CDC (Catholic Disease Campaign)

FYI:

No, I'm not done bitching yet. I have put a lot of time into a church / religion that all along was depriving me of true closeness with God. An institution that willfully ignores the spiritual nourishment people need. I will certainly be posting more positive and transcendental observations in the future, but for now...I'm still grinding my axe.

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Spiritual cancer symptoms: intolerance, conspiracy theory, militancy, absolutism, narrow thinking and fundamentalism. To discard facts and evidence of facts is a damn foolish thing to do. Here's a fact: people like to have sex. They are hard-wired to do this. Another fact: most people have sex before marriage. The nature that God has instilled in people trumps most efforts of the strict Catholic rule "abstinence until marriage". Sex is but a step amongst the stairs, it is not the entire staircase. When two people love each other (yes, I know that people who don't love each other also have sex, but I'm only covering the former) they are drawn to physically express those feelings. And, hopefully, they are responsible in doing so. This means that precautions are taken to ensure 1) pregnancy does not result when the two people are not yet ready to be parents and 2) any existing STDs are kept from spreading.

The Catholic church is against all forms of birth control, including the use of condoms. Even in Africa where HIV / AIDS runs rampant. It is unreasonable for the church to continue their failing demotion of condoms and their failing promotion of abstinence, especially in 3rd world countries where sex education is desperately needed. Education should be the emphasis, not dogmatic rule. It is just not practical. In the article below, the head of the Catholic church in Mozambique exhibits the spiritual cancer symptom of conspiracy theory...one without scientific evidence - an important little detail. I think the Archbishop's claim is just a ploy to scare Africans from using condoms (there's that control-tool of fear again), where, in their fear he will promote abstinence, and they will fail at abstinence (fact of human nature) and put themselves at risk to contract and spread HIV / AIDS. Just who does he think is trying to wipe out Africans again?

Shock at archbishop condom claim
Story from BBC NEWS: Published: 2007/09/26 14:50:13 GMT

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately. Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people". The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence. Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them "nonsense". "We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC. The UN says anti-retrovirals (ARVs) have proved very effective for treating people with Aids. The drugs are not a cure, but attack the virus on several fronts at once. The BBC's Jose Tembe in the capital, Maputo, says it is estimated that 16.2% of Mozambique's 19m inhabitants are HIV positive. About 500 people are infected every day. Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids. "Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries. "They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time." Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the archbishop's comments. "Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids," said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) - an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness. "People must use condoms as it's a safe way of having sex without catching Aids," he told the BBC. Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 33 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter. "If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible."If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality, if we don't change mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said. "It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives...(and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations." Our correspondent says the archbishop is well respected in the country and the Catholic Church played a leading role in sponsoring the 1992 peace deal that ended a 16-year civil war. Some 17.5% of Mozambicans are Catholic.