The Pope, the spiritual head of the Catholic Church, is visiting Africa this week, and yesterday he reaffirmed his church's opposition to and denunciation of condom use, and simultaneously showed himself and his church to be evil and promoters of genocide.
It's been pretty easy to smile and let pass the odd things our recent pontiffs say. They're old-fashioned and prudish, but they've been such sweet avuncular men that it's just not possible to be too critical. But this is the twenty-first century, and the pope is in Africa. AIDS is a pestilence that rides on the wind of ignorance, superstition, and bad information. AIDS/HIV infection are raging throughout the world today, developed or not (look at the recent statistics from Washington DC which found more than 3% of adults were infected), rich or poor. Anything that can be done to slow this devastating scourge should be done, and anyone who stands in the way of slowing the spread is evil, wicked, and genocidal
If you think of the world as categorical as a Bosch painting-- good and evil, heaven and hell, them and us-- then perhaps there's some credibility in insisting on abstinence and monogamy in the Third World as the only way to stay safe and healthy. If you don't think of the world that way then it's time to call a spade a spade, stop promoting ignorance, and tell people sex spreads infection, and it's possible to stop the spread with simple and effective means. Insisting on abstinence or death (which is, at it's core, what the pope is espousing) is not an answer.
As for the pope, perhaps his twisted teaching should be relegated to the same dark cellar we keep the anti-progressive teachings of wahabists, the taliban, televangelists, and the practitioners of santeria. The catholic church does wonderful work helping people in need-- both physical and spiritual-- throughout the world. In this case, however, they need to be stopped and called out for what their teaching truly accomplishes-- the evil sowing of death among their followers!
0 comments:
Post a Comment