Catholic Churches Say Condoms Don't Stop AIDS - BBC

[Liberal Veteran]

LONDON (Reuters) - The lives of Roman Catholics in some of the countries worst hit by HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS (news - web sites) are being put at even greater risk by advice from their churches that the use of condoms does not prevent transmission of the disease, according to a British television program.

If condoms cannot be absolutely guaranteed to block sperm, they stand even less chance of stopping the much smaller virus, the churches' argument runs.

The Roman Catholic church opposes any form of artificial contraception -- particularly condoms, which it says promote promiscuity.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031009/ts_nm/religion_condoms_dc_1


My thoughts: This is exactly why religious dogma and science needs to be kept seperate. This sort of idiocy (and I will not apologize for calling it such) that places people's lives in jeopardy in order to further a religious agenda pisses me off.

[MrPrax]

1. A call for increased secularization

and a great example of why religious people don't really have a role in public institutions--they simply promote their dogma at the expense of tolerance.

Mind you..."This sort of idiocy (and I will not apologize for calling it such) that places people's lives in jeopardy in order to further a religious agenda pisses me off."

The only people whose lives are in jeopardy are devout Catholics that might follow this advice and the people stupid enough to have sex with them

[Divernan]

4. A lot of third world men who aren't devout Catholics

but don't like to use condoms - and what man does? - can use this statement by the Catholic church as an excuse to refuse to use them.

[Lars39]

5. If this idea spreads until it's law, we could be going back to the days

when condoms were difficult, if not impossible to obtain in some countries. And Catholics have affairs/one-nighters, too, so this effects more than just Catholics.

[CPschem]

2. Amen- uh, i mean, I agree with you completey.

The church has really fucked up with this. The truth is that condoms ARE effective and if the church wants its own congregation to contract HIV, well go for it. But they can not justify disseminating this complete BS throughout the world.. people will die because of this lame stunt.

[sandnsea]

3. As a Catholic, I totally agree

It's criminal to teach this, people will die and the Church ought to be more concerned with saving lives than supporting doctrine.

But I do want to say that I think kids ought to be taught that no birth control is 100%. A 99% success rate means a 1% failure rate. And that means 1 out of 100 will get pregnant or get an STD. It's an important piece of information that people ought to have before making a decision about sex.

[Jack The Tab]

6. "American agnostics say The Catholic Church murders people"

Just as logical of a claim.

I feel sorry for the Catholics who follow this religion to the rule.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. I think it's honest to tell people not to bet their lives on condoms.

In African countries, having sex is like playing Russian roulette. Condoms may save some lives but they also may make people complacent and careless, and sick or dead as a result. We are talking about countries so poor that hypodermic needles are re-used in clinics -- wouldn't you guess people would re-use condoms as well?

Failure of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV can also undermine all Western medicine, including efforts to stop the spread of other, non-venereal diseases. Many African men believe that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS and this has caused many men to rape very young girls, even infants, to be sure that the girl is actually a virgin.

The Church does oppose artificial methods of birth control, as the article says, but it also opposes all sexual activity outside of marriage -- that's the Catholic moral position, well known to most Catholics (and also ignored by many Catholics.) You may disagree and think it's "idiocy" but I think it's idiocy to let people believe that condoms are the answer to AIDS, particularly in a society of poor people who may be unable to afford condoms, may re-use them, may use them only occasionally.

As common as AIDS is in Africa, people should be strongly encouraged to be in sexually faithful relationships with just one sex partner. That's as a public health position, not a moral position. Promoting condom use can be good but when we're talking about controlling HIV's spread, people need careful education on the use of condoms.

[Padraig18]

8. Well said

:thumbsup:

Telling people not to use condoms is bad science, but it IS true that they fail, and it is also true that monogamous relationships will end the AIDS crisis faster than anything else we could do.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. I disagree....

From a public health perspective, ignoring the role that condom use can play in reducing a terrible problem and promoting a falsehood would be the same as claiming that food service workers should not wash their hands because we all know it's not 100 percent effective in stopping the transmission of disease. It's about risk reduction and making false claims because the truth does not coincide with your the dogma of the church is ridiculous and it underscores the reason I reject organized religion.

[arwalden]

11. Thumbs Up At You...

... keep fighting the good-fight and helping others to understand.

-- Allen

[Padraig18]

13. I don't understand your disagreement, liberal_veteran

"Telling people not to use condoms is bad science, but it IS true that they fail, and it is also true that monogamous relationships will end the AIDS crisis faster than anything else we could do."

What, precisely, do you reject about that statement, or was it merely a content-free bash at Catholicism? :wtf:

[sandnsea]

14. It's more like

promoting washing hands but ignoring that not serving food when you're sick is a much more effective way of stopping disease transmission. You really want to do both.

[Blue_Chill]

17. If you cared about Africa

You would promote condems certainly, but you would push even stronger to stop multiple sex partners. It's not like here over there, it's spread too far and wide to be chancing shit.

There only chance of not killing themselves off completely is to STOP FUCKING AROUND. And the rest of the world needs to start sending money so needles are never used more then once at hospitals.

[Liberal Veteran]

20. I promote all forms of safer sex......

Up to and including monogamy. Practicing monogamy isn't 100 percent secure either. There is always the possibility that your partner will cheat on you and bring you a "souvenier" from his extra-marital experiences.

[sandnsea]

12. We need balance

The Church should teach what it teaches, but it should also support government teaching scientific facts. Life long monogamous relationships would solve alot of problems, but that doesn't mean it's realistic or ever has been. It's like the death penalty. The Church acknowledges that it is sometimes necessary because prisons aren't always adequate to keep the public safe. In the same way, using condoms in self defense ought to override Church teaching on sex, marriage and pro-creation. It just doesn't seem very Christian to me to allow people to die in order to keep them from a sin. What's worse, allowing death due to ignorance or sex with a condom?

[mlawson]

9. Then it's up to the governments of those countries

to CONTROL what the priests say. It's either that, or more and far worse AIDS epidemics.

[Blue_Chill]

15. Yeah I read this earlier, talk about irresponsible!!!!

I don't know what the hell the old men in big hats are doing over at the vatican but this catholic is getting pissed off! Of all the irresponsible things to say this one takes the cake.

[Liberator_Rev]

16. Don't you have some Native American blood, BC?

If you do, you may finally relate to something on my web site, a new page dedicated to the almost complete genocide of 100,000,000 Native Americans : http://www.LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/AmericanHolocaust .

[JohnKleeb]

19. And its all the Catholic Church's fault huh

I would love to introduce you to the Protestants like Andrew Jackson who were just as hositible to the Natives as well.

[youngred]

18. The idiocy and ignorance is appallinng

I hate my church