AIDS and Abstinence

Today is the big World AIDS Conference at Saddleback Church which has so stirred up the "holier than thou" conservative Christian crowd. I'm a conservative Christian, but I'm embarrassed to be associated with those who are calling for Rick Warren's head just because Barack Obama is one of the 60 conference speakers. The reaction from these people is just nuts, and when I hear of Christian talk show hosts commanding their minions to flood the church with complaint calls, or other Christian "leaders" demanding the banishment of Obama because somehow he might foul the "holy pulpit" with his pro-abortion beliefs, it makes me want to find a description for myself other than "conservative Christian". Those folks do not represent me.

Just for the enlightenment of the enraged masses, I've stood behind the pulpit at Saddleback many times during performances. It's a piece of wood. It's not holy, nor does it glow, burn with a holy flame, or speak with the voice of God. It's a piece of wood. Obama's presence there during an AIDS conference will not drive the "holy" out of it. Move it anywhere else and it's a lectern. It's time to tone down the outrage.

There will be a great amount of discussion and concern about AIDS during this conference, and rightly so - it's a big problem in many parts of the world. However, the solution to stopping AIDS is ridiculously simple, and yet impossibly hard for so many people who just don't want to exercise common sense.

How do you avoid getting AIDS? Here's a few ideas:

1. If you don't have sex until you are married, you've just cut your chances to a fraction.
2. If your spouse didn't have sex until married, you're chances are reduced further.
3. If you are not an intravenous drug user sharing needles with others, your chances are now almost zero.
4. If you remain monogamous, you basically have nothing to be concerned about, unless you have to have a blood transfusion during some medical procedure, and even then, your chances of contracting the disease are slim.

You many notice that I didn't address the issue of homosexuality in these four items. Why? Because the process works for homosexuals too. Homosexuality itself does not increase the risk of AIDS. It's the promiscuous homosexual lifestyle that creates the risk.

I also didn't address the issue of various so called "safe sex" measures. They just aren't as safe as the activists would want you to believe and I'm not willing to trust my life to a slim piece of latex.

Unfortunately, changing entire cultures to comply with the four steps above will be nearly impossible. Education will help, and even AIDS conferences may help get the word out, but unless the cultural values are changed, it's all for naught. The tragedy will go on.

Meanwhile, the argument that somehow abstinence is worse than birth control will go on, as it did in this British report:

Sexual abstinence as an effective tool in reducing teenage pregnancy is a complete "myth", the [British] Government's advisory body on the issue claimed yesterday. The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy said that research from the United States showed that contraception was the way to bring down rates. Researchers from Columbia University and the Guttmacher Institute examined the relative roles of abstinence and contraceptive use in the "remarkable decline" in US teenage pregnancy rates, which dropped 27 per cent from 1991 to 2000. They said that 86 per cent of the decline in teenage pregnancy was due to improved use of contraception.Only 14 per cent of the drop amongst 15- to 19-year-olds was linked to reduced sexual activity, according to the study, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

Abstinence, the only technique that works every time it's tried, whether reducing teen pregnancy or the spread of AIDS, is a myth according to these morons. Where do they get these researchers? Is it not clear that if abstinence didn't work, it's because it wasn't practiced and not because it wasn't effective?

As long as we have such ignorant leaders (be they sex researchers or conservative Christians), there won't be any significant improvement in the statistics.