Pope says condoms are sort of alright

[neerdowell]

highwaystar101 said:

neerdowell said:

highwaystar101 said:

The Vatican's view on on condoms has always made me feel a little sick.

Quite frankly, 1.5 million people in sub saharan Africa die every years from AIDS/HIV and the reason is largely down to the Vatican. Millions are at risk due to their views on contraceptives and the propaganda they've spread throughout sub saharan Africa.

It's sickening.

It's sad that the Vatican favours their scriptures over human life. They know condoms are a proven method of containing the spread of AIDS, and yet they still outright lie to their followers, even when they're dying in their millions.

It's a step in the right direction to say that condoms could be used to stop infection. But until they act on it and promote the use of condoms as an effective way to stop AIDS, and show some positive results from it, I'll kick up a fuss.

The church (in general) needs more forward thinking leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu, and less fanatical leaders endangering the lives of their followers like the pope.

You know what else prevents the spread of AIDS, abstinence. In fact, it's the only 100% method of prevention (barring accidental exposure/drug use). Now I couldn't care less about the AIDS epidemic, however, people need to quit trying to blame a system that is entirely irrelevant and face up to their own contributions to their issues. The Catholic church may have issues, and the non-support of contraception may be one of them (i'm not going to take a stance either way since it doesn't concern me), however, it is unrelated to the spread of AIDS.

If they were following the teachings of the church then they wouldn't be having sex outside of marriage, and if they married a carrier of HIV and had sex with them, well that's their own stupidity. Now if they married them not knowing they had HIV, that's not something the church's teachings really account for, and that still wouldn't be solved by the use of contraception. Also, what type of husband would have sex with their wife knowing they could put them at risk for HIV; how is that a practice of love?

Now as far as being realistic and facing the realization that people are going to be promiscuous, well then, that's still on them. The church didn't put a gun to their head and force them to make the decisions which led to their exposure; in fact, it does everything it can to promote the only form on control that actually works.

P.S. Way to take a statement out of it's context to further support your own views.

People should have the right to have sex, whether it be recreational or for procreation. If people choose to have recreational sex then you should not pressure them into not using a condom, which is what the Cathoilic church has done (they didn't put a gun to their head, but they put a lot of pressure on them). That's just going to cause a whole host of problems. Condoms may not be 100% effective, but they are damn close. They are a very effective form of prevention, especially for those who choose to have recreational sex.

If the Catholic church wants to say "Yeah, we support condoms as a method of AIDs prevention, but we favour abstinence" then that would be fine. But they haven't done that, they've gone out of their way to spread the lie that condoms actually make the situation worse, which isn't the case.

If people want to promote abstinence, fine, the more the merrier; but don't bring the anti-condom propaganda with it, that's just going to make the situation a whole lot worse.

 

Also, what statement did I take out of context if I may ask?

First of all, people don't have rights to anything. Whether they should or not is subjective. They may have constitutions / bills of rights / whatever, that don't really mean anything unless they are protected by some form of authority ( even if that authority is majority rule, which works well assuming you're not in the minority). But that's irrelevant to the discussion, just thought I'd point it out since you brought it up.

OT. Somehow pressure to practice abstinence didn't work, but pressure to not use condoms did? The catholic church teaches ( pressures if you choose to view it that way ) a system of belief. Part of that system is abstinence and another part is contraception. If people disregard any part of the system why would they expect it to work as usual.

If you marry a chick and decide to violate the sanctity of that marriage by cheating on her would you then expect her to not divorce you under the same vows you decided to disregard? Would it change the fact that you committed adultery because your mistress might have pressured you into it? No, you're still responsible for your own actions. Not the mistress, or the system of marriage, you. Not the church, you.

Now, as far as the comment you took out of context. The reason the pope made the comment on condoms making the situation worse is that they offer a sense of protection. When people are offered this sense of protection they are more likely to engage in the activities that put them in danger to begin with. It promotes recreational sex, which considering the church is against, of course it makes sense that they would take this stance; they would be hypocrits if they did otherwise. Whether I agree/disagree with their stance, I would much rather they stick with it than just say whatever makes people happy.

The truth is, while condoms may help contain AIDS, they will never solve the issue. There are only two ways to deal with the issue genuinely; one is to attack the issue at it's source ( the cause of it spreading ), which as you guessed it, is sexual activity. The other is a global screening for the virus and a quarantine of all those infected. Needless to say, the whole world would throw a fit at the latter as it would be viewed as inhumane. You ask me, the real inhumane act is to mask the issue and let it continue on to infect people until we find a cure, which may never happen.

Either way, it's a good thing I don't really care about humanity. I'm just a very angry guy who gets pissed when people blame their own failures on others.