Condoms are not the Issue

 

by Rabbi David Eidensohn-8/7/01

 

            An article by John Rossomando in CNSNews.com highlights the grievous problem facing public health doctors about safe sex and condoms. A recent National Institute of Health study of condoms showed that they are not safe for many Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and even with HIV, when they are most effective, they are far from perfect. If so, what should public health policy be? Should everyone be told the truth, that condoms do not make sex safe? On the other hand, that would just make things worse because a condom is at least better than nothing. This is the debate. Some say tell the truth, even if people get discouraged and don't use any condoms, and some say, don't tell the truth, promote condom use, because people will have sex, and better something than nothing. The debate has raged to the point where ten thousand doctors ask for the resignation of the head of the Center for Disease Control because he refuses to make war against condoms, and let everyone know that they are not safe.

            Frankly, I am disappointed with this debate. I don't think that condoms is the issue, although, of course, doctors may be busy with it. Parents and those concerned about sexually transmitted diseases cannot allow an important issue such as sexual health to be limited to these two sides of the coin. Neither is going to get us very far. Everyone knows that for millions of Americans, condoms are their best chance, because they have sex with sick people, and condoms provide at least minimal protection. Everyone also knows that by so doing, we run the risk of telling people who would not have sex to have sex, and to rely on condoms. Therefore, either side of this debate, even if it were technically and medically correct, is flawed, and people are at risk.

            The real problem is not about condoms. The problem is about biology. If we tell children that condoms are not safe, what have we achieved? We have told our children the following: Go to public school, or even parochial school, and meet people of the opposite sex. While you are old enough to be biologically boiling, go on dates, go dancing, swimming and to the beach, talk and flirt, but remember that condoms are no solution. Watch television, videos and movies about sex, have entertainment that is pornography, and at the end of the day, while your hormones are exploding, remember that condoms are not safe.

            Is this what Tom Coburn is saying? The debate over condoms ignores the real issue. Are children, indeed, anyone sexually viable, and especially those in their teens when their systems are red hot and unstable, able to live in our society, get constant stimulus from people of the other sex, television, movies, magazines, videos, and what else, and then find a path in life that is safe? No way.

            There is no safe sex outside of marriage. There is no safe stimulus for sex. There is no way that people can be put into an environment designed for constant sexual stimulation without sex and its sicknesses. If we want an America safe from sexually transmitted diseases, we must provide the environment for it. We must raise our children without a television, videos, and magazines, just like I raise my children. We must ensure that unless people are ready for sex, which means marriage, they have nothing to do with the opposite sex.

            Freud said that every uncompleted sexual act poisons a person emotionally. He felt that sex was a cleansing of our emotional toxins, but only if done without the measures that young people must indulge in to prevent pregnancy and other problems. If we want people to be emotionally and physically healthy, we must restate the debate about condoms. We must design our children's environment so that it does not have any stimulus for sex that does not lead to marriage and normalcy.

 

 

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