One of our faithful commenters alerted me to this recent report on how the vaunted abstinence program in Uganda has failed to curtail the spread of AIDS. After reading that article and one at the BBC, I have figure out what is going on.
- Religious fundies changed the message from ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use Condoms) to just AB.
They left out the condom bit. You can’t preach only abstinence to people who are lack vision and virtue and hope. People are people – sinful, given to moments of weakness. It is irresponsible to not tell them about contraception.However, it is equally foolish to not encourage them to use the best possible prevention method – virtue. Chastity. Faithfulness. People who only want to teach "C" are part of the ongoing problem – they want to treat the symptom, but not the root causes.
- Rapists, drug users, filanderers and prostitutes don’t often use condoms.
I think these problems, all present in Uganda, make both calls for abstinence OR condoms less effective. So just because AIDS is going up doesn’t mean that the ABC method won’t work. In fact, if we don’t preach morality, we can not hope to stem the tide and change these issues.
The fact is, when the true ABC message was being used, not losing either the "A" or the "C", they had tremendous success. It is too bad that the religious fundies preaching Abstinence only have f**ked this up with their extreme, unrealistic approach. They should be shot, alongside the liberal "condom only" preachers. But then again, I’m a moderate xian ;)
Can you point me toward the sex educators who are advocating teenage sex, condom usage, and aren’t suggesting that teenagers shy away from sexual activity? By which I mean, the people who are encouraging irresponsible teen sex. I’d like to know who needs to be executed.
Thousands of people in Uganda will die of AIDS because of fundamentalist conservative evangelical ignorance. Their deaths will have been preventable and needless. These so called "Christians" and their witless HIV prevention program make me sick.
[Information on how to prevent AIDS censored by blog owner]
Nice trick there Ed. Make it look like I deleted your info. What's up with that?
[Information on how to prevent teen promiscuity censored by liberals].
Seeker,
A. All sex isn't automatically promiscuous. That's just more outrageous hyperbole against sex.
B. Teens shouldn't be having sex, but if they're going to be…and it certainly seems like they're going to be, what with their own biology pushing them toward sex even if they themselves aren't interested…they ought to be educated on how to make that decision safely.
C. When you teach your kids to drive a car, are you going to point out the brakes? Or are you just going to hope they never get in the car? Maybe you'll just deny that the car exists.
All sex isn't automatically promiscuous.
I agree. But according to scripture, all sex outside of hetero marriage is promiscuous.
Teens shouldn't be having sex, but if they're going to be…and it certainly seems like they're going to be, what with their own biology pushing them toward sex even if they themselves aren't interested…they ought to be educated on how to make that decision safely.
I entirely agree. But let's not forget to communicate that "teens shouldn't be having sex." That's the virtue part.
When you teach your kids to drive a car, are you going to point out the brakes?
Yeah, but I'm not going to teach them to drive across the lawn at age 10.
Uganda was once an HIV prevention success story, where an ambitious government-sponsored prevention campaign, including massive condom distribution and messages about delaying sex and reducing numbers of partners, pushed HIV rates down from 15 percent in the early 1990s to 5 percent in 2001. But conservative evangelicals rewrote this history–
HIV infections have almost doubled in Uganda over the past two years, from 70,000 in 2003 to 130,000 in 2005. And despite this chilling wake-up call, Bush has empowered Christian right activists to continue to push their abstinence-only agenda at a UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS
According to scripture, all sex outside of hetero marriage is promiscuous. -Seeker
16th and 17th century Puritans would agree.
The Christian Right activists empowered by Bush don't care that people are dying as long as they keep pushing the primitive abstinence only agenda. The immediate solution to the problem is to use a condom. Preach abstinence as well but focus on sex Ed and contraception; this should be obvious. Convincing Uganda to abstain as a country has proven to be unrealistic. In the meantime, thousands die for a LETHALLY IGNORANT religious HIV policy. Get your priorities straight: lives first, unrealistic puritanical Christian moral agenda second. These fools, these Bush empowered Christian activists, have NO shame!
If there is a Hell, I hope to see these people there.
16th and 17th century Puritans would agree.
Actually, true Christians from the first century till now would agree. Liberals and unbelievers have always tried to excuse sin, and they always will – it's part of being unregenerate (in the true sense of the word) and having a mind "in opposition to God" as Paul would say.
The Christian Right activists empowered by Bush don't care that people are dying as long as they keep pushing the primitive abstinence only agenda.
Hey, I'm with you, I think pushing abstinence only, while it is the preferred method of disease control, is not practical – I mean, how do you expect people to control themselves when they don't have the desire to do so, nor the power to do it until they receive God's grace to do so?
The immediate solution to the problem is to use a condom. Preach abstinence as well but focus on sex Ed and contraception; this should be obvious.
Again, I totally agree. But we need to also do more than just treat the immediate crisis. We need to remove the root cause, which is promiscuity and infidelity.
Let's not treat abstinence as some unreachable goal that we must mention because it is good and right, but with the unsaid understanding that we don't expect that people can do it, or should try to do it.
Get your priorities straight: lives first, unrealistic puritanical Christian moral agenda second.
I am in agreement, so lighten up frances ;)
When I think about thousands of people dying needlessly, I find it hard to “lighten up.”
I'm telling you to lighten up because we agree, but for some reason, you're ranting.
For some reason…
Yeah, aim your ire at someone else :D
My ire is aimed at the fools in charge of the Uganda HIV abstinence only program that kills people needlessly for what they think of as "morals." We agree that's where ire in this issue should be aimed, right?
You didn't delete my previous comment? Then I apologize — and still wonder what happened to it.
Nah, repost away.