Congratulations to Shirin Ebadi on the Nobel Peace Prize.
I am just so relieved that it did not go to the Pope after yesterday’s news that the Catholic church in Africa claims that condoms do not help prevent AIDS.
Now, it’s obviously ok for the Catholic church to claim that using condoms is a sin. I may disagree with their interpretation of the scripture, but it’s their prerogative, as guardians of a belief system, to believe whatever they like. However, it is not ok to exacerbate a continent’s most serious problem (except for the minor one of being screwed over by the western world for centuries) by telling lies. And though a lot of people go about telling lies a lot of the time, the Pope really should know better, and at least he should not be rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
So ‘scuse me, John Paul II, could you please tell me where in the 10 commandments it says that using condoms is a sin? In return I’ll show you where it says “Thou shalt not lie”, you seem to have overlooked it.
Well, I suppose JP believes that using condoms is a sin because you could sleep around and not worry about the consequenses. What he does not understand is that when a child falls into a pit, rather than punishing it for playing near the pit, while you told it not to do that, you had better 1. get the child out of the pit (if possible) and 2. make sure children wear some protective gear (may be a challenge, but much more effective in protecting them than just telling them off for playing, because children WILL PLAY).