The Crowd:

Richard Stearnsichard Stearns, president of World Vision United States, will be in Newport Beach on April 17 to give the keynote speech at the annual Women of Vision, Orange County, luncheon. The event, marking its 20th anniversary, will take place at the Balboa Bay Club & Resort.

World Vision works throughout the Third World. Stearns is the author of “The Hole In Our Gospel.”

Stearns comes to his role as leader of one of the largest Christian relief organizations by way of a 25-year corporate career. Stearns will share his path leading to the advocacy of the impoverished. His message is alarming, even to many who consider themselves devout Christians. Stearns’ journey began with a visit to war-ravaged Uganda in 2000 when he met, among many victims and refugees, a 13-year-old AIDS-afflicted orphan caring for his younger brothers.

“What sickened me most was this question: Where was the Church?” Stearns wrote. “... What is the purpose of a Church that has the wealth to build great sanctuaries but lacks the will to build schools, hospitals and clinics?”

Stearns’ query is of major import considering it comes after Easter. The quintessential message underlying Christian doctrine is the offering of care to the underclass, underserved, less fortunate members of humanity. For Jesus Christ’s followers, this is the absolute path.

Critics charge that faith-based humanitarian agencies offer aid in exchange for conversion.

Stearns denies this, declaring that American aid through faith-based programs is “indispensable, and without it there would be worldwide catastrophe.”

In Haiti, for example, “more than half of the food distributions come through religious groups that have established networks,” he said. “Today, groups like World Vision ban the use of aid to lure anyone into a religious conversion.”

Perhaps Stearns’ most direct challenge from his position that evangelicals are “often so focused on sexual morality and a personal relationship with God that they ignore the needy.”

In this regard, criticism of evangelical Christianity, as Stearns puts it, “Often views fundamental followers as obsessed with gays and fetuses.”

Meanwhile the humanitarian aid of World Vision, supported by Orange County’s local Women of Vision, continues in Haiti, Peru, Kenya, Mexico, Gaza and Southern California among regions.

Last year this aid reached 100 million people.

After Easter, would there possibly be a more significant message from a charitable organization helping, in particular, women and children fighting poverty, injustice and violence, to survive and rise above the misery and into a place of hope?

Tickets are $150. Contact Marie Forde at (949) 494-6529 or Marie@formol.com.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.