A Dead Debate?
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The perennial “Pope opposes condoms” fake-controversy can be so tedious that nowadays it has even become boring to say how boring it is.
A difference with today’s story, though, is that, aside from the predictable outrage of the media, the French government has publicly attacked the Pope for saying that encouraging and funding condom-use among Africans is ineffective, and even harmful, in the fight against AIDS.
This is almost certainly an attempt by President Sarkozy’s administration to curry favor with French Left-liberals. But it is surely a risky a strategy for any government to attack directly the Pope, especially in a country that retains a small, yet influential Catholic base.
That aside, the good news for the Catholic Church’s supporters is that–even if, inevitably, the Pope’s counterintuitive suggestion enraged the liberal establishment–many editorialists now accept at least part of the Catholic position that the best solution to AIDS in Africa is fundamental behavior change, rather than condoms. This was not necessarily the case five years ago, when Pope John Paul II was regularly accused of being a murderer in the press for teaching abstinence to Africans.
This shift in opinion is partly thanks to the painstaking research of scientists like Helen Epstein, whose informative book, The Invisible Cure, published last year, is a valuable addition to this complicated discussion. Epstein comes at the issue from a liberal, indeed perhaps anti-Vatican, perspective. But her thesis shows the futility of the endless condoms vs Catholics row.
In the book, Epstein argues convincingly that AIDS spreads most furiously in African societies because of the particular behavioral patterns of “sexual concurrency”—not the same as promiscuity—among Africans. These social habits tend to provide the virus with the perfect conditions to spread–far more ideal, say, than the environment created by sexually irresponsible groups, gay and straight, in the West, who can be just as (if not more) promiscuous. It’s very complex stuff, but fundamentally, the problem is societal as well as individual. It cannot be solved simply by secular aid workers bearing condoms.
Filed under: World
More good news for the Catholic Church supporters. According to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the excommunication of doctors and the mother of the nine year-old who was raped (and impregnated) by her step-father was a mistake and rescinded. The excommunication had been decided on and publicised “too hastily”. So after they thought about it for a few minutes ( and were hammered by the press) they did the obvious good thing. Thumbs up.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Pope has announced to the largely illiterate sub-Saharan hotbed of HIV that “the distribution of condoms aggravate the problem.”
The cruel history of religious authority, leading from the rear, continues – no matter what the subject of contention – witches, slavery, evolution, cosmology, democracy, and now public health.
The scenario plays out the same way every time: human reason discovers a truth and must fight for it against religious dogma. The battle ends with the religious position in tatters; yet the religious generals declare victory – the new paradigm is God’s will!
It’s interesting to note that part of the Pope’s solution to HIV includes “friendship for those who suffer”. Despite this sanctimonious platitude, the Pope keeps his own suffering to a minimum. Like Mother Theresa before him, Benedict avails himself of the best that scientific medical advances can offer.
Thanks, Mr Robinson. I was beginning to miss my college history professors.
I find it interesting that behavior change along the lines of moral principles that have been continuously championed by discredited old religious institutions might possibly be substantiated by the work of earnest and progressive scientists. I look forward to reading more about Epstein’s work.
It’s interesting to note that part of the Pope’s solution to HIV includes “friendship for those who suffer”. Despite this sanctimonious platitude, the Pope keeps his own suffering to a minimum. Like Mother Theresa before him, Benedict avails himself of the best that scientific medical advances can offer.
What a cheap shot.
Mr. Robinson:
You might want to put down your Christopher Hitchens style talking points and acquaint yourself with the facts pertaining to AIDS in Africa: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTNlNDc1MmMwNDM0OTEzMjQ4NDc0ZGUyOWYxNmEzN2E=
“We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working.”
- Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
[...] not condoms” message to Africans struggling with the HIV epidemic has at least somewhat more evidence behind it than you’d think from the media drumbeat surrounding the issue. But I think the [...]