Forget Communion, Have a Condom: The President Agrees

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20) 

 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people." (Ephesians 5:3)

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At Sunday morning worship services, many members of the United Church of Christ (UCC), President Barack Obama’s denomination, now receive, along with the bulletin, a pack of condoms. The condoms are distributed without discrimination to the elderly, married couples, singles, and pubescent school children. “Condoms,” according to UCC’s HIV and AIDS Executive Director Reverend Mike Schunemeyer, “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 denomination’s decision to promote the rubber industry came in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s statements that condoms are “not effective in preventing HIV” but only serve to perpetuate the problem. The Pope’s teaching has met with considerable success in sub-Sahara Africa. In the last ten years, the HIV/AIDS rate in Uganda has been reduced from 15% to less than 6% of the country’s population in less than 10 years. African church leaders attribute this decline to Sister Miriam Duggan, a Roman Catholic nun and medical physician, and her “Education for Life” program. Sr. Duggan’s program encourages Ugandans to be abstinent before marriage and faithful to their spouses by educating them about the life-threatening dangers of promiscuity. The UCC is not impressed. In the official statement concerning the condom distribution, UCC officials say:

“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.”

Many of the Church’s condoms bear the image of the Pope with the words: “I said no!” The UCC statement further held: “Human beings are sexual beings. Sex is a gift from God, to be shared with love and responsibility. In a world with HIV/AIDS, safer sex is a more loving and responsible – toward oneself and one's partner – than unprotected sex.” Alan Wisdom of the Institute on Religion & Democracy believes the UCC's statement is dangerous. "It sends a message to youth particularly, the kids who meet in their Sunday schools, that the church really has no expectation of them in terms of sexuality, that it expects them to enter into multiple sexual relationships in the same way the world does, and that its only concern is they not pick up diseases," he notes.
 
 The UCC's condom distribution is another step in the denomination's departure from its Puritan roots, Wisdom adds. Remarking that the UCC was “quick to criticize Pope Benedict” for voicing doubts about condoms as the solution to HIV/AIDS, Wisdom suggests the denomination should consider why Catholics oppose artificial contraception: “because it turns sex into an activity in which persons instrumentalize one another's bodies for pleasure, thus promoting the kind of promiscuity that accelerates the spread of HIV/AIDS.” One UCC minister who decried Pope Benedict’s position and called for the widespread distribution of condoms among the faithful is Harry Knox. Knox, who is a militant homosexual, said: "The Pope needs to start telling the truth about condom use," Knox said on Monday, Apr. 6. "We are eager to help him do that. Until he is willing to do that and able, he's doing a great deal more harm than good -- not just in Africa but around the world. It is endangering people's lives.” Mr. Obama has appointed Rev. Knox to his Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In response to his appointment, Rev. Knox said: “I hope this council will draw upon the richness of our unique perspectives to advise the president on policies that will improve the lives of all the people we have been called to serve.” Rev. Knox added: “The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is eager to help the Administration achieve its goals around economic recovery and fighting poverty; fatherhood and healthy families; inter-religious dialogue; care for the environment; and global poverty, health and development.”