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fix
Guest
The “old” theology excluded human dignity and rights?
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Nohome
Guest
Interesting that you would choose Uganda, let’s hear from the experts:
According to the best statistics available, the HIV prevalence rate in Uganda fell dramatically during the 1990s. A declining prevalence rate indicates a lower proportion of positive people in the population. This could result from a fall in the number of new infections (incidence) or from a rise in the death rate among HIV-positive people, or from a combination of both factors.
New infections
It is probable that the number of new infections peaked in the late 1980s, and then fell sharply until the mid 1990s. This is generally thought to have been the result of behaviour change. Increased abstinence, a rise in the average age of first sex, a reduction in the average number of sexual partners and more frequent use of condoms are all likely to have contributed.23
In the late 80s and early 90s, condom use rose steeply among unmarried sexually active men and women, and since the mid 1990s, condom promotion and distribution in Uganda has increased dramatically. It is thought that this has helped to keep down the number of new infections in recent years.
avert.org/aidsuganda.htm
I’ll offer my question again, can anyone reference an abstinence only program that has successfully controlled AIDS?
Nohome
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Brad
Guest
What basic needs in Africa require sexual relations? If you want to work to stop AIDS using medicine that is fine - especially for those affected through no fault of their own. But trying to stop the spread of the disease by encouraging it’s main means of spreading is irrational.
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Brad
Guest
What a silly question. In 100% of the cases where an individual has remained abstinent and not received a tainted blood tranfusion or drug intake, that individual has not been affected by the HIV virus.
I don’t know of any exculsive abstinence only program that has been implemented by states. The better question is what state is successfully stopping AIDs? None. Perhaps we should try abstinence only, as it works 100% of the time.
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Brad
Guest
cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=29548
“PRI suggests the reason for the shift in attitude is the overwhelming evidence of condom failure. “Not one country that relied upon condoms to check the pandemic has successfully reduced the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. Not one. Instead, those countries with the highest condom availability rate also have the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. After 20 years of throwing condoms at the problem-- and millions of deaths-- it’s past time to try another approach,” says PRI.”
“PRI suggests the reason for the shift in attitude is the overwhelming evidence of condom failure. “Not one country that relied upon condoms to check the pandemic has successfully reduced the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. Not one. Instead, those countries with the highest condom availability rate also have the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. After 20 years of throwing condoms at the problem-- and millions of deaths-- it’s past time to try another approach,” says PRI.”
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ElizabethAnne
Guest
Nohome,
ADVERT says, “**Increased abstinence, a rise in the average age of first sex, a reduction in the average number of sexual partners **and more frequent use of condoms are all likely to have contributed.” The majority of reasons they list here sound as though they are a result of the campaigns that truthfully portray abstinence as the only 100% effective way of preventing the spread of AIDS.
At the same time the number of people participating in casual sex has declined and young people are choosing to save sex until marriage. There are real gains there.
As I said before, there are other factors at work in Uganda. I do not know of any country where an abstinence-only program without any influence from condom advocates exists. Your question, “Can anyone reference an abstinence only program that has successfully controlled AIDS?” is extremely narrow. Has there been any place where condom use has successfully controlled AIDS?
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Nohome
Guest
Because a young girl can get money to buy her daily bread by getting paid to have sex. She doesn’t want to have sex, but her more basic need, avoiding starvation, trumps the possibility of getting AIDS. You think I’m making this up? It happens every single day, right now, as you read this.
Nohome
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Nohome
Guest
Your missing the point. Yes, abstinence is PART of the solution, BUT SO ARE CONDOMS. The story says "“Increased abstinence, a rise in the average age of first sex, a reduction in the average number of sexual partners and more frequent use of condoms are all likely to have contributed” . In a perfect world, we would all wait until we were married and have sex with one person. This has never happened, ever, throughout the course of history. How do you think AIDS started to spread in the first place?
Nohome
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oat_soda
Guest
guess what, as a catholic you choose death rather than breaking a commandment.
so, there is no reason to use a condom. while it may be understandable that a girl would do this, and she obviously isn’t totally culpable, the church teaches you never can comit an evil act so that good may result. the ends can’t justify the means. this is why dropping the bomb on hiroshima was morally wrong dispite what the neo-cons say.
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contemplative
Guest
Contemplative said:
I think we are back at square one again. I doubt very much that the men using these poor women for sex are going to care enough to use condoms. Even if a prostitute hands a customer a condom…do you really think these guys are always going to use it? I doubt many if any would use it once they have the women subject to them under those conditions. Condoning the use of condoms still cannot be justified for even this reason you give.
I understand and appreciate your desperate concern to try and help but can’t you think of more practical and immediate help for these poor women? I can.
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ElizabethAnne
Guest
Nohome,
We are preparing for the perfect world (heaven) every day. I do not believe the best way to do that is to give in on our morals because there is evil in this world.
Every person that becomes conviced that abstinence is the best way to protect his/her physical and spiritual health is another life that is saved – both here and hopefully in eternity as well.
As far as the young girls who become prostitutes because they are poor, we need to help them out of their poverty. Condoms will not help them with that, and a young African girl who is prostituting herself is hardly in a place where she can demand that the man use a condom.
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Lizzie
Guest
You say you have ‘seen’ the devastation of AIDS. My experiences have been more personal. I have nursed dying young AIDS patients . It was heart wrenching.
It is a total shame that gay activists have misled so many and seduced/fooled so many.
PS. You mentioned problems in Africa. Are you aware of the problems that black South African women have in finding mates who are not infected because of rampant teen male homosexual practices there?
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Nohome
Guest
oat soda:
oat soda:
Nohome
If this were true, there would be a lot of dead Catholics.
oat soda:
Tell that to Jesus, who gave his own life so that you might live.
Nohome
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Lizzie
Guest
AIDS is a voluntary disease.
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Nohome
Guest
Perhaps, if Rome won’t listen, I shouldn’t expect it from you.
Well, the point is moot. African nations, like Uganda, that are starting to see some hope to win the war on AIDS, ignore the RCC and continue to distribute condoms.
Nohome
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Nohome
Guest
Cruel, cold rhetoric will not save the world.
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Nohome
Guest
I didn’t “mention” Africa, it happens to be the topic of this thread.
AIDS is not a homosexual disease, it is a human disease.
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MikeinSD
Guest
In Uganda, the ABC program proved to be effective against the AIDS virus. ABC stand for abstinence, be faithful (in marriage) and condoms.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/aids/News/abcfactsheet.html
The combination of the 3 resulted in a huge decline in AIDS transmisson. The use of condoms contributed to that decline.
“USAID funded scheme increased condom use from 7% nationwide to over 50% in rural areas and over 85% in urban areas.”
avert.org/abc-hiv.htm
Supporting a proven program to save lives from a sexually transmitted disease seems, to me, the very basis of ethical belief. A huge marjority of Catholics in the US and Europe use birth control. Denying access to condoms to save lives in Uganda, despite the massive lack of obedience to Catholic doctrine in the Western world, reeks of hypocrisy. The very stench of hypocrisy that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees’ ways of making the Jewish law superior over the needs of the Jewish people (Mark 2:23-2:28). Bluntly, should Africans should die because traditional Catholics don’t want their beliefs violated? What’s more important? A live African woman? Or an HIV+ husband not using condoms?
The combination of the 3 resulted in a huge decline in AIDS transmisson. The use of condoms contributed to that decline.
“USAID funded scheme increased condom use from 7% nationwide to over 50% in rural areas and over 85% in urban areas.”
avert.org/abc-hiv.htm
Supporting a proven program to save lives from a sexually transmitted disease seems, to me, the very basis of ethical belief. A huge marjority of Catholics in the US and Europe use birth control. Denying access to condoms to save lives in Uganda, despite the massive lack of obedience to Catholic doctrine in the Western world, reeks of hypocrisy. The very stench of hypocrisy that Jesus condemned in the Pharisees’ ways of making the Jewish law superior over the needs of the Jewish people (Mark 2:23-2:28). Bluntly, should Africans should die because traditional Catholics don’t want their beliefs violated? What’s more important? A live African woman? Or an HIV+ husband not using condoms?
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contemplative
Guest
Your argument is biased and slanted.
What if your USAID program omitted the ‘C’ from ‘ABC’?
What would you have?
A is for Abstinence
B is for Be Faithful
These two ingredients alone are enough to prevent the further spread of AIDS.
The choice is up to the people. Asking the Church to cave into human demands is just plain ridicules. I can’t see how arguing any further on this matter will help you see past your own desires. But I guess that is the point here…all people in general have great difficulties taming their fleshy desires for a greater love. Free-will my dears …the choice is yours. Choose life eternal or choose death eternal. Choose a condom for the fleeting pleasure of a nerve reaction and choose death eternal or choose to abstain for the love of God and receive rewards of life eternal.
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contemplative
Guest
and one more thing…
Condoms are not the most effective strategy for preventing AIDS simply because condoms break or slip off. Condoms are not always available at a moments notice. Furthermore, I imagine many people being discouraged by the ‘lack of feeling’ associated with condoms. Why would anyone continue using a condom? Wearing a condom is like going to a movie theatre with eye and ear covers on. Who in the heck is going to stick with that regimen? Condom use is not a good long-term preventive measure for halting the AIDS epidemic.
And take a look at my post #4 where I qoute a news article
and affiliated agencies that we understand provide more than a quarter of the care and assistance for persons with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Hooray for the Catholic Church! Look at how much they are doing already for HIV/AIDS worldwide!
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