Sunscreen Leads to Sunburn

The pope is making news again, travelling through Africa and telling people that condoms not only don’t prevent AIDS, they actually make AIDS worse.

If you are one of those folk willing to restrict all your sexual activity forever to sex with an opposite sex partner-for-life to whom Mother Church herself has joined you in the sacrament of marriage, and only when it is your intention to make a baby, this view of reality probably won’t set off your BS alarm. And even if it does, after all, you can say, he’s only doing his job.

If, however, you find yourself in the other 99.9% of the human race, this has got to strike you as full-fledged mischief, and you might want to suggest he get a new job. Or at least go on unemployment for a while.

Stomping around the planet telling people to throw out their condoms is an idea which gets worse the longer you think about it. Even if you are married and are among the 5% of the population in Cameroon living with AIDS, for example, what he is asking you to do is to stop all sexual activity with another person. Forever. Period.

And beyond Cameroon, what of the 22 million HIV sufferers in all of Africa?

There is the argument, of course, that by putting on a condom you get a false sense of security. Like with sunscreen. One religion site defending the pope’s actions actually makes the argument we ought to consider the possibility of overconfidence. Sometimes people put on sunscreen and then stay out in the sun longer than they should on the false assumption they are safe. Guess this is the catholic analogue to the Baptists who won’t have sex because it might lead to dancing. If your choice is between throwing away your condoms and doing without sex so you don’t risk overconfidence, and having the safest sex you can think of, which direction are most people going to take?

“Why are you surprised that the pope is catholic? There is nothing new in this message,” I hear you saying.

That’s absolutely true, of course. But each time this guy stomps around with his no birth control, no abortion, no condoms, no non-reproductive sex nonsense, there ought to be an equal and opposite force out there calling it nonsense.

The guy does pernicious evil. Let’s not forget the other example of church policy in the news in the past few days – the Brazilian 9-year-old who might well die if she doesn’t have the twins aborted her loving stepfather put in her womb. God’s will, says the church, if she does, and excommunicates the doctors and the girl’s mother for taking her to those doctors.

Horseshit.

Just plain horseshit.

Stand up and tell this joker,

Papa, tenês caput in culō…

(or in God’s native English, “Pope, you’ve got your head up your ass,” if my high school Latin still serves.)