THE CONDOM AND THE CHURCH

The condemnation of the condom by the church reminds me of past errors of the church such as the claim that the earth goes round the sun which the church vehemently condemned. It all begun in 1512 when Nicolas Copernicus came up with the heliocentric model that stated that the sun was at the centre of the solar system and that the earth went round it. The church vehemently suppressed the theory and went on to forbade him from publishing his book “De Revolutionbus” which had articles to support his theory. The church thus forced the people to believe that it was the sun that went round the earth

In 1600 Giordano Bruno was burnt to death after the church found him guilty of heresy and that he claimed that the sun was at the centre of the solar system. In honour of his death and his fight for the truth a statute was erected in 1890 the same spot he was burnt, the statue was mainly erected as an emblement for freedom of thought.

In 1616 Galileo Galilei took up the heliocentric theory and held his ground that the earth goes round the sun, he was tried for blasphemy by the church, since he was stating contrary to the scripture such as Psalms 93:1, 96:10 which have text stating that “the earth is firmly established” and the church interpreted it to mean that the earth never moves but it’s the sun that moves round the earth. Galileo was found guilty of blasphemy and was sentence to life in house arrest.

In 1687 Sir Isaac Newton invented the reflecting telescope and it became clear that the sun was the centre of the solar system and that the earth went round the sun and not the sun going round the earth.

In 1822 the church finally permitted the publication of work dealing with the theory that the earth goes round the sun

In 1992 Pope John Paul II officially agreed with the theory that the earth goes round sun.

From the above it took approximately 500 years for the church to accept the truth the earth goes round the sun and this was after many years of misleading people that it’s the sun that goes round the earth. This was after many philosophers and great thinkers were killed and imprisoned on claiming the truth yet the church did not hear, all in the name that it was contrary to the scripture. What also need to be noted from the above is that the church is not ALWAYS right. And that the church is so conservative and it may not be able to compete with the present reality of the time and technology.

What most people should know is that the bible was written on cultural context and misinterpretation of the Bible has led to suffering of many people throughout history. Slavery and discrimination of the female gender was all caused by misinterpretation of the scripture and that why unlike the Holy Koran which is also recognized as a source of law in many countries the Bible is not since it can easily be misinterpreted.

It is said that history repeat itself. And maybe that can be very true and it may take 500 years for the condom to be accepted by the church as a way of preventing HIV/AIDS, Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs) and also be used for family planning.

In a research carried out in Kenya by  Kenya HIV Prevention Response and Mode of Transmission Analysis, it showed that there are approximately 100,000 new infections of HIV/AIDS annually and 44% of this are from stable relationships such as marriage this is much greater compared to new infections from sex workers and clients which is at 14.1%. This may send an awkward message that it’s safer to have a sex relation with a sex worker than your partner in your relationship. But do not get me wrong, am not saying that people to have sex relations with sex workers but rather am showing the importance of condom in sexual relation since the low percentage in sex workers in new infection maybe the fact that they use a condoms.

My opinion is that condom can be used to control the spread of HIV/AIDS and also stop unplanned pregnancies. Unplanned pregnancies mainly lead to abortions especially among the youth which may lead to the death of the woman since the abortions are conducted using dangerous means since it is illegal in Kenya and done by untrained people. Unplanned pregnancies may also lead to a big family which the parents may not be able to provide for leading to poverty, malnutrition and also increase in crime in the society. The church should also be at the frontline to teach the congregation the importance of faithfulness in marriage and the church leaders should practise what they preach and the cases where church leaders are involved in sexual offences should cease to exist, since if the church leaders themselves cannot control their own sexual behaviour how do they expect the people to behave? But most important and especially to the youth they should know that abstinence is the 100% sure way to stop abortions and HIV/AIDS since the bloody truth is that AIDS IS REAL!!