April 16, 2009

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST CALLS FOR CONDOMS AT WORSHIP

On March 19th, the UCC HIV and AIDS Network Executive Rev. Mike Schuenemeyer issued a statement encouraging condom distribution at places of worship in conjunction with a presentation to the UCC Wider Church Ministries Board. According to condom advocate Schuenemeyer, the UCC Executive for Health and Wholeness Advocacy said, "the practice of safer sex is a matter of life and death. People of faith make condoms available because we have chosen life so that we and our children may live." The longer statement says, "making condoms available at houses of worship and faith-based educational settings provides opportunities to open conversations that can save lives . . . Condoms are a sign that people of faith take sexuality seriously as part of human life and that we endorse all options for preventing HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases."

The UCC report is critical of recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI, which criticized condom use as an alternative to fidelity in marriage and chastity. Programs advocating morally responsible sexual behavior promoted by Catholic, Anglican and Protestant churches have been tremendously successful in slowing the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in sub-Sahara Africa.

The UCC Network statement says, “we cannot put our heads in the sand with “abstinence only” approaches. People can and do make other choices, and when they do, we must affirm and provide accurate safer sex information along with access to the means of protection. Making condoms available promotes honesty in sexual relationships and acknowledges the reality that people do have choices about their sexual behavior.” www.ucc.org/news/uccs-health-advocates-press.html

African church leaders have been very critical of unsuccessful western programs that emphasize “sex education” and condoms. They point to such successes as that of the unsung hero of Uganda's victory over AIDS, a Catholic nun by the name of Sister Miriam Duggan, M.D.  Early on in the fight against this deadly disease Sister Miriam developed a program called "Education for Life," a program which encourages people to be abstinent before marriage and faithful within it.  By educating people about the dangers of promiscuous sex and its deadly consequences, "Education for Life" has helped to change the mindset of the Ugandan people.  The HIV/AIDS rate in Uganda has been reduced from 15% of the population to less than 6% of the population in less than 10 years.