AIDS & STD's

[SavedbyHisBlood]

What are your thoughts on this theory?

I heard from somewhere (i cant remember from where sorry ) that AIDS and STD’s were God’s punishment for homosexuality and promiscuousness/fornification.

Your thoughts?

 

[ThomasToo]

What are your thoughts on this theory?

I heard from somewhere (i cant remember from where sorry ) that AIDS and STD’s were God’s punishment for homosexuality and promiscuousness/fornification.

Your thoughts?

I think you head that from Pat Robertson (& co.). I don’t think that’s the Church’s theory and it’s certainly not mine.

Seems rather unjust to punish not only the gay, the promiscuous and fornicators but also innocent children and recipients of blood transfusions or transplants…

 

[DanteAlighieri]

While I agree that it’s inappropriate to characterize such diseases as “punishments” for these sins, it is absolutely correct that AIDS and other STDs are evils that result and are perpetuated by sin.

We must remember: all suffering is owed to our sinfulness. Before the Fall, there was no disease, death, or suffering.

Peace,
Dante

 

[ThomasToo]

While I agree that it’s inappropriate to characterize such diseases as “punishments” for these sins, it is absolutely correct that AIDS and other STDs are evils that result and are perpetuated by sin.

I say this as respectfully as possible but be careful with that mindset. With a mindset like that it gets very easy to consider a person’s STIs a fair and just consequence of his or her actions and lose the love of neighbor in that view.

What of, for example, a child born with HIV that his mother got from a blood transfusion? Surely we’d be hard pressed to say that child’s disease is the result of his (or his mother’s sin).

 

[Call_Me_V]

What are your thoughts on this theory?

I heard from somewhere (i cant remember from where sorry ) that AIDS and STD’s were God’s punishment for homosexuality and promiscuousness/fornification.

Your thoughts?

Yep, it’s true. And earthquakes are a result of Allah’s anger towards promiscuous Islamic women. And bad priests are a result of God’s anger towards the Church. And lightning storms are a result of the anger of Zeus.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that AIDS and HIV are simply diseases just like any other. But that’s not nearly as magical a hypothesis.

V

 

[crazzeto]

What are your thoughts on this theory?

I heard from somewhere (i cant remember from where sorry ) that AIDS and STD’s were God’s punishment for homosexuality and promiscuousness/fornification.

Your thoughts?

I would say that these are the temporal consequences for breaking God’s natural law. If you want to call that a “punishment from God” then by all means, but please don’t think of it in terms of God directly punishing those who contract the disease. God isn’t personally spreading AIDs et. al. around, we our selves are doing that by ignoring sexual morality.

 

[mchale]

I say this as respectfully as possible but be careful with that mindset. With a mindset like that it gets very easy to consider a person’s STIs a fair and just consequence of his or her actions and lose the love of neighbor in that view.

What of, for example, a child born with HIV that his mother got from a blood transfusion? Surely we’d be hard pressed to say that child’s disease is the result of his (or his mother’s sin).

I think it depends on how we interpret that particular view. If we view individual suffering as the result of an individual’s sinfulness, then yes, that is a threat to charity. On the flip side, if we look at suffering as the consequence of sin independent of personal guilt, then that is a different story.

In other words, the child and his or her mother got HIV, not because of some particular sin, but because such suffering is something that people suffer because we all continue to sin.

Now that being said, while I don’t believe that God necessarily directly punishes us in this life for our sins, I will agree that much of the suffering that occurs in this world is the result of our own short-sighted decisions. To remove it specifically from HIV, lets consider hurricanes and earth-quakes… is it God’s fault if we repeatedly continue to build and rebuild in areas we know are prone to being hit with these natural disasters?

–
Bill

 

[DanteAlighieri]

I say this as respectfully as possible but be careful with that mindset. With a mindset like that it gets very easy to consider a person’s STIs a fair and just consequence of his or her actions and lose the love of neighbor in that view.

What of, for example, a child born with HIV that his mother got from a blood transfusion? Surely we’d be hard pressed to say that child’s disease is the result of his (or his mother’s sin).

I did not say that only sinners suffer from these afflictions (although we are all sinners). I said that these objective evils (i.e., STDs) result from and are perpetuated by sin. Ultimately, this is true of all suffering and evil in the world.

I am making no judgment about why a particular person contracts an STD – although one can certainly make the argument that a person is far less likely to contract chlamydia if he/she remains chaste.

Peace,
Dante

 

[puzzleannie]

What are your thoughts on this theory?

I heard from somewhere (i cant remember from where sorry ) that AIDS and STD’s were God’s punishment for homosexuality and promiscuousness/fornification.

Your thoughts?

unless you can prove a pope said this while exercising his teaching office as head of the Church, it is not true
“I heard” or “I read somewhere” is not a source
my opinionis irrelevant, the opinion of anyone else here is irrelevant, so unless someone can document authentic church teaching on this topic, the discussion is moot

 

[mchale]

unless you can prove a pope said this while exercising his teaching office as head of the Church, it is not true
“I heard” or “I read somewhere” is not a source
my opinionis irrelevant, the opinion of anyone else here is irrelevant, so unless someone can document authentic church teaching on this topic, the discussion is moot

Well, the original question was not, I think, whether this was an official teaching of the Church, but rather asking about what our thoughts were on the theory. From that perspective, unless the Pope actually made it a point of doctrine that it was not punishment by God, we would be reasonably free to examine the theory as long as such an examination did not lead us into sin.

–
Bill

 

[Publisher]

AIDS and STD’s are the product of biology…not divine wrath. It is comforting to some to beleive that God is so concerned with certain behavior that He would inflict punishment through disease…yet many who have AIDS or who are infected by STD’s are infected from any “fault” of their own.

If AIDS is a punishment from God because of homosexuality, then lesbians must be God’s chosen people because except they have engaged in intravenous drug use or received tainted blood OR had a heterosexual relationship with an infected partner…AIDS is not on their radar screen.

If AIDS and STD’s are God’s punishment for certain sins…what is cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, MS, MD, birth defects…and the list goes on…punishment for?

I think we tread on very dangerous ground when we ascribe our own spiteful, angry, self-righteous beliefs concerning illness and disease on God…it feeds our need to see those with illness as “other”…and we destroy our own compassion…God help us should any who hold such beliefs should ever become ill or diseased through no fault of their own.

 

[vera_dicere]

God made it clear we’re not to engage in sex out of wedlock. He made it clear not to commit adulterly. He made it clear not to engage in homosexual activity.

Now, HIV and STDs are not God’s punishment, instead, such things are WHY God said not to engage in teh above.

Think of it like this: you want to jam a fork into a power outlet to see if you can see your skeleton like in the cartoons, your father tells you not to do it, because it will hurt you, instead, you ignore him.

Now, was it your father’s wish that you get electrocuted? Was the current that passed out of the socket, through the fork, and into you of his doing? Was it his punishment?

No.

God tells us not to do things for our own good. In regards to the diseases out there, it was humanity’s sinful perversions of a sexual nature that created these diseases, and now many innocent people suffer for it. God knows biology better than any of us. And from what some scientists think, HIV came from eating monkies. Likewise, innocent people will suffer because of the sins of others. If I shoot up a bank, it is my sin, but those people I shoot will suffer for it,

Long and short, not God’s punishment, but He knew what would happen and warned us against it.

 

[thistle]

What are your thoughts on this theory?

I heard from somewhere (i cant remember from where sorry ) that AIDS and STD’s were God’s punishment for homosexuality and promiscuousness/fornification.

Your thoughts?

I think your theory does not hold water.
Its simply adding to the ridiculous list of such theories including volcanoes, earthquakes, floods etc.
How about cancer?
If a racing driver gets killed in a race is that also a punishment?

Frankly people should not be so stupid or naive to give stuff like this airtime!