| Contraception: the Vatican and Islam No man is having sex with me unless he puts on a condom! An excellent example from Chantal, a former employee, on how to avoid getting the AIDS virus. It's unfortunate that the Pope does not subscribe to Chantal's sensible solution to stopping the spread of the AIDS' virus and as a means, along with other birth control methods, of diffusing the population bomb. I am convinced Jesus would approve, for I am sure he does not enjoy seeing people suffer and die from preventable diseases or from lack of food. The condom brings momentary bliss without risking one's life, or the life of another. It is an act of charity and caring like no other. Only those who shun consensual sex cannot appreciate that it is mostly an act of giving, not of a taking; of wanting to make another happy and sharing in that happiness, which is very much part of Christ's message. Église et contraception (The Church and Birth Control, my translation) was broadcast by Radio-Canada as part of its Grands Reportages series. In this revealing and doleful documentary, Vatican officials and church leaders in poor AIDS ravaged communities in Africa and the Philippines preach that, not only is it a sin to use artificial birth control methods, but also that all condoms, including the latex variety, do not provide protection against the AIDS virus and should not be used. Spreading falsehoods about condoms in conjunction with a doctrine that God created sex for procreation only, not for mutual gratification (which condoms make possible) to the most vulnerable, materially deprived and ill-informed is irresponsible and pitiless in the extreme. It dooms many of the recipients of these lies to a miserable interrupted life, and their children to a worst existence without parents and an equally brutish short lifespan. The self-proclaimed Vicars of Christ (the Pope and his Bishops) prefer to allow countless men and women and their offsprings to die of AIDS and/or hunger then allow the use of condoms, and thereby interfere with the Almighty's alleged desire that a sperm should not end its life in a latex enclosure, but in a vigorous fight to the death to create an unwanted pregnancy. Islam and Contraception Both Islam and the Catholic Church are more or less of the same mind when it comes to artificial means of preventing conception. Islam includes vasectomies in males, and tubal ligation in females as prohibited means of preventing conception. Coitus interruptus is permitted based on hadiths were the Prophet did not categorically deny the practice. Islam permits the birth control pill if having children endangers the life of the wife. However, the husband must give his permission. Both Islam and the Church are unequivocally against abortion as a means of terminating an unwanted or unexpected pregnancy. Both consider life to begin at conception, when the sperm fertilizes the egg. Where Islam and the Pope part company is in their attitude toward sex as simply for procreation. To paraphrase Allamah Rizvi, "taken to its logical conclusion [Catholic doctrine] would preclude sex with a pregnant wife or sex between a couple incapable of conceiving for physiological reasons." Bernard Payeur, August 4, 2011
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