Let's Talk HIV: The Pope -- The Moral Leader on AIDS?

"Above all, it is an ethical problem. The change of behavior that it requires -- for example, sexual abstinence, rejection of sexual promiscuity, fidelity within marriage -- ultimately involves the question of integral development, which demands a global approach and a global response from the Church. For if it is to be effective, the prevention of AIDS must be based on a sex education that is itself grounded in an anthropology anchored in the natural law and enlightened by the word of God and the Church's teaching."

-- Pope Benedict XVI speaking about HIV/AIDS in a 55-page document -- Africae Munus -- meant to outline his plan for Africa for the next few decades.

The "divine" word of the Church. It is a sure way of lending a powerful imprimatur to a stand, opinion, even misguided prejudice of thought. Opponents of age-appropriate sex education in the schools say that they represent a law of God that overrides the laws of man, that they are spiritually obliged to tell the "truth."

There are also Catholics who say it is God's will that women are forbidden to enter the priesthood; but there are also the "silent majority" in society, the ones who rarely speak of their inspiration and who use it only to guide their own behavior, not to control that of others.

This same church wants its flock to remain woefully ignorant of healthy sexuality, even though today's literature studies overwhelmingly show there are very real negative consequences of denying age-appropriate teaching to our youth. God forbid we give our kids any bad ideas! Well, that ought to fix the problem.

Teenage sexual activity, teenage pregnancy, and teenage sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS are at an all time high in this country, or to put it in words even a clueless church pontiff can understand: more of our kids are fucking! More kids are having kids. More kids are dying. If this does not bother you particularly, remember that much of this worrisome rise costs ALL taxpayers a whole lot of money, especially increased health costs.

These are "facts," which are good things to know, especially if one wants to change them. But sometimes, in order to change facts, even more facts are required, such as "which kids," "just how often," and "why are they doing it?"

Parents, who could push back against this increasing immorality of the Church, have ultimately ceded responsibility over our kids' health. We might give lip service of "protecting" our kids from potential harm. But because this country is hell-bent on embracing our puritanical roots, they might detract from our stunning lack of judgment with respect the objective truth of our kids' sexuality.

In other words, acknowledging the fact that our kids are having sex might, under this skewed logic, somehow encourage them to have even more sex.

Excuse me, but is anyone else in this country as a tired of the "just say no" mentality as I am? Here is another fact: "just say no" doesn't work. Not when it is based on blissful ignorance. It hasn't worked with drugs or sex. Thinking people need concrete reasons to make informed life decisions, and even a teenager is a thinking person, now and then.

Ignorance teaches nothing but ignorance. Most people believe they see the world as it is, but most of us really see the world as we are.

You don't get people to change by bullying them or by shouting at them. The only way you change somebody's mind is to walk over to where they're standing and say, "Oh, now I see what it looks like from here. Now I understand you. Now let's work from here."

You give them a chance to truly reflect and possibly change. But first, you've got to get to where our teenagers are, inside their hearts and minds. Getting answers...getting facts...getting undeniable truth.

And we must show respect for the judgment of our kids. That is what I think bothers me the most of this sad state of affairs. We now have a society that has very little respect for truth, on climate change, a government and church structure that thinks sex education invariably leads to more sex, a country that thinks sticking one's head in the sand will make the bad things go away. What a shame we don't live in Disneyland! These days, you stick your head in the beach soil and somebody is likely to do dirty things to the end sticking up in the air.

Today, we're at critical time in the history of the HIV epidemic, but it's the most perilous as well. If we finally admitted these truths, combining age-appropriate education in the schools with what we know about the effectiveness of condoms, and of providing clean syringes to addicts for preventing transmission of the disease, we can radically change the face of the epidemic.

But it takes money and commitment to measured, rational notions to make this a reality. But don't tell the Church or our feckless government and enabling, absent-minded parents nationwide. When it comes to these inconvenient truths, or rather the facts they ignore, they continue to say no. And our kids keep on paying....