Traffic Lights and Condoms

Here is a paper written by my good friend Brett Salkeld. He is a masters student at University of Toronto and is studying Catholic History. This paper was published by the Catholic Register in November 2004 and deals with the Catholic Church's position on the AIDS Epidemic in Africa and the administering of condoms.

Enjoy

Traffic Lights and Condoms
Imagine a society where drivers are turning into oncoming traffic with alarming frequency. The authorities are clear about the proper way to proceed at intersections: drivers can turn right on red lights, but not left (across a lane of oncoming cars). Studies show that people are turning when the authorities suggest, but the accident rate continues unchanged. People start to question the wisdom of the traffic authorities, declaring that strict adherence to this arbitrary rule doesn’t help prevent accidents at all. Indeed there are accidents, they point out, where these rules are a direct cause. How?
Some people are driving in the wrong side of the road.
Review the rules above and you will note that the safety they provide only occurs when people are driving on the right side. You cannot follow only part of the system and demand the results guaranteed by the whole system, and you certainly cannot denounce a system that doesn’t work when the reason it fails is because people only follow part of it.
The Catholic Church has come under fire due to the perception that its stand against artificial contraception (specifically condoms) is contributing to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. The logic of this seems clear enough: condoms stop the HIV virus more often than not (though nothing approaching 100%); therefore more condoms in Africa should translate into less AIDS. The Church’s teaching that condoms denature the sexual act is small consolation to those who see condoms as essential in the war against AIDS. Accordingly the Church is accused of implicitly supporting the epidemic.
These critiques, however, display a shallow understanding of ethical systems. Catholic moral teaching is a comprehensive system, not a buffet table where one chooses to follow only those rules that best suit one’s lifestyle. Christian sexual morality is based on the principle of monogamy. It is not surprising that people not practicing monogamy should encounter problems when they follow Church teaching about condoms. Church teaching about condoms presumes adherence to the first principle of Christian sexuality, monogamy. The question of whether the Church supports the use of condoms for promiscuous people is a moot one, akin to asking whether the Church believes murderers should hide evidence to avoid the more obvious (i.e. temporal) consequences of their immoral actions.
The Church cannot support society’s mixed message on AIDS in Africa: “Monogamy is the best way to prevent the spread of AIDS, but here’s a condom if you can’t accept that.” The number of lives lost because a promiscuous lifestyle was pursued under the false sense of security that this message encourages may be impossible to gauge, but it is not negligible. What those attacking the Church’s stance fail to appreciate is that, by perpetuating the myth of “safe sex,” condoms are in fact detrimental to the type of attitude we need to engender in the African population if the AIDS epidemic is to be stopped.
It is narrow-minded and illogical to attack Church teaching on condoms, when the only reason a lack of condoms spreads AIDS is because people don’t follow Church teaching on monogamy. People driving on the wrong side of the road are already risking their lives and, condom or not, with that many oncoming vehicles an accident is almost inevitable. Let’s teach people where to drive, because once they’re in the right lane, how to drive makes a lot more sense.