Tomorrow I will write about Mother's Day but now please read about condoms!
Amy Welborn of "Open Book" links to one of those ah-so-original articles about how the pope lets millions die of AIDS because he won't allow condom use and a very interesting discussion ensues. Some of the best comments I give you here:
- Oh, for heaven's sake . . . as if people out fornicating have this atavistic scruple implanted by the Church NOT to use a condom, a scruple they rigorously obey even in the midst of their fornication.
"I'm going to hire a prostitute for her services, but I'd better not use a condom because the Church tells me I'll go to hell if I do." -
-Shouldn't an African solution to HIV manifest itself in African solutions? I hear Muslim polygamy helps combat AIDS transmission rates, why not encourage both polygamy and Islam? We could send Louis Farrakhan and Mohammed Ali over as goodwill ambassadors and sex educators!
Where are all the cultural relativists? Isn't condom distribution a form of cultural imperialism? -
- If women are being forced into sex with HIV- infected husbands out of fear of being left destitute, well, we've got a bigger problem here, don't we? -
-I just don't see the link to the church. I suppose the argument goes that the wife is a devout catholic who would use condoms in heartbeat once she got the green light form the pope. -
- But the Church isn't forbidding condom use because it doesn't like western-style promiscuity. The Church forbids condom use because it believes condom use in and of itself to be wrong. -
- I continue to find it amazing that the NY Times is upset that the Pope is a Catholic. (Maybe they were hoping for a write-in of Bishop Spong?) What also amazes me is the unexpressed racism that runs through the discussion of HIV/AIDS in Africa and Latin America. The premise is that all those brown and black people are completely at the mercy of their raging hormones - and we can't really ever expect them to behave otherwise. -
- To paraphrase the fish analogy: Give a person a condom and she/he's safe for the night. Teach people mutual respect and they're safe for life. I don't think the Catholic Church owes anyone an apology here. -
Posted at 09:35 PM on May 08, 2005