|
| quote: | Originally posted by Moral Hazard
no one ever bothers to actually understand the Pope's positions on things like this. What the Vatican's position is that the distribution and use of condoms create a sense of security regarding STD, which leads to an environment of sexual permissiveness, which results in more people having sex with multiple partners, which increases the potential for the spread of HIV/STDs. The pope's position is that the above situation is less desirable then if people were educated in "proper sexual conduct," which means (in the church's eyes) monogamous sexual relationships between married persons. While the church's position that sex be reserved for married couples only may be idealistic it would do a better job at preventing the spread of STDs then the use of condoms would. Now we all know that people simply aren't going to be abstinent until marriage and then monogamous after marriage; however, the church holds itself up as a moral authority... you cannot expect them to promote moral relativism; nevertheless, for one to write off the pope's position as being without merit simply shows one does not understand it. |
Bullshit, there's moral relativism and there's pragmatism. Moral relativism is saying different standards apply to different people, cultures, times or places. Pragmatism says that sometimes we have to accept a lesser evil in order to do the most good for the most people. The Pope is looking in the face of one of the greatest tragedies of modern history--the AIDs epidemic in Africa, and refusing to accept the slightest concession to pragmatism that could save thousands of lives and the destruction of entire societies, in favor of wagging his finger at people for not abiding by catholic standards of sexual morality. That's inexcusable. He's also spreading LIES about the effectiveness of condoms in a part of the world where lack of education about sexual heath is LETHAL.
The Pope's message is directly contributing to people's deaths, and for that I hope he gets gang-raped bareback by a dozen Algerians.
___________________
"angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night" -Allen Ginsberg
|