angelophile | "Those whose lives are ruled by dogma..." (Reply)

Now, I consider myself a Christian, but sometimes I find it very hard to... warm to other Christians. Particularly the Catholic church. Not Catholics, of course, but the Church with a capital C. Now, I know that Catholicism in itself isn't bad, but then, on the other hand, you then get things like this:

Pope claims condoms could make African Aids crisis worse.

The Pope today reignited the controversy over the Catholic church's stance on condom use as he made his first trip to Africa.

The pontiff said condoms were not the answer to the continent's fight against HIV and Aids and could make the problem worse.

Shortly after becoming pontiff in 2005, he told senior Catholic clergy from Africa that, while the disease was a "cruel epidemic", it could not be cured through using condoms.

Addressing bishops from South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia and Lesotho who had travelled to the Vatican for papal audience, he said: "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids."

I just find it hard to deal with a section of the Christian church who believes that "God's representative on Earth" would say things like that. I find it monstrous to claim that the spread of AIDs in Africa can only be combated by bible study.

I'm reminded of that old joke:

One day there was this preacher and he was having his usual sermon when all of a sudden it started raining, really, really, hard! After about one full hour of complete non-stop rain, they started making evacuations because the whole church was flooding, but the preacher just stood there in the ankle-deep water.

A guy in a car came up to him and said. “Preacher, Preacher you better get in here before you drown!” But the preacher just replied “Don’t worry God will save me.” The man then said “Whatever!” and drove away.
The water was now knee-deep and a guy in a raft came over to the Preacher and said “Preacher, Preacher you better get in here before you drown!” Despite the second warning the Preacher just stood there and replied “Don’t worry God will save me.” The man then said “Whatever!” and rowed away in the orange raft.

The water was now waist-deep and a guy in a power boat came to the Preacher and said “Preacher, Preacher you better get in here before you drown!” Despite the third warning the Preacher just stood there and replied “Don’t worry God will save me.” With that the man said “Whatever!” and jetted away in the power boat.

The water was now neck-deep and a guy in a helicopter came and said “Preacher, Preacher you better get your butt in here before you drown!” The man still just stood there and replied “Don’t worry God will save me.” And with that the man said “Whatever” and flew away.

The water then got so deep that the Preacher was sucked under and died. When he opened his eyes he noticed that he was in heaven. He then saw God and asked, “God! Why didn’t you save me from that horrible flood?” God then replied, “I sent you a car, a raft, a power boat, and a helicopter! What else do you want from me?”

In short, God helps those that help themselves and the use of contraception to help aid the spread of HIV and control the population explosion is something that can only help. The tools are there, the church should be encouraging they be used, not claiming that they'll make the problem worse. The full solution is not going to be the distribution of condoms, but it certainly is part of the solution.

Of course, The Daily Mash, in their own infinite wisdom, provide their own alternate version of the story - PUT A BIBLE OVER YOUR PENIS, SAYS POPE.

Thankfully a Catholic charity worker was available to put it into perspective.