dybul, M.D., United States global AIDS coordinator; Her Excellency Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, and first lady of Rwanda and co-founder of The Organization of African First Ladies Against AIDS. Also, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., addressed the Summit attendees. Video messages were provided by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Barack Obama, D-Ill., John Edwards, D-N.C., and former Govs. Mike Huckabee (R) and Mitt Romney (R). An estimated 1,500 people representing local churches, para-church ministries, non-governmental organizations and legal and medical organizations attended the three-day conference.

Miller, who is a Board Member of the AIDS Institute, (www.theaidsinstitute.org), the nation's leading advocacy organization for federal support of people with HIV/AIDS and their providers as well as Co-Chair of the New York City HIV Planning Council Advisory Group, which oversees the distribution of Ryan White CARE Act grants, later agreed to talk to ANS and also Safe Worlds IPTV about what has happened in his life.

David, who is HIV-positive himself, was a longtime member of ACT UP NY and has participated in numerous demonstrations for access to essential life-saving medicines and nutritional supplements for people living with HIV/AIDS, and personally witnessed his protests at many World AIDS conferences around the world, so I began by asking him how many times he had been arrested.

He paused briefly, and then said, “I’ve been arrested two-hundred and nineteen times.” Then he added in typical blunt fashion, “What about you?”

I told him that had been arrested once – on a reporting trip to Nigeria.

“Then you’re having a hard time understanding that part of Jesus’ life,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I mean Jesus got arrested. If you are going to end up fighting evil, you’re going to have to be willing to get smacked around a little bit. AIDS activists don’t get arrested because we want to make a scene; we get arrested because that brings media attention to a cause that’s been historically been neglected, misunderstood and has carried deadly levels of stigma with it and hasn’t been given the appropriate level of attention as a world wide issue.

“The Church admits this, and has apologized for it, and it is late in coming to this struggle. Society in general treated us like lepers. This is a disease that has global implications regarding everything from health care to stability; to international security….”