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Even as President Bush denounced religious fanaticism abroad, he has nurtured it at home by appointing right wing Christian zealots to key government positions. They have rolled back decades of health and family planning programs that they see as "un-Christian." They are fanatical zealots when it comes to the subject of sex and the necessity of government to interfere in our sexual lives. This is particularly true when it comes to teens and the question of sexual abstinence.
With terrible consequences, the curricula of Abstinence Only Sex Ed programs - promoted by the evangelical right winger, President George W. Bush - provides inaccurate information on the effectiveness of condoms including extremely exaggerated failure rates and the false claim that HIV and other pathogens can "pass through" condoms. Such misinformation results in the increase of sexually transmitted diseases and aids. This is all done in the name of God!
A reading of radical right "Christian" literature leads to the conclusion that much of their opposition to sex education and birth control is a notion that people should be cruelly punished for their sins because their loving God demands it! They say that fornicators should be scourged by getting syphilis, genital herpes, STD's and by being compelled to carry unwanted embryos to term (even in the case of rape and incest). Zealot Bush, of course, has given millions to these “people of faith.” He does not repudiate their bizarre beliefs, of course.
And, echoing the ideas of medieval monks, among the Bush base of support, the concept is frequently advanced that sex should not be connected with pleasure, but should only be for the purpose of procreation. As one right wing Christian expressed it, "I would like to outlaw contraception... contraception is disgusting --people using each other for pleasure." This is Joseph Scheidler, Pro-Life Action League talking.
We do not have the Islamic Taliban running this country. But there is a Christian Taliban who would like to impose its will on the rest of us. Their "abstinence only" policy is a disaster that has caused much suffering and even death. Such are the consequences of Zealot Bush and his radical right Christian Anti Sex Leaguers.
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